Tangerine Dream

The last TD production with Johannes Schmoelling was the soundtrack for Ridley Scott's movie Legend, starring Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, Tim Currie and David Bennent. Jerry Goldsmith was the original composer of the music for Legend, but Universal Studios decided they wanted a more modern sounding music and contracted with TD, Jon Anderson (singer of Yes) and Bryan Ferry (formerly with Roxy Music) to supply new music. The TD score was used for the North American version of the film only, thus the TD soundtrack was released 1986 in USA and Canada only. All other world-wide releases used the Goldsmith film score.

Somewhere along the line, Tangerine Dream figured out a way to produce motion picture scores without paying too much attention - as happened with this score for a minor film. There are some nice moments, but it's mainly Tangerine Dream following the formula. It was the first of six movies directed by Bobby Roth that Tangerine Dream supplied the music for.

Tangerine Dream scored director Michael Mann's film debut, Thief (released as "Violent Streets" outside of the U.S. market), adding their patented pulses, blips and whooshes to the film's highly stylized visual scenes. While TD's electronic music is a natural fit for soundtracks, it doesn't bring out the best in the band; for the most part, this soundtrack contains swatches of a larger canvas, building up a small head of steam in the span of four or five minutes but not raising the musical discussion above the level of mere mechanical chitchat. Most of the songs follow a set pattern, with Chris Franke slurring his sequencers under a thin fog of synthesizers, topped by a piercing and pithy melody.

It's very difficult to recommend this release to any serious Tangerine Dream fan. Why? Simply because all of these tracks have been released before on other compilations of TD Eastgate/TDI releases, making this a compilation of other compilations. It's a tricky business, but that's what it is, business. There has been no further remastering of the sound - which was excellent in the first place - and the only thing that's really "new" here is the digipack and its design. It's also difficult to recommend this set to those new to TD, simply because there is so much other material that's more cohesive and more important than what's here, from Edgar Froese's various incarnations of the band.

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…

Recorded in 1973/1974 at the Manor, Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire. The seven seventies Tangerine Dream albums are re-issued as "Newly re-mastered from the original master tapes…" (label) in clear jewel cases with "RE-MASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL VIRGIN MASTER TAPES" printed into the side .Rubycon is the sixth major release and sixth studio album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. It was released in 1975. It is widely regarded as one of their best albums. Rubycon further develops the Berlin School sequencer-based sound they ushered in with the title track from Phaedra. Although not quite matching the sales figures for Phaedra, Rubycon reached number 10 in a 14-week run, their highest-charting album in the UK.