Your favourite Tangerine Dream albums and why

Encore. IMO the best live album by them, and from the best their phase.

 

Up front I'll say everything from their debut up through the 1990's are excellent records. I not have multiple versions of them, but they're each been played countless times.

That said - favorites. It's really tempting to list a whole bunch, which renders it pretty much useless. So I'll go ahead and list just five, Just note, I love everything to the 90's.

In now specific order:

Underwater Sunlight
Le Parc
Firestarter
Exit
Sorcerer

I guess they're all from around the same time. Shorter tracks were the vogue, and their wonderful melodies were prevalent. Firestarter might well be my favorite. Mind, Underwater Sunlight was played to death, as was Le Parc.

Dammit.... they're all so good.....

 

I count myself quite a fan and yet there are still albums I need to check out, for example you mention Firestarter, I have never checked it out for some reason but you reminded me to do so!

 

It is a shame Cyclone is often overlooked as the side long epic Madrigal Meridian is one of their best tracks. I normally just listen to that side as I much prefer it to side 1. I also think it is a cooler track than much of Force Majeure, much darker and more classic Tang sounding to me.

 

It is a very good album but the long guitar solo track for me is less interesting. I think Poland is their best live album although Encore has more of a classic early Tangs vibe that some people may enjoy more.

 

for me its the late Virgin era albums.

in i walked into a shop in skipton, asked them to put on the one TD album they had in the racks
wondered over to the booth, put on the headphones only to experience the opening bars of the opening track of White Eagle, Mojave Plan.
the sharp screech sounds followed by the alien moods were totally different to anything else this 14 year old had ever heard before.
at that moment i knew this band were forever special.

so i have no favourite album as such, but white eagle/hyperborea/logos is a brilliant trilogy in the bands catalogue.

m.e

 

I've listen to Cyclone the other day... Kind of like it with the vocals.

But my favorite is Force Majeur and Tangram

 

Probably my top three in the same order and for similar reasons. I favor the early, weirder and analog records - their melodic choices in the later era's don't generally do it for me, although I do like Hyperborea and Exit quite a bit.

 

Ricochet because it shows how great they were live! I have other TD albums but Ricochet is played the most.

 

Underwater Sunlight, Near Dark and Optical Race.

 

My favorite period is from Phaedra through Encore; the frantic analog sequences and, apparently, Peter Baumann being in the band.

Stratosfear (1976) was my first TG album and will always be a favorite, especially the title cut.
Sorcerer (1977) was next purchase and may actually be my favorite, but being a soundtrack, the pieces are too short and, alas, the original unedited tapes are lost.
Ricochet (1975) was next and for me may be the best example of TG improvisation in this period.
Rubicon (1975) was great and where I think they really found their footing with the sequences.
Phaedra (1974) and Encore (1977) rank about the same for me but for different reasons. Phaedra is a transitional album from their space origins into the use of sequences, perfected on Rubicon. Encore is good. but when they drop in bits from Stratosfear and Sorcerer, it feels like a forced attempt at playing stuff from those albums but still retain the improvisation that was their trademark.

After Baumann left, I lost interest, but I suppose change was inevitable.

 

Zeit and Edgar Froese's Ypsilon in Malaysian pale are my favourites

 

To me nothing beats the 1975-76 Trees and Leaves entries. It really is unbelievable how they could go on stage night after night and perform music that may have contained similar bits and pieces, but still were entirely different 'compositions'. Semi-improvised music that to this day bears repeated listening. They were on a roll at this point.

Post-Baumann, not so much, although I love the Dante trilogy, as probably the only person in the world who appreciates this point in their career.

 

A search tells me no-one's mentioned the first Bootleg Box set yet - so I will. The ultimate live Dream.

I'll add Phaedra and Atem, too.

 

Zeit is my favorite, mainly because of it's incredibly bleak and sparse sound (which perfectly matches the album cover). However, Zeit is pretty unlike anything else they released.

Other notables...of course "Phaedra". All the Virgin era records are fantastic except Cyclone which isn't as bad as everyone would have you think. I also enjoy Le Parc.

 

Stratosfear, Rubicon, Exit and Phaedra, maybe Encore.

They showed everyone what to do with tape recorders and electronic music that went further than just improvisation. They made electronic music sound ahead of it's time, and now doesn't sound outdated.

 

I know only a few of their albums, but I enjoy Zeit and Quichotte/Pergamon a lot. Also own an East German vinyl pressing of the latter.

 

When I first read this my mind made me read "mainly because of it's incredibly bleak and sparse sound (which perfectly matches my personality)"

Sorry self projection ha ha!

 

It is a killer album but keep in mind it was edited from hours of tape. I am not saying they were not great live because they were but it is a very different experience to the bootlegs from this era. Most live shows ran for one or two pieces each about 50 minutes long! I think their approach to live albums was like Miles Davis' in this era, record loads and chop out the most immediately usable parts and edit. When I heard the Tangerine Leaves live shows I was blown away as you got to hear the process of creation develop over a show. However they need endurance as so many of the series and they are so long!

 

What do you think of this?

Side One is very "Stratosfear"ic but Side Two is something else. Love that album!

 

Zeit is my favorite Tangerine Dream by far: it is just blissfull, side 4 even brings it up a notch, Love Edgar Froese's Gliss guitar, it is beautiful/sublime!
Atem is wonderful as well, nice use of the Mellotron, Fauni Gena (spelling, not sure) is the standout for me.
Rubycon is great excellent, I do find side 2 goes on just a little bit to long these days though, but it's awesome.

 

Their catalog is so large, I'm not even sure that I've heard all of them, but I have heard most of it.

Favorite studio album: Exit
Favorite live album: Poland
Favorite soundtrack album: Legend

I guess I really like the "blue" years, lol. As for why? These albums still have the atmosphere of the really early ambient stuff with the strong layered melodies of the later eras. The melodies on these albums are very memorable. My favorite song from this period is probably "White Eagle", one their most moving pieces.

 

I've been listening to that track a lot lately. Definitely fits in perfectly well with the rest of their late-70s/early-80s material.

 

For me, it has a lot to do with the order I first heard the albums. Tangram was the first one I heard, and still one of my favorites. I was also exposed to Ricochet and Thief early on and those remain cornerstones of my record collection. Other than those, Sorceror, Encore and Side One of Phaedra have been my go-to albums from them, but I realize now that there are still a few albums from that "sweet spot" (approximately Phaedra thru White Eagle) that I haven't heard yet, so I should rectify that.

I bought Atem ages ago (like, in the 80s) but never warmed up to it, and never explored any other of their early albums. That album, like Side Two of Phaedra, is just too spacey for my tastes. Not that I never listen to spacey music, but it's not the kind of spacey music I like.

 

I do find it interesting how your first contact with a band shapes your future interest in them. I suppose the circumstance that you hear an album is as important in some ways as the album itself.

It is also interesting that some people come to the Tangs from either a rock background and tend to like the earlier albums while fans more into electronic music or techno like the mid to later albums.