I've recently got these two sets, and apart from the fact that "Sorcerer" and "Pergamon" aren't included thanks to licensing, they really are incredible overviews of the era. I wish Pilots had a few extra discs, such as putting back into print some of the 1980-83 shows that got released years later (such as Preston 1980, Aachen 1981, Paris 1981, Sydney 1982) or perhaps some of the soundtrack stuff that never got a release. I know they might be audience tapes or licensing issues with those.
This is a question about the 2011-12 boxes, not the new ones. Anyone know why Cyclone is on the first box while Encore is on the second? I don't see any explanation and surely Encore belongs in the first box because of the lineup, and of course it causes the year brackets to overlap. Just curious if there's some rhyme or reason for it.
I don't know, butI guess that for such cheap boxes an additional CD would have increased cost, due to not only adding a disk, but also different packaging etc.
Cool tshirt, and what's that inside? Where did you get it? And I have now listened two times now, adding some other attempts some years ago when I was still struggling.
Yes, if I get Zeit I'll also get that Atem for the life disk. The Alpha Centauri bonus tracks are not that unique, so I'll skip that.
At the very least, East Berlin 80 and Sydney 82 are available with professional sound quality (miles better than the Bootmoon releases) in the Official Bootleg Series. If you don't have all three volumes of this series, get them ASAP. You wont regret it. Regards, Dave
I second that. I only got the Qobuz downloads, i.e. without the informative liner notes by Wouter, but I could read 1 and 2 at my local library. Yes, really, they had it some years ago. Unfortunately no more. Did someone get stung by the bootleg title and thought they were illegal? I've got no idea. But that's how I first heard them: borrowed from the library. Go get them, I'd suggest. To me they are core releases. Especially the Berlin recording. After all, the Amiga LP was the first TD release that got me hooked. Also got it from the library. Back when they still had LPs.
Q for anyone who was there at the time. Was Exit some kind of mainstream breakthrough? Anyone know why it's more or less a major label standout in the US market? I'm beginning to hear it as their absolutely peak.
According to the book in the Pilots box set, Exit charted to #48 in the UK and barely broke the Billboard 200. If you mean why it's not on Virgin in the US, I'm not sure. Probably has to do with Thief also not being on Virgin. Yes, it's an absolute classic. One of my faves. Regards, Dave
I think the closest thing they had to a US mainstream breakthrough was the Risky Business soundtrack. Tangram, Thief, Exit and White Eagle all came out when I was in high school but they had basically zero impact as far as I could tell.
Well, as of Voices In The Net - Das Mädchen auf der Treppe Das Mädchen auf der Treppe went to 20.It's a single, yes. But it sure was a big catch for the band, scoring for Tatort. That is a German TV series that on the day today has been on for 50 years. It's still big. For albums Phaedra charted at 13 in Australia and Rubycon at 10 in the UK. As of Wikipedia Stratosphere was their highest charting US sucsess at a whopping 158. In Germany Ricochet holds that top position at 40, White Eagle is next at 42. Quite possibly at the tail of Das Mädchen Auf Der Treppe. Tangerine Dream discography - Wikipedia
I can only speculate, but it seems to me that it took Virgin quite a while to build up a solid presence in the US compared to many other countries. Many of the Virgin titles which sold big in the US prior to the mid-80s were either handed off to other labels entirely (Sex Pistols) or co-branded with a US major (Culture Club, Human League). So my uneducated guess is they signed to Elektra for a couple of albums to try and get better distribution, and were maybe were dropped after two albums due to low sales.
As far as my own experience, Risky Business was sort of well known, as was curiously Encore. In terms of Encore, locally the Greek Theater show with the lasers was a big deal at the time so maybe that's why Encore sort of had a level of recognition amongst people I knew. The rest? No real impact at all. Personally, I think Poland is the peak of the Froese, Franke, Schmoelling years, with Logos close behind.
Does TD have any truly ambient records? Thus far I would say Phaedra and Rubycon are the closest. Underwater Sunlight has the foundation for a gorgeous ambient record but Edgar’s blistering guitar solos kind of push it back into rock.
@RTW I don't know even a third of their complete euvre, but if you mean the more droney, beatless side of ambient, you may be right. Ambient does have some more livid niches, though where you also could file other relases into, such as Mala Kunia or the GTA soundtrack etc. But what is ambient and what isn't ... depends upon your definition. I'd like to apply Erik Sati's Musique d'a meublement that Eno related to, and then the answer would be none. Else Ambient could be anything mire atmospheric, unobstrusive. At least for me. TD's soundtracks may be worth a listen. ... But Rubykon is more than amazing.
Zeit is a seminal dark ambient album IMHO. I agree that Phaedra and Rubycon could be considered ambient. I think Atem could be considered 'mostly' ambient. Seven Letters from Tibet toes the line between ambient and just plain atmospheric. Otherwise, I can't think of anything else that could be 'dictionary definition' of ambient at the moment. Regards, Dave
Thank you for the clarifier. I guess I consider ambient to be "atmospheres to fill space," in a sense. A lot of people apply it to any kind of instrumental music, and I don't think that's the case. Something like Tangram, for example, is not ambient at all. A fantastic record, but too much melody and tempo and percussion to be considered ambient. I have most of TD's soundtrack work and I haven't found one that I consider ambient at all. They used soundtracks as an opportunity to put together a large number of melodic and/or more conventional pieces than ever would have ended up on their albums. They do have atmospheric elements to their soundtracks, but that's not the same as ambient (in my opinion). There are people who describe "Bel Air" by Can as ambient. Just... no.
Not all of its parts can be labeled Ambient for sure but what a great piece of music... Intoxicating riff by Karoli...
This may be one of the strangest TD albums ... just found it (for obvious reasons). It may not be a fully formed TD album, never meant to be one, as it was to be played as backgound noise before shows (ha! Ambient), but upon listening to it for a few minutes now it's an interesting, entertaining mix set. Voices In The Net - Ambient Monkeys
I would say the "pink" albums come closest, especially Zeit (as previously mentioned) all the parts of Atem that don't have drums. Side 2 of Phaedra is pretty ambient, too. "Sequent C" literally sounds like it wouldn't be out-of-place on a Brian Eno album.
Anyone can indicate if TD - The Official Bootleg Series Vol.2 will be repressed in the near future? I think they already repressed Vol. 1.
