Tangerine Dream: 1970-1986 Albums Ranked Worst to Best
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
- And now it's finally time for what will likely be my last video on Tangerine Dream, ranking their albums from what I consider to be their peak period from my least favorite to my favorite. (Live albums included!)
Support me on Patreon: / thewonkyangle
More Tangerine Dream reviews: • Tangerine Dream (1970-...
More countdowns & rankings: • Countdowns & Rankings
![POLYCAT - ข้อความรูปยิ้ม [Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/lBhIgPGCgbI/mqdefault.jpg)
What a ride, huh? This was one of the most impressive installments of your discography review series, thank you again!
And since I am in the comment session, I would like to share my top 5 (to make it shorter!) albums here
1. Epsilon in a Malaysian Pale (sorry not sorry, but it’s really THAT good)
2. Phaedra
3. Stratosfear
4. Green Desert
5. Cyclone
In the year 1980 as a 15 year old I listend to Tangram the first time deep in the night on the radio.
I was hooked immediately and bought the album the next day from my pocket money.
I think it's the best album they ever made.
I’m a big fan of early avant garde Floyd as you’ll soon see with my list. Out of the albums I’ve actually heard, my ranking would be
9. Cyclone (still love it)
8. Stratosfear (I know that one will hurt you, but I still love it)
7. Electronic Meditation
6. Alpha Centauri
5. Ricochet (could alternate with Alpha on some days)
4. Phaedra
3. Rubycon
2. Atem (my introduction to the band)
1. Zeit (PERFECTION)
Great video for experienced listeners hoping to dive deeper and for new listeners trying to see where to start! I watched this video over the course of a few days and really enjoyed it. Keep it up!
Zeit is my favourite, as it perfectly evokes the cold empty universe, (as you said) and is as far away from anything else in electronic music as Trout Mask Replica is from rock music.
Well said with that comparison to Trout Mask Replica
Yep good point on first TD album you hear informing your favourite period. For me it was Cyclone and Force Majeure. Can't say I would listen to them much these days but they were definitely an important part of my teenage years.
Yes, Phaedra was my first and almost my No1
I cannot compare Tangerine Dream albums, because it will be to compare one particular mood against other. For example, how can you compare Zeit against White Eagle for example?
So here are my mandatory Tangerine Dream albums in chronological order: Alpha Centauri, Zeit, Atem, Green Desert, Phaedra, Rubycon, Richochet, Stratosfear, Sorcerer, Encore, Cyclone, Force Majeure, Tangram, Pergamon, Exit, White Eagle, Logos, The Keep, Wavelength, Hyperborea, Poland, le Parc, Underwater Sunlight, Livemiles, Miracle Mile... Starmus (with Brian May)... Quantum Key, Raum.
Edgar Froese: "there is no 'best' TD album'
And just like that, here comes the end of another discography review. Honestly, this was also a really cool series to watch, especially since this had such a good run too (especially that really well-done and impressive odds and ends). I also at the very least really liked the majority of the albums released in this time period, which made my own personal ranking of this batch a bit tough to put together. Now here’s my ranking (excluding live albums):
1. Exit
2. Force Majeure
3. Tangram
4. Hyperborea
5. Phaedra
6. Stratosfear
7. Underwater Sunlight
8. Alpha Centauri
9. Atem
10. Rubycon
11. Zeit
12. Green Desert (good stuff starts here)
13. White Eagle
14. Cyclone
15. Electronic Meditation
16. Le Parc
Looking forward to the next series!!! (i definitely have a good idea on what that may be lol)
I've never done a ranking video, but I've been thinking starting with this very group. I actually felt my cutoff would be Live Miles (basically the whole Chrisof Franke run. I know both Tyger and Le Park would be last. I have all those on CD and most on vinyl. I also kind of like Mars Polaris, and I also kind of favor Quinoa. I like you figured the live albums need inclusion while soundtracks don't . They sound too much like the later albums. I'd have to listen to them all a few times before ranking. The biggest differences in mine would be I'd put Encore a lot higher and Exit a lot lower. I do think every one through Live Miles (except Tyger & Le Park) are great enough to be in my collection I do have both just to make that period complete. Really enjoyed the video.
HYperBORea??? What's that doing up there? 😂
I respect it though. Pretty good list, and I admire the time you've put into this. Pretty funny that this band and the "completely opposite" band that you teased at the end of the video were both among my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITES around the same time (when I was about 12-13), so suffice to say, I am very much looking forward to that series and raging about your inevitable stomping on the absolute gem that is Invaders Must Die.
Anyway, I watched this video a bit late because it took so long to get through the entire Odds & Ends video lmao. I'm really enjoying reading other comments of rankings, because they're so hilariously different to each other.
Personally, I don't think I could make a ranking. My favourites have swung so much over the years, originally liking Force Majuere and Tangram, to preferring Stratosfear and Ricochet, to now appreciating Phaedra and Rubycon more. Ask me again in a few years and I'll probably list Alpha Centauri and Atem as my favourites, judging by the trajectory of my tastes so far.
Congratulations on surviving the Tangerine Dream war
Great video! Love the whole series! Just wanted to add a point about Ricochets production. In some ways, it may sound a bit more lo-fi than Rubycon as a result of it not being recorded in a professional studio. However, what I find most inspirational about it is how creative the production technique was. What we hear is not what was played exactly. The album is a composite or collage of moments from their touring between 1974-5, all shows were improvised. The change in production technique made the music unique compared to everything that had come before being much more lively (Electronic Meditation could be said to be livelier but it's not their refined sound). It's got more of a music-concrete influence, using recordings to make composition, and foreshadowing the later use of sampling in genres like Hip-hop. I don't think it gets enough credit for this.
Will say that I've come to consider tangerine dream as an all-defining electronic music act as awhole and you're series on the band certainly helped motivate me to listen to them in the first place. A massive and proud well done on the odds and ends video, very thought out!
Might as well show my personal ranking of the 16 albums, excluding live albums as I've only heard richocet and quichotte, and which is most likely not set in stone.
1. - Rubycon
2. - Phaedra
3. - Force Majure
4. - Exit
5. - White Eagle
6. - Cyclone
7. - Tangram
8. - Stratosfear
9. - Le Parc
10. - Zeit
11. - Green Desert
12. - Underwater Sunlight
13. - Alpha Centauri
14. - Electronic Meditation
15. - Hyperborea
16. - Atem
Great video, interesting ranking. Lots of valid points. As a longtime TD fan I tried a Top 10 ranking of TD albums a while ago and it looks like this
01 Zeit (1972)
02 Phaedra (1974)
03 Poland (1984)
04 Raum (2022)
05 Ages (1978)
06 Exit (1981)
07 Ricochet (1975)
08 White Eagle (1982)
09 Quantum Gate (2017)
10 The Music of Grand Theft Auto V, Vol. 2: The Score (2013)
You're probably already aware but I'll say the obvious anyway, new squarepusher album just got released recently, wonder when you'll make a review about it 👀. Tom previewed it once in the bandcamp listening party before release and I personally seriously enjoyed it, I think he is back making good stuff again. Can't wait for you to drop a review on it!
Thank you very much for this video.
Tangerine Dream has been my favorite band since I was a kid, and has influenced a lot of my work.
Here I am sharing my ranking of my 25 favorite albums, with three honorable mentions. I included soundtracks.
Thanks again, Wonky Angle.
25.- Electronic Meditation
24.- Alpha Centauri
23.- Zeit
22.- Firestarter (OST)
21.- Atem
20.- Optical Race
19.- Miracle Miles
18.- Hyperborea
17.- Phaedra
16.- Encore (Live)
15.- Green Desert
14.- Tyger
13.- Sorcerer (OST)
12.- Ricochet (Live)
11.- Rubycon
10.- Cyclone
9.- Underwater Sunlight
8.- White Eagle
7.- Logos (Live)
6.- Tangram
5.- Poland (Live)
4. Stratosfear
3.- Force Majeure
2.- Exit
Honorable Mentions
Mars Polaris
Mota Atma
Dream Sequence (Compilation)
1.- Thief (OST)
Where would you rank Raum?
I'm just getting into TD' s back catalogue and i really like the Le Parc album 😄
'The Cliffs of Sydney' is a stand out track for me.
Great video! I’ve actually never listened to Exit before - giving it a try now :)
10:20 I think you mix this up with The Cosmic Jokers... (Which was a super "group" of K Schulze, M Gottsching....)
Here before brendawg comments wonky slush
wonky slush
Ricochet is an interesting case as Part 1 was recorded entirely in the Manor studio assembled from some improvisations. The opening synthesizer section was only based in part of a concert in Croyden. It's one of my favorites from the period.
Where did you get the background pictures for the rank transition? They look awesome
a wallpaper site called alphacoders pics.alphacoders.com/pictures/view/280759
One of my favorite Electronic band growing up....their albums usually never disappoint.
I am glad you included the live albums in your rankings as they are some of my favorite recordings. One could make the argument that they were really just an extension of their studio recordings since the early ones like Ricochet and Encore were pieced together from live recordings rather than true live performances. Regardless, Ricochet Part 2 remains my favorite song from this era.
Great insights and reviews kiddo! ❤😊
This was a very interesting ranking. Totally unexpected. But burnt yourself out on TD? I don't see how that's possible! And no soundtracks? That's insane! Granted that I find the majority of their soundtracks to sound rather samey, their early ones are fantastic, especially Sorcerer. I'm not even going to attempt to rank their albums. As much as you and I disagree about a lot of things regarding their music, at least I can say I'd also consider Underwater Sunlight to be the cut-off album. But I can say without a doubt that Rubycon is number 1 for me. Rucycon Part 2 is one of the most dynamic tracks I've heard of theirs. That got me hooked and Sorcerer comes in a close second place for me.
well, tbf, making this ranking didn't burn me out on TD, rather making a 2-and-a-half hour review roundup of a bunch of their post-1986 material along with a bunch of soundtracks and loads of other stuff did that instead lol th-cam.com/video/TfuQX3JVa18/w-d-xo.html
alright, this is late af, but I finally binged through a few Tangerine Dream albums and felt like commenting on it even tho no one's gonna see this lol
I listened to Phaedra years ago, but at the time it went in one ear and out the other. came back to it the other week, and it grew on me because I appreciated its sound design more, pretty much doing the ambient parts of Oxygene just as well and even beating it by a couple years. I also just thought it was more engaging for me this time, especially loving Mysterious Semblance.
I sat through more in that one day tho, because I found a Virgin Years box set of 5 albums for like $15, so fuck yeah. I slightly preferred Rubycon over Phaedra because I liked its brighter tone more. Aside from that 1-up, it's great for pretty much all the reasons Phaedra is.
My favorite is actually Ricochet. I still got albums from them I need to get to after this, but I'll be damned if anything tops this for me. That first part felt especially epic and proggier than the other two album and pulled it off magnificently. Part two wasn't as engaging, but still lived up to the hype for me and had memorable moments in its own right. Yeah, Ricochet rules.
Stratosfear was my other favorite. Of all the albums, I felt like it was the most distinct and I remember the separate tracks on this the most, i.e. most consistent (which is quite the tough competition in this instance). This is album kinda strikes me as Oxygene's twin, and while it doesn't strike me as much as that, goddamn is that still impressive.
Then I heard Cyclone. I wasn't really feeling this one, but still worth having for this goated little bundle all around. Big win. Again, I'm not done with these guys and I'm very glad I gave them a second chance because they're one of the best 70s acts.
Just bought vinyl copies of the Thief and Firestarter soundtracks yesterday..... I would say Stratosfear is probably my favorite non soundtrack record. Bent Cold Sidewalk from Cyclone is such a great piece....fits perfectly on any classic prog playlist.
Interesting take.
I used to be a fan of Berlin School electronics back in the 70ies in my teens. In the 70ies classic Berlin school sound was a surreal experience, some even clained drug ersatz. I stopped listening to that style with the start of the 80ies (I irgnored Tangram) when so much more exiting things were happening, berlin School started sound dated, while Kraftwerk were praise as predecessors of so many things. Imust alos say, when TD became more and more melodic, their lack of musical knowledge became appearent. Therefore, "melodic TD" tends to sound kitschy to me.
Revisiting TD after decades and observing some of those 70ies albums I had missed at the time, I came to the conclusion that one needs three albums to get the "real" TD:
- Atem
- Phaedra
- Rubycon
The Sorcerer Soundtrack (great movie by the way, but you need to see it in good quality) still is pretty strong, if one needs the melodic TD.
Two things to mention:
- The typical TD saound had been created some 15 years before Phaedra by the dutch Composers Tom Dissevelt and Kid Balthan.
- Steve Jollive had been a member of TD before the Electronic Medidation lineup before he became a co-founder UK-prog band Steamhammer.
And if you want to hear the early origins of TD check out "Lady Greengrass" by Berlin psych/mod outfit The Ones featuring Edgar Froese on guitar.
A friend and I listened to every studio album, live album and soundtrack in release order about a decade ago, giving every one a rating out of ten. Quite a remarkable experience, with some of the worst music I've ever heard, and some genuine surprises in the 21st century stuff.
As a big '80s pop fan I do enjoy Le Parc, although it's very un-TD. I'd say the same for Optical Race, which I actually REALLY like, with some fantastic compositions, but again very poppy melodies and FM presets are so far from what most people go to the band for.
Glad to find someone else who doesn't rate White Eagle - the first side is just 20 minutes of dull improv. The title track is its saving grace, I only own a copy because it's in the Pilots of Purple Twilight box. Same for Encore, it's the start of 'set the sequencer running and solo over the top of it' format which I personally find uninteresting. Some of the live discs in the In Search of Hades box are way, way more interesting.
Electronic Meditation - the story I've always heard was that it was a jam that Ohr put out without the band's permission, but they weren't angry about it, they just didn't consider it a 'proper' album.
Green Desert - I've spent years as a lurker in the TD online fanbase and I think the nerdy experts tend to agree it's about 98% mid-'80s, haha. I never got into it.
Cyclone would be bottom of my list. I find it totally unlistenable, Steve's vocals are... horrible. The end of Bent Cold Sidewalk where he sounds like he's actually struggling to get his words out of his throat.
Poland is a good single album spread over a double. My favourite stuff on it is up there with my favourite TD stuff in general. (I should really watch your single album reviews, been meaning to for a while...)
Atem is the only 20th century TD album that doesn't sound like the midground of the albums either side of it.
Underwater Sunlight is gorgeous. The tunes absolutely sell it, despite leaning heavily on synth presets.
Rubycon only at 10 is where you lost me, haha. I think it's the peak of their '70s sequencer sound.
Great to see the electro and hip-hop stuff mentioned in Logos. The section with the 808 and voice samples is so ludicrously ahead of its time it boggles my mind.
Interesting that you see the live albums in a slightly different light, especially given that Logos and most of Ricochet are actually studio records with a bit of live applause added on.
Force Majeure is easily the most fun album TD ever made. It's just an adrenaline kick for 40 minutes.
Hyperborea - I fell in love with this on first listen, and have never understood why it's so totally overlooked. Cinnamon Road still feels a bit naff, but the other three are up there with their very best for me, and No Man's Land feels about ten years ahead of its time in a way that very little of their '80s material does. Glad I'm not the only one with it my top three!
Was really hoping Tangram would be your number one, my absolute favourite. Just 40 minutes of non-stop stunning tunes and lush production.
I once saw someone describe Exit as being the band's audition for film directors, and it's been impossible to ignore it since. Choronzon and Kiew Mission are nice, but I don't think it would be in my top 20. I'm not sure I actually have much nostalgia bias - only one of my first five TD albums would be in my top five.
I had a list of post-86 albums I love, but I'm gonna go hit the odds & ends vid to post that.
Having Tangram at No 2 tells me you come at their work from a radically different place to me. To put Exit at No 1 and yet White Eagle next to Le Parc, reinforces my opposing position to yours.
Here's mine:
1. Ricochet - Sublime. Despite not being truly live.
2. Rubycon - A real journey
3. Phaedra - Seminal but rougher than Rubycon
4. White Eagle - Polished. Great sound design with nods to the past
5. Exit - Brilliant departure from 70's. Thanks to Wolfgang Palm
6. Poland - Tour-de-force of their recent material
7. Force Majeure - A refreshing break from the usual, fab recording
8. Stratosfear - Haunting yet more structured
9. Logos - Precursor to Poland, good melodies
10. Sorcerer - Brutal, except for The Journey which might be my favorite piece of the whole body of work
11. Zeit - Deep
12. Atem - An interesting, raw foreshadowing of their later 70's work
13. Encore - Raw but worthwhile
14. Le Parc - Good melodies/sound design, but the herald of change for the worse.
15. Hyperborea - No Man's Land interesting, but the rest, not so much
16. Cyclone - All Peter Baumann's fault!
17. Alpha Centauri - Weird but interesting
18. Electronic Meditation - You have to start somewhere I suppose.
19. Tangram - Confused and tentative. Welcome Johannes Schmoelling
20. Underwater Sunlight - Muzak
OPTICAL RACE RULES
if odds and ends is the final boss the worst to best is the payback
Ill go with Hyperborea high up. One of my favourites although most of the 80s stuff ive heard is muzak to my ears.
Alpha centauri was the first TD album I bought, then atem.
the early stuff was great, rubycon, phaedra, zeit. To me the sound got way to digital and processed after Franke left.
I am old enough to remember Phaedra being released and cut my teeth on the very early albums, such as Atem and Alpha Centauri (Zeit was always a bit dark for my taste). So my TD experience came from the perspective of albums like Atem & AC being TD's original and true style. I saw them in 1973 playing some of their early pieces. It actually took me a while to adjust to their changing sound in albums like Stratosphere - I can remember my brother bringing that home mint fresh from the record shop and thinking, 'not sure about this one' - but, of course, it grew on me (funny how after all this time I still relate to it as a newly released album). Underwater Sunlight was when they completely lost me - compared to an album like Atem, Underwater Sunlight sounds like bland elevator music - I can't imagine why anyone would rank it higher than Atem. Having said all that - I can't argue with your number one choice - Exit is probably the TD album I have played the most over the years.
Can you confirm: Is the discography review after the Prodigy going to be Amon Tobin?
almost. there will be one short series before Amon Tobin
@@TheWonkyAngle a series between the Prod and AT? It better be a good one cos I cannot wait for AT!
Decent rankings, though I'd put White Eagle and Poland much higher. It's always interesting to see others' preferences, though. Well done.
Personally, I rank Cyclone higher, probably top 5. The vocals hit the spot for me…and Poland, I always held sentimental value for, since I was born there.
bar a couple of compilation tracks Cyclone and Stratosfear were the first two i heard and i wasnt aware they were pretty much instrumental.
Stratosfear
Cyclone
Phaedra
Zeit
Rubycon.
wonky slush
What was the song playing when he was talking about his next discography review ?
I'll just say the song is called "Out of Space"
should be easy to look up
I like your little "play close attention" right there..😉👍🏼
It'll take your brains to another dimension!!!!!
Have you heard L'apocalypse des Animaux by Vangelis? A wildlife documentary where the soundtrack was released in '73, but he actually recorded it in 68 or 69 before his then Aphrodites Child band's album 666. The film coming out around that time time too. Not dark like Zeit, but this song as well as the rest of the album are one of the earliest "polished" examples of what would become a standard ambient sound. Really incredible how he used reverb in general, but especially here in the late 60s to create a sound and production WAY ahead of its time.
th-cam.com/video/v-3H5O54-Es/w-d-xo.htmlsi=KIcieaOlOe13shNc
I have listened to you talk about Tangerine Dream for a surprising amount of hours now.
My history with the band starts with soundtracks (Risky Business, Legend, and Near Dark). I decided to try out a CD with Optical Race and while it did make for good background music for doing algebra homework they kind of faded out of my mind for years. I later came upon Exit and the title track got quite a few plays the rest felt 80s in a way that did not go with my sensibilities. Exit and Love on a Real Train are the only two tracks that are on a playlist of mine now.
let's freaking go
I love the TANGS, from Elec Med, 1969 through Melrose, 1991.
Also all of the soundtracks, including
Miracle Mile, Firestarter, Shy People...
I started listening to the Tangs in 1975, starting with Rubycon + Phaedra.
I still follow Johannes Schmoelling, Peter Bauman Paul Haslinger...
LeParc is my number two or three favorite TD album, behind Tangram and (possibly) Force Majeure. Their first four albums are borderline-unlistenable. And Phaedra is overrated (Rubycon is far superior).
Agree totally on "Phaedra". Not much really going on in those compositions. "Rubycon" is better by miles, and I've come to think of "Rubycon" as TDs first real album, or at least the first one that I'll listen to and have kept in my CD collection. Can't believe how highly those noisy first 4 albums rate on this list. The band really hadn't found their unique niche yet. The first album I ever heard by TD was "Encore", which blew my 15 year mind. Bought many more back catalog albums soon after, as well as buying the new releases as they were released. I have a special fondness for of the 80s & 90s material, which is all slagged off in this video with an arrogant smirk. Yep. Even TD albums after the cutoff date of 1986 feature some great music. I love pretty much all the albums with Schmoelling & Haslinger and saw the band play a couple of great live shows during the "Melrose Period" (which is smugly dismissed here by someone who prefers the noise of "Electronic Meditation".) The repetitive gripes over "80s sounds/production" grow pretty tiresome here, too. I guess the band was supposed to either use archaic technology, or perhaps later-era synths & recording equipment that hadn't been invented yet??? Either way, I find nothing "cheesy" or "bland" on TD albums of that period, those words are better applied to the reviewer ...I'm going go listen to some later day TD now to wash this video out of my mind.
Electronic Meditation on 19th? I think that's one of the best albums ever! But that's your opinion of course.
Force Majeure is well placed here. I love that album, it is so epic.
no ins and outs
Damn bruh you STILL not finished with Tangerine Dream??? (just an observation)
Edit: oh my bad, you said "likely" in the description
Well reasoned ranking, with excellent 'wahchink' segues.
1. Encore
2.Pergamon
3.Ricochet
4.Stratosphear
5.Tangram
6.Phaedra
7.Poland
8.Force Majeure
9.Exit
10.Logos, Rubycon, Cyclone,
A few things come to mind...
First, you can't ding "Encore" and "Pergamon" for "recycling material". Fact is, this is pretty typical for any live album from the 1970s and 80s, as those are artists touring on an album that they'd just released. In the case of "Encore", yep, they were touring on "Stratosfear", and "Pergamon" had them touring on "Tangram" plus their then-recent soundtracks for "Thief" and "The Keep". If you've not heard the latter...well, it might mess up this list considerably.
"Hyperborea". For me, THIS was where I got off the TD Train. This feels more like their "Contractual Obligation Album"...which, in a sense, it is. Any record where I can sing along using only the word "cheese" is not a good one...and I'm betting you know which part of "Sphinx Lightning" I'm talking about there.
"Cyclone" is easily one of the worst, I think. Steve Joliffe's vocals distract horrendously from the music. Interestingly, Joliffe has a downright laughable appearance on a "Richard Wahnfried" (Klaus and others) album. At one point, Klaus has everything motorikking in f minor. Then Steve pops in with his flute...in F major. Klaus immediately bangs out a LOUD f min chord...Steve continues noodling along in F maj...another, more determined SLAM in f minor, and then Joliffe opts to buy a vowel and continues in the correct mode. Some might think this was a deliberate, dramatic, symbolic moment... except that the Richard Wahnfried stuff is usually live jamming in the studio, ergo this was a big f***up and I have to figure that Klaus left it in for slightly malicious reasons.
"Electronic Meditation" is definitely an oddball. But it doesn't quite fit Krautrock per se. Rather, I agree with Julian Cope's assertion that it belongs more with heavy psych stuff like some of the International Artist freaky projects like The 13th Floor Elevators or (especially) The Red Crayola's "Parable of Arable Land". Otherwise, it's best viewed as a historical document, from which we got TD and Ash Ra Tempel AND Kluster.
And yes, "Wahn" STILL sucks. As you noted, "Zeit" is probably the best of the Ohr period. You've got personnel from Hölderlin, Florian Fricke from Popol Vuh, miked-up coffee machine, Dieter Dierks at the controls, and R-U. Kaiser nowhere to be seen. All pluses.
And last..."Ricochet". That's a very interesting work, as it was composed specifically as a concert piece. I especially love the FILM of it, shot live during their Coventry Cathedral performance...which has an interesting story to it...
Apparently, some of their cathedral concerts in France drew a lot of hostility from the Catholic heads there. In one case, the bishop went so far as to reconsecrate one of the cathedrals after they played there. Pretty disheartening, right?
Well, once the higher-ups in the Church of England caught wind of that, they sent word to TD's management that "Hey...we'd LOVE to have you play in OUR cathedrals! Don't worry about what those fussy Frenchmen think!" So they went over there and people loved it, sure enough. Until...
Coventry. If you remember your WWII history, the original Coventry Cathedral was turned into a gravel pit by a direct hit from the Luftwaffe. So everyone was a bit jittery, since this was only 30 years later that this other bunch of Germans that had pissed off the French SO BADLY were going to be performing in the New Coventry Cathedral! Could've been REALLY BAD...
...but no. In fact, people in the UK largely praised the band's performance, and Tony Palmer's film of it that came out not long after. It was seen as very much a "healing event" between the UK and Germany, in a powerfully-symbolic location. Between that, and John Peel's unabashed love of their music via the BBC, this is a big reason why they had a massive following in the UK. Although Baumann and Franke eventually decamped to LA and Froese stayed in Berlin, England really was a second home for them during that "classic" period.
re: dinging Encore and Pergamon for their "recycled material", I do in fact understand they are trying to be more traditional live albums as I realized I had to clarify with that one phone-recorded bit I added near the end of the Pergamon segment. my real gripe with these "reused" sections is that listening to that material in that new context they provided was less exciting than listening to their original studio counterparts and just made me want to go back to those other albums instead
Re The Anglican Church is England approaching TD because they had been banned by the Pope due to their and Nico's fans at Reims Cathedral - this turned out to be a myth. The promoter said that he had been trying to encourage the English Cathedrals for ages: “Setting up the tour took a long time as I had to persuade the Cathedral authorities to allow a ‘Rock’ band to perform and this had never been done before in England... I remember long sessions drinking the communion wine with the Rev Edward Patey of Liverpool Cathedral. BUT, I started off by proposing a ‘Recital’ by three German keyboard players and then building up from there!"
@@AndyKing1963 And that's an even better tale! We really do need a comprehensive book on Krautrock; as good as Julian Cope's is, it's not as detailed as that...and these stories NEED documentation.
Julian’s book while fantastically enthusiastic is full of mistakes - it’s the reason why he’s never reprinted it.
@@AndyKing1963 True...but in years since, there's been better books on the subject. Although, you have to admit that no one explained the R-U. Kaiser und Sternmädchen craziness in a better way. 🤪 It had "the feel" to it!
What do you think of the fact that TD are still continuing even though none of the original band members are alive? For commercial reason obviously. I think that’s wrong myself - and the current band members should just continue under another name (albeit with a lot less interest taken in them without the TD name).
went through my thoughts on this topic here th-cam.com/video/TfuQX3JVa18/w-d-xo.html
Personally I think it feels wrong.. but it was Edgar's wish it seems... also they (the current TD) make much better music now compared to what TD were doing in the 90s onwards... but yep a bit 'weird' ;)
here before wonky slush
one of my fav albums green desert
My top four would probably be Zeit, Phaedra, Rubycon and Ricochet.