Tangerine Dream- Phaedra

Tangerine Dream started out making complete space music, and their first 4 record on the German Ohr label are all key. However, after DJ John Peel named their album Atem best import of the year in 1973, they switched to Mike Oldfield's new Virgin label. Here, they changed things up, adding a bit more melodic structure while continued that open, minimalistic feel. The result is 1974's Phaedra often hailed as one of the electronic genre's first masterpieces.

The record contains a 16 minute long title track, two 9-10 minute pieces, and wraps up with a 2:20 meletron flute. That title track has a very airy feel, using Meletron extensively. It slowly transitions between a number of melodic structures, never actively gripping the listener but merely showering sound through their mind in a light manner. The whole record speaks of this: gentle, docile, and ambient. All but a few little sprinkles of guitar chords is done on electronic instruments. The two mid length tracks, are also very pleasing. "Mysterious Semblance at the Strands of Nightmares" is soft and cloudlike, while "Movements of a Visionary", one of TD's most famous tracks, is more analog sounding, and conjures up images of water. The quickie "Sequent C" is a very sweet overlaying on the Meletron's Flute sound.

This was indeed the future of E-music. Phaedra came out the same year as Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" and Brian Eno's debut album. These three set the new bar: no longer reserved for experiments, purely electronic music can have melody, and be enjoyable. A Progressive work in every sense of the word.

A fantastic indicator of things to come, Tangerine Dream had reached their peak which would last several albums longer. Grade: A

Tangerine Dream- Rubycon

Today I’ll take a dip into one of my favorite sub genres of prog for the first time: Progressive Electronic. What better way to start than with this 1975 album from Tangerine Dream, the most acclaimed electro-prog band? TD’s only constant member has been founder Edgar Froese, and here he’s accompanied by longer-term members Christopher Franke and Peter Baumann. All three played synthesizer. Based out of Germany, TD released four ambient albums before their seminal 1974 work Phaedra, a landmark of electronic music. Rubycon is the follow-up, and the style here is quite similar.

It’s unfortunately very difficult to write about prog-electronic because it’s extremely minimalistic and sparse. The synthesizer of choice here is the mellotron, the world’s most famous synthesizer. I can’t say which sounds are which having never used one, but I’ll try to compensate.

Rubycon is one single s/t song, divided in two, lasting 35 minutes (divided roughly equally). Part 1 starts out with some earthy, new-age like sounds, sweeping across the ear. It has almost an underwater feel to it, yet somehow is also airy. This continues for quite a while, and it relaxes well. This album is great for falling asleep to. After a little over six minutes, “Rubycon” switches to a much more sinister and artificial sound. It’s something like you’d get in a sci-fi movie during a planetary approach, and very cool. Eventually this enters a crescendo, then a decrescendo, then goes back to the more organic feel the piece started with. Thought all of this, there’s no melody per se, but there’s more structure than an ambient piece of music. Part 2 fades in with a long electronic wah sound, and ghostly effects. After a while, the signature mellotron keyboard comes in and takes it away with an awesome pseudo- melody. There’s some water sound effects, and the track fades out with what I believe to be the tron’s flute effects. A solid, solid piece of music.

It’s amazing how music can be so droning, yet so rewarding. With little in the way of a melody, “Rubycon” can’t be called a song. It is a piece, and a fantastic one. This is an album that draws you in and totally immerses you in its mood and feel. Try listening to Rubycon in the dark for an extra kick!

A wonderful piece of the semi melodic e-music that was strong in the mid to late 70’s, Rubycon rewards the listener each and every time with its great mood. Grade: A.