Green Desert- Tangerine Dream

 

Green Desert- Tangerine Dream

This is one of my top 10 albums of all time.

Tangerine Dream is an electronic focused band that got it's start in the late 60's in Germany. Mostly their songs are instrumental. Some of it wildly experimental. 

Rather than talk a lot about them, I want to make comments on their album Green Desert which was released in the 80s although it was made up of updated unreleased recordings they did in the 1970s. 

The production rings perfect. The keys have a nice tone to them. The drums sound as massive as they sound thick. The guitar is scorching. Edgar Froese does some of his best guitar playing of his entire career on the title track, Green Desert.

The song Green Desert clocks in at almost 20 minutes. It's a killer epic track which just builds so intensely that it feels like it will never end until it explodes into a massive crescendo then slowly and deftly fades down. It's a musical roller coaster ride that I live in whenever I hear it. Kudos to the show Stranger Things for featuring a bit of this song in a great manic scene from the first season. Froese's guitar tone is super matched for this song, futuristic sci-fi psychedelic music. Love every moment. The keys and drums dance madly with each other. 

The drums! My stereo practically explodes when I play this one! So powerfully good. 

By the way, this is a great song to have playing during a yoga practice. Nice synth departure tones.

White Clouds a burst of drumming synth mayhem. It dives right into a trashing drum synth groove. The shortest song on the album. More comments on this track later. 

Astral Voyager is a sequencer dream. Try meditating to this track some time. You'll go far. Across the gulf of space this song pulses. Rising and riding the pulsing synth. What a fading ending. Sublime.

Our audio project, Astro Al, did an album called the Purple Mushroom which is a tribute to this album even though its filled with spoken words and some singing. This Tangerine Dream album is instrumental time. 

Indian Summer is the final song of the album. Ah, how it leaves you filled from the journey yet not wanting it to end. Wistful this song is, like the last burst of a joy that had begun to grow cold, only to warm one last time. The wind is a wall of synths blurring across your speakers and headphones. Layers of sonic sculptures building a scene of beauty is what this song becomes.

If I have a complaint about this album, it's only about the song sequencing.

The track White Clouds which is directly after Green Desert sounds like a condensed version of the sprawling title track, Green Desert. While that in of itself isn't a bad thing, the problem is coming right on the heels of the other track, makes it feel too much like a re-tread.

Many years ago there was a multi-plex theatre in Somerville MA that my friends and I would frequent. It no longer exists. One time when I got there early before the previews started, this album was playing. It was so wonderful to hear this album blazing away on the theatre speakers.

I'm sure that experience was better than most any movie I ever saw at that theatre. I don't know who picked the pre-show music, but thanks!

Yours in music amazement,

Count Robot