War Lost in The Dream

On 22nd June 1941, Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa–the Nazi invasion of Soviet Russia. Four million troops, backed by 19 panzer divisions, fought their way east, confident of total victory within a just few short months. They were wrong.

Without doubt, the recordings of Tangerine Dream have made the greatest impact on the widest variety of instrumental music during the 1980s and '90s, ranging from the most atmospheric new age and space music to the harshest abrasions of electronic dance. Founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese in Berlin, the group has progressed through a full three dozen lineups (Froese being the only continuous member with staying power) and four distinct stages of development: the experimentalist minimalism of the late '60s and early '70s; stark sequencer trance during the mid- to late '70s, the group's most influential period; an organic form of instrumental music on their frequent film and studio work during the 1980s; and, finally, a more propulsive dance style, which showed Tangerine Dream with a sound quite similar to their electronic inheritors in the field of dance music.

The Hawkwind anthology phenomenom has baffled me for decades. What also baffles me even more is why I own so many of them that contain tracks that I already have on regular albums! I never quite understood the marketing strategy or demographic targets but statistically they sell regardless of quality, concept or whether or not the band sees any royalties from them. The band certainly is recieving royalties from this latest offering from Atomhenge who has apparently bought up the rights to most of Hawkwind's back catologue.