Tuesday 23 October 2012

Tangerine Dream [White Eagle] 

The only TD album i own, though i have bought a few others, but i never liked them, in fact i seem to have spent a small fortune on trying to find another TD album i like, and then coming away disappointed, now i'm extremely wary that there even exists another album that i would like, i've sort of given up, i don't want to waste my money or my time, i feel exactly the same way about Yes /Going For The One, when i first listened to this, i thought it was going to be exactly similar to Jarre / Oxygene, but this is more percussive, tracks seem to be more 'poppy', instead of sci-fi and mysterious, plus Jarre would slowly morph one idea into the next over an extended span, TD seem to change things much more rapidly, but i'm learning to love this album, this actually got in my Blog earlier in the year [6th January 2012], now in search of that elusive TD album..

Tangerine Dream are a German Electronic Trio, though of course since this record came out [1982], they are no longer the Trio of Froese / Franke / Schmoelling, and every group eventually has to break up its core constituents, i think of this as 'classic' TD, the booklet front cover is what attracted me to this very first TD album, a blue planet earth with a triangle underneath, it's a nice visual, the small lettering at the top is great.

The very opening of the album is terrific, for nearly three minutes there's weird and wonderful sounds, a very original beginning indeed, 'Mojave Plan' is the best thing on the album, however the other tracks are great too, and on this listen it's track 3 'Convention Of The 24' that really impressed me the most, straight away it starts as a very bubbly electronic rhythm, with a nice organ sounding melody, it's this initial quite mechanical rhythm that drives everything, quite monotonous i feel, but this is its strength, after three minutes things change somewhat [3:08+], the rhythm stops, and there's nice treble flute type sounds, quite bubbly at times, it's a great change, the mechanical rhythm seems to creep back in, later a more percussive effect comes in [5:37+], and i can feel the music getting ready to wind down, the background rhythm slows down, and a somewhat ghostly chorus comes in at the end, it's a great track, very compelling and infectious

Here's the 'Convention Of The 24' on YouTube.