In a sense, Tangerine Dream's 2008 album, "Views from a Red Train", is an updated version of Edgar Froese's solo album "Macula Transfer" of 1976 in that many of the tracks were composed by Froese whilst killing time on the road, either in airport departure lounges, motel rooms, or simply visiting tourist spots. Happily, the result this time is an altogether more mature and developed affair, even than the solo album's 2005 rehash. The new album benefits hugely from substantial contributions from regular TD collaborating artists in addition to the composer: Bernhard Beibl provides characteristically flashy and flamboyant guitar work on a handful of tracks, complementing Edgar Froese's own intoxicating melodic riffs to perfection; Iris Camaa adds her own brand of electronic percussion in places (most noticeably in 'Hunter Shot by a Yellow Rabbit' and 'Fire on the Mountain')…
Having scored the movies Heartbreakers and Tonight's The Night before, in 1988 TD composed the music for a third film of director Bobby Roth - Dead Solid Perfect, starring Randy Quaid. A lot of material is sequencered rhythms. Several tracks are variations of melodies so it does tend to get a little monotonous with the repetition. The music is a pleasure to hear. Without Silva Screen's efforts, more than likely this music would never have been released. It would have only been heard through your TV where it was buried in the soundtrack. Apparently, the soundtrack album was prepared without cooperation of Tangerine Dream, a common approach of the record company releasing this album. Thus, unlike most other TD soundtracks, it features a large number of short musical sketches instead of longer compositions especially provided by TD for a soundtrack album release.
Plays Tangerine Dream features re-recordings by several present and past members of the band. This issue will start with a more classic approach to 13 songs created within the 40 years timespan of one of the most creative bands around. The songs are re-performed partly by the original composer or by musicians who had been or still are associated with the band. Plays Tangerine Dream can be taken as a synonym for travelling back and forwards within the groups unlimited sound universe.
Andre Konchalovsky's 1986 film Shy People, would seem the perfect vehicle for a Tangerine Dream score. Alternately pensive and paranoid, full of taut drama and dreamy expanses as well as moments of true psychological horror, Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke, and Paul Haslinger not only scored the film, but produced and engineered the recording, too.
This was the first TD album to incorporate lyrics and vocals (from Steve Jolliffe, who also contributed wind instruments and keyboards). By this point, the nucleus of the band was down to Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke, with the sound centering more on shifting arpeggiation over percussive rhythm structures, with "Madrigal Meridian" being an impressive example of this. Jolliffe's vocal contributions on "Bent Cold Sidewalk" and "Rising Runner Missed by Endless Sender" provide an aggressive edge that effectively catapults the listener from the hypnotic pulse that Tangerine Dream are best known for - still, it's by no means a failed experiment, though it does make Cyclone one of the least useful TD albums for working up a good meditative state.
Given that Blue Note Records has issued a definitive 1960s box set of Hancock's earliest – and some consider his most seminal – work, and the literally dozens of best-ofs that have been issued, more by Columbia than by anybody else, this set with its spare futuristic design might at first glance seem like overkill, as in, "do we really need another Herbie Hancock collection, especially a damned box set?" In this case, it's very important to take a second and even third look. For starters, this set is housed in a see-though plastic box, all four CDs clearly visible on spare individual trays. On a fifth tray rests the CD booklet. On the bottom of the box is a sticker identifying the contents within. In the booklet are complete liners by Herbie himself (actually, excepts from an interview by Chuck Mitchell), and gorgeous reproductions of the album covers. It's a cool coffee table conversation piece for hep cats and kitties who are into jazz – or those who just like happening accoutrements in their living spaces.
Herbie Hancock recorded for Columbia between 1972 and 1988. During that period, between the label's American and Japanese divisions, he released 31 albums, both solo and with an astonishing variety of players in an equally breathtaking panorama of styles, from straight-ahead post-bop, to fusion, jazz-funk, disco, R&B, smooth jazz, and even hip-hop. Though Hancock had a celebrated career before signing to Columbia, it was his longest label association; and during his tenure there, he experienced his greatest commercial success and his name was etched permanently into the history of popular music. This box set contains 34 discs – 28 single and three double albums – all housed in handsome individual LP and gatefold sleeves.
The first 2cd collection to span herbie hancock's entire career, from 1962 debut lp to 2000 collaboration with stevie wonder. Includes previously unreleased 1978 live concert duet with joni mitchell on "goodbye pork pie hat" from mingus plus appearances with dexter gordon, freddie hubbard, sonny rollins, ron carter, tony williams, miles davis, wayne shorter, joe henderson, harvey mason, bill laswell, and more!