Tangerine Dream - Tangents

Covering the years 1973-1983, this collection surveys the period in which Tangerine Dream, led by Edgar Froese, laid claim to their status as synth pioneers. Certainly, you can see the influence they had on the expansive, sequencer-driven techno-prog work of post-ravers like Fluke and The Orb. However, their more common influence came on TV and film soundtracks. So, while Froese talks of TD's music switching on "the projector of your own personal dream", the images evoked here are often unfortunately trite—helicopter's eye views of coastlines, action sequences from '80s TV dramas, albatrosses in flight etc. Compared with Krautrockers like Kraftwerk and Can, TD are distinctly après garde.

Rating: 3 / 10