What are you listening to?

[epitome]

It's those two tracks, yes. But they're live on both the main disc and the bonus disc. They're EXACTLY the same versions! Very weird!

[Ross]

Edgar Froese + Ulrich Schnauss = generic modern TD?

[dell1972]

I quite liked the EP to be honest, I'm assuming that youtube track is the same as the one on the EP. The ones with Ulrich Schnauss (of which this is the first) are quite obvious as he has a very distinctive style. As with most of the recentish releases I've heard, the real standout track is the one by Thorsten Quaeschning. If you compiled all his contributions to TD over the years you'd have a killer release. Or I guess you could just listen to his other band "Picture Palace Music" instead.

That said, this release is better than many of the more recent ones. Edgar appears to be trying to channel his Pinnacles solo album in places, which I guess is unsurprising as it's meant to be an Aussie themed release.

[Pandemonium]

I didn't knew we have people here who studied Tangerine Dream so closely

[dell1972]

I must admit I do have an offensive amount of Tangerine Dream albums, though my attention/interest in them waxes and wanes. Occasionally they put out an especially bland offering and I ignore them for a while. Hadn't listened to them for a few years until recently after being put off the decidedly underwhelming Mona Da Vinci. They're one of those bands that occasionally give you a spark of hope but desperately need some quality control.

[mcbpete]

My 'adopted' cat (a stray that frequently comes round) decided to crawl up and down my keyboard whilst I was playing around with arps in the fabulous Diva VSTi and it sounded pretty much like TDs 70s output. Wish I'd recorded it now !

[Pandemonium]

Pete always has a wonky story

Dell, TD definitely needs quality control - I mean, who puts out 2+ albums every year, for 40 years!

[Ross]

In my experience, in terms of TD music from this century, you could probably just stick to the six Booster releases and avoid everything else. They aren't perfect, but they offer a decent overview of the different sounds and releases without ever getting stale through repetition, and the track selections tend to be quite decent, considering.

Actually, the number of compilations on Eastgate, although the most blatant example of Edgar milking his fanbase for every penny he can get (so many entries on their site read "12 tracks from recent albums plus two new compositions and a remix of Logos! Perfect music for your mp3 player, car journey or wherever you want to drift off to escape from the crazy modern world!!" or something) is occasionally beneficial - the Starbound Collection is a really compact selection of material from their '90s albums that would be a great way to experience / own that era without resorting to going through all the actual albums, for example.

Really, though, Underwater Sunlight should be every sensible person's cutoff point. I have a bizarre morbid curiosity with later TD which probably isn't healthy.

[dell1972]

I'd say of the latter day albums the only consistently good albums for me are Summer In Nagasaki and Jean D'Arc. I agree with the irony about the compilations, the Booster series itself is quite a rip off if you have the original albums - the exclusive tracks do tend to be obvious music by numbers outtakes, or, yes, another remix of some random section of Logos. I've got the first four volumes. The very name to me denotes an end of year boost of Edgar's bank balance - Edgar invariably sees/saw music from a business perspective, which has meant the music has suffered, and band members got worn out and jumped ship. I've not really heard any of their output since about 2011 after the aforementioned crap EP. If curiosity gets the better of me, I'm probably better off getting the remaining Booster albums.

Rather than yet another Logos remix you're better off seeking out one of the bootlegs from the Logos tour to be honest. The Logos content with about an hour's worth of stuff from the Keep is much more worthwhile.

I agree generally about Underwater Sunlight being a good cutoff, it gets a bit hit and miss after that. After that TD's output becomes a bit like a musical equivalent of stamp collecting.

[Ross]

Yes, Jeanne D'Arc is one I have been meaning to actually get. There seems to be an emphasis on composition from the tracks I've heard, which makes a change from a lot of the 'here's a quick idea, I'll make an eight minute track out of it' mindset that's plagued so much of the newer stuff. Kind of the opposite of the Melrose years, where Haslinger's musical training brings in some strong musical ideas that are rendered almost unlistenable by the rigid computer programming and General MIDI sounding production.

[dell1972]

Yeah, the Melrose years stuff had great composition but awful sounds. There's an argument for Optical Race being the worst TD album simply for the hideous midi feel for the whole thing, even though structurally the content is pretty good.

[epitome]

Powerman 5000 - Builders of the Future

Better than I expected... actually really enjoying it, it's a lot of fun

[Ross]

Yeah, the Melrose years stuff had great composition but awful sounds. There's an argument for Optical Race being the worst TD album simply for the hideous midi feel for the whole thing, even though structurally the content is pretty good.

I think the precise time signature and tempo changes in Marrakesh just about justify the overly computery sound of Optical Race (although the title track does a pretty good job of making the whole album's existence offensive); Lily on the Beach is my least favourite of the three because it never seems to fucking end...

Errr I'm listening to Pure Heroine by Lorde, just to keep this thread vaguely on topic!

[dell1972]

In the spirit of the topic, indeed the site, this afternoon I put on Environments 5 by you know who, on the new music player in flac format. I was a bit indifferent before, even after about ten listens. I think I actually said holy fuck out loud in the office at one point. Totally different experience, all manner of subtle low and high frequencies, some subtle stuff that just passed me by before... you know.. new shit has come to light man...

Admittedly I've been in a slightly altered state due to coming down with a flu type thing today, but seriously. The level of detail in some places is mind blowing.

[Ross]

Yes, it really is incredible. The heavier use of real instruments (acoustic and electronic) over samples has allowed a lot more 'space' in the recording allowing even more detail than usual.

np Tangerine Dream - Lily on the Beach. As mentioned above, this album is the longest hour ever recorded. It never ends. Also, just to counter Dell's point that Jerome is to blame for their move towards terrible song titles, I'm currently on 'Too Hot For My Chinchilla'.