2. TANGERINE DREAM-POLAND
Tangerine Dream. Maybe a name you have heard but that's about as far as your knowledge goes. Maybe you know of them through their film soundtrack work (over 50 to their name). Maybe you have heard them and they bore you rigid. Maybe; just maybe, one of the last truly great TD albums will inform and enthrall you.
Long meandering electronic soundscapes are definitely not everyones idea of good music and with only four tracks and a huge running time of 77 minutes, this will not appeal to everyone. However setting your music sensors to neutral and by listening to the rhythmns, the pulse and the seemingly simple ideas, you may yet add a band to your listening habits that you never thought possible.
I can definitely understand people becoming bored with electronic instrumental music. There are no lyrics to guide you. The lack of "real" instruments can be seen as emotionally cold. Can you really appreciate what the artist is trying to say, when it is just a bunch of machines? I say you can. It's just a different mindset and reaps rewards if you concentrate on the ambience and let the music drift over you instead of actively searching for a certain riff or musical moment.
Opening track Poland is split into three sections. The opening third always reminds me of entering a huge neon lit city late at night. Big, epic yet beat driven. Like the pulse of a city. The middle section up's the tempo. You have left the city and are hurtling down the motorway. The repetitive beats suggest perpetual motion until you reach the open road, where it is only you and nature. The last third reflects this and is intoxicating in it's simplicity.
Track two Tangent is the weak link. Although the album was released in 1984 and has a timeless quality, Tangent lets the side down with it's drum patterns that were so indicative of the 80's. The last five minutes redress the balance a little with a sublime simple chillout vibe.
Barbakane is another multi layered track that has a definte riff of sci-fi about it. There is a motif that appears and that is repeated early on that in my mind, leaves no doubt as to where The X-files theme comes from! Unfortunately there is also a cut off point around the nine minute mark on this track and the next section of music shifts in tone slightly. There was a 2disc version of this album brought out in 1984 (which is very hard to find) that had the complete 19 minute version of Barbakane on it but as I have never heard it, I can only surmise that the change in tone is a result of poor editing somewhere along the line.
The album finishes on the glorious track Horizons. There is no build up. It is a series of peaks and troughs, although it is probably the most ambient track on the album. The simple notes echoed around the ten minute mark evocate a whole new place to me and that is why I adore ambient electronica. Sure I want to use music to express my anger or I want to hear about someones passions, their dreams, their hopes, their aspirations, their blind oblivion to it all, but sometimes I just want to be taken somewhere else. Where music is the only thing that matters and I can just feel peace and be at ease with myself. This album does that for me. It will never be recognised as a classic but that is not what I listen to TD for. I listen to TD because they speak to me on whatever level I demand from them.
It is terrible quality but this is the opening track from the album:
Tangerine Dream | www.tangerinedream-music.com