Deadly.force.1983

Tangerine Dream's 'Wavelength' is the soundtrack to an obscure Robert Carradine sci-fi film from 1983, and while it offered nothing truly fresh or groundbreaking from the band, it's still makes for a fine background listen while offering several variations of spacey/electronic ambience. Composed by the trio of Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke and Johannes Schmoelling, considering the albums around it such as 'Hyperborea', 'White Eagle' etc, 'Wavelength' still features the ghostly Melloton, as well as having a distinct mid-70's TD period sound instead of the cold plastic 80's that was emerging during that time. It's mostly comprised of short little interludes and snippets which unfortunately means that many of the tracks rarely get time to develop better, and some sections are reworked pieces from previous albums…

Tangerine Dream had debuted on record the same year of the original Moon launch, and 30 years down the road, Edgar Froese and co. decided to dedicate a recording to the next step, the eventual landing of a man on Mars. The result, Mars Polaris, is what sounds like a surprisingly accurate rendering of the unmanned Mars Polar Lander's visit to the Red Planet (destined to arrive late in 1999), though the evocative atmospheres and gaseous effects are helped along by the equally descriptive titles "Mars Mission Counter," "Tharsis Maneuver," "The Silent Rock" and "Spiral Star Date."

Another in the long line of soundtracks by Tangerine Dream is actually one of the strongest in concept for any film they have done. The movie has a high degree of tension and the score by T.D. does just the trick. They use mostly hard driving sequencer rhythms to maintain the tension of the film. Listeners will find that this is nearly how all of the music is composed. There is very little melody within the structures of the music. But even with this lacking, the score is very well suited and very listenable. A couple of nonsequencer tracks are also on the album and break up the hard rhythms pieces.

Tangram marked the beginning of a new musical direction for Tangerine Dream. It's closer to straight-ahead, melodic new age music and more tied to their soundtrack material. The first of the two side-long pieces progresses through several different passages that use gently brushed acoustic guitars as well as the requisite synthesizers. For new age fans, this is the first glimmering of Tangerine Dream's eventual direction during the '80s.

Despite being credited to both Edgar Froese and Jerome Froese, in fact only the final track of the disc carries anything of Edgar's fingerprints, being an alternate mix of his own composition Mombasa, originally released just a few months ago on Booster III (2009). All of the other remixes on DM V are solely the result of Jerome's work on classic TD material from the seventies and eighties, all of which have the original music more or less discernible at some point within them. The most deeply buried of the originals is the brief inclusion of a snatch of Rubycon (1975) as an inner layer to The Return of Time, largely swallowed by a newly minted percussion pulse and swathe of electronic textures. Other tracks, however, offer substantial representations of clearly recognisable original thematic materials, in bold but entirely appropriate new ways, such as the title track from Exit (1981) as Flow Paths…

Another in the long line of soundtracks by Tangerine Dream is actually one of the strongest in concept for any film they have done. The movie has a high degree of tension and the score by T.D. does just the trick. They use mostly hard driving sequencer rhythms to maintain the tension of the film. Listeners will find that this is nearly how all of the music is composed. There is very little melody within the structures of the music. But even with this lacking, the score is very well suited and very listenable. A couple of nonsequencer tracks are also on the album and break up the hard rhythms pieces.

Originally recorded in 1973, Green Desert did not see the light of day until it was remixed and released as part of the In the Beginning box set in 1986, then as its own album later the same year. It is difficult to ascertain how radical this release is from the original recording, but as it stands, it is a logical step between the rawer-produced Atem to the ambient/sequencer-driven style of Phaedra. A key element of this is attributable to Edgar Froese's guitar playing on the title track, an unhurried solo that lasts only about five minutes in the nearly 20-minute piece, yet is easily the most memorable part of the entire song. None of the three shorter songs are as dynamic as the first, each containing a keyboard melody played over synthesized noises and the rhythms of drums, sequencers, or a series of chords.

Optical Race is one of Tangerine Dream's most accessible releases. The melodies and hooks are as strong as on any Dream production, and are complemented by the electronic washes of sound. Pared down to the duo of founder and visionary Edward Froese and fellow synth wizard Paul Haslinger, the music is complete yet questioning, the hallmark of all the best Tangerine Dream recordings. Stylistically it straddles the ground between the preceding Underwater Sunlight and the earlier Tangram. Optical Race also marked a reunion of sorts with former Dreamer Peter Baumann, then head of the Private Music label, which for a time became known for its edgy, electronic music by the likes of Yanni, Azuma, Eddie Jobson, and Tangerine Dream. (Following its purchase by fellow new age label Windham Hill, Private was reborn as a blues label.) The title cut, with its insistent electronic percussion pushing the beat, is a highlight.