Tangerine Dream was always an art project more than a band. Founder Edgar Froese had come to Berlin to study at the feet of Salvador Dali after all, and surrealist rot was sure to cave in any traditional rock notions the group might have had at the outset. But damn. People were shocked when Radiohead traded in its guitar-symphonic band tricks for the hollowed-out deconstructions of Kid A, but that transformation had nothing on what Tangerine Dream did to itself in the short span of their first three albums. They literally melted away all traces of acid rock and abandoned their native instruments to make sound collages with boxes and wires.
Sophomore album Alpha Centauri (1971) is a snapshot of the Dream collapsing under the weight of first-generation synthesizers; a burial so swift that by '73's Atem all traces of actual guitars and drums had been obliterated, with only the smoke of Moog squiggles and mellotron drones left hanging in the air. Which is kind of a shame, if only for the loss of Chris Franke's astounding drumming (Franke had just joined), best captured on Centauri track "Fly and Collision of Comas Sola."
This is an edit. I chopped off a good five minutes of obtuse space-phaser noodling - it just hasn't aged well - and faded in on the storm-in-progress of unresolved organ chords and Astral Weeks flute riffing. This goes on for a good five minutes, but trust me when I tell you that the wait is worth it to appreciate Franke's drum lighting finally bursting the rain clouds. Best. Drum. Tones. Ever.
Tangerine Dream - "Fly and Collision of Comas Sola" (edit)
No comments:
Post a Comment