Best Of Tangerine Dream, The (The Blue Years) - Tangerine Dream

Advantages: One of the best 'electronic' albums ever
Disadvantages: It is somewhat short

...five minutes have gentle subtle harmonies playing with bright synth sounds. I have heard this part used on nature programmes to accompany underwater scenes, which it does splendidly. Finally a lonely mellotron flute sound concludes the album on a sombre note. Overall the music on this album is quite remarkable especially if you consider the equipment available in 1975. Don't expect tunes or simple backing beats as this is more of a free flowing soundscape. It may be only 35 minutes in length, but it is possibly the best 35 minutes of Tangerine Dream's lengthy career and certainly one of the finest electronic albums of the 1970s. Although it is sometimes categorised as such, it is not really "new age" as there are dark eerie moments and not quite "ambient" as there are some lively driving near-rock moments. Highly recommended for those... Read review

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Advantages: Unreleased tracks
Disadvantages: Price, some 're-mixing'

...As you may have already guessed, this is a ‘best of’ album. As Tangerine Dream have been around for the past 40 years, you don’t need to be a fan to know there are lots of these compilation albums around – some good, some so bad you feel embarrassed to look at the cover let alone play it. ‘Tangents’ is certainly one of the best. The tracks are from a wide range of studio and sound track albums; some classic ones like Ricochet, White Eagle and Exit, to some quite rare and difficult to find tracks (Wavelength and Flashpoint). Disk 5 contains a lot of previously unreleased tracks, which makes a very useful added bonus, and makes the price worthwhile. Many of the tracks are just excerpts of long single track albums like Ricochet, but some are re-mixed, or "tangenized", as some fans call it. Some of them are quite different to the original... Read review

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Advantages: Live TD music
Disadvantages: Only half a concert

...I bought this album about two years ago with some other TD albums. It’s been in my ‘wanted’ list for some time. Unfortunately, after listening to it, I was sadly disappointed. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t as good as I imagined it to be. I have recently listened to this after quite some time. In fact, I think this is only my third time of listening to it. It is supposedly the first release of the so-called "Tangerine Dream Classics Edition", released in 1999, featuring the first part of the Sydney concert. The rest of the concert (Soho Man 2 perhaps) has never, as yet, been released. A bootleg LP version called ‘Leprous Appearance On Wednesday’ appeared in 1984 and was re-released in CD format in 1993, featuring the same part of this concert. When listening to the bootleg, it’s obvious that Soho Man has been altered to obtain better... Read review

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