The Dream Thief

This re-release of "Variations On A Dream" has been beautifully remixed and remastered by the band's mastermind Bruce Soord. Featuring the "8 Days" album.
A very somber and very acoustic effort from Pineapple Thief. A sort of cross between older Porcupine Tree and the Smashing Pumpkins, this album is easily the best the Thief have produced. There are many elements that make this album tasteful and enjoyable. One is that the music isn't terribly complex, but it still is intricate enough to please a complexity freak's needs. Second is that each song is fulled to the brim with rich textures, offering a very mellow environment…

Over the course of 11 previous albums, The Pineapple Thief have established a body of work that straddles the line between stirring, accessible indie rock and musically adventurous prog. Led by chief songwriter/guitarist/frontman Bruce Soord, TPT almost always work conceptually, framing albums in thematically linked compositions that never fall prey to excess or reckless self-indulgence…

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.

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. An engaging melody on "Beach Theme" makes it one of the album's better tracks, while "Trap Feeling" has a delicacy that compares favorably to Brian Eno's Music for Films…

Tangerine Dream follow up their superb In Search of Hades box set with another Virgin-era package. Pilots of Purple Twilight: The Virgin Recordings 1980-1983 showcases the next chapter and features newly remastered versions of the albums Tangram, Thief, Exit, White Eagle, Logos, Hyperborea along with the previously unreleased soundtracks.