Pitchfork

There's a case to be made for Tangerine Dream as being among the most historically important experimental German bands from the early 70s. Beyond the fact that their mastery of all manner of synthesizer technology predated the digital boom in the 80s, they're arguably the grandfathers of ambient music (despite what the church of Eno may preach). Edgar Froese's outfit began as one of many rambunctious noisemakers in Berlin in the late 60s, but has survived as one of the most long-lived groups in rock. Of course, the group has tweaked their sound considerably over the years, and this curious set, containing one disc of early 70s pieces, and two of mid-80s live tracks, makes clear that not every chapter in Froese's manual is required reading.

The first disc in the box contains the most interesting music, by a considerable margin. Covering the underrated early period of the band on Ohr Records (1970-73), the sounds are spacey, spacious and determinedly sprawling. "Genesis" and "Cold Smoke" are both taken from the band's first release, Electronic Meditation, the only record to feature future kosmiche icons Klaus Schultz and Conrad Schnitzler (later of Kluster). Similar to their peers Guru Guru, Ash Ra Tempel (also featuring Shultz) and Amon Düül II, Tangerine Dream were, at this point, about freeform mind-expansion, and that alone: "Cold Smoke" rumbles and skirts via heavily reverbed crashing drums, maniacal violin, post-Hendrix guitar ejaculation and even an excitable vagrant shouting cosmic obscenities in the distance. "Fly and Collision of Comas Sola" and "Sunrise in the Third System" are taken from the group's second album, Alpha Centauri, with Chris Franke and Steve Schroyder replacing Schultz and Schnitzler. Keyboards began to play a greater part in the arrangements (as well as flute here), but the general ticket was still an acid-laced blur.

In 1972, Tangerine Dream released their early masterpiece, Zeit (featuring Peter Baumann, and completing one of the most longstanding of the band's lineups), and because Castle Music felt the need to whip me into submission with two discs of live meh from the 80s, only one track from that double LP is included. That's too bad, because "Origin of Supernatural Probabilities" represents a command of sound on par with the greatest studio masters. The opening guitar chords sound as if they were recorded under two feet of water, and when the synth begins to babble and whales begin to cry, I'd as soon sport gills as leave my stereo. Simply put, 70s electronic music does not get better than this-- unless you count their follow-up, 1973's Atem, of which two pieces are included on this set: The Mellotron-soaked nature hymn "Fauni Gena" and an atypical vocal (of sorts) track "Wahn", also featuring primal percussion akin to that on the first record.

Now, skip forward about 10 or 12 years to the mid-80s, when Tangerine Dream had become quite a different beast. Gone were the psychedelic trance-outs and echo chambers, replaced by big light shows and Jan Hammer's drum machine. In fact, Froese and company were still playing psychedelic music, but what that meant 20 years removed from the era was much different; they were providing escapists soundtracks for the overstressed and nostalgic alike, far from the boundless "mind-expansion" of a bygone time. And yes, I absolutely abhor those crystalline, programmed 80s beats-- Mannheim Steamroller at Christmas is one thing, but I will not stand idly by and listen to men who once tripped like kings through the nether regions of consciousness play crowd-control for yuppies.

That said, if you don't pay attention-- and that's the real difference: early Tangerine Dream was good for escapism and repeated, detail-obsessed listening-- some of this works as decent background pitter-patter. Not surprisingly, the better tracks are the longest: the 22-minute "Poland" begins as a practically unlistenable exercise in new age pep, but does have scattered moments of old-fashioned krautrock whim, particularly during the parts that forgo dance beats for drone. And it's not as if Tangerine Dream + dance music is a necessarily bad concept (why hasn't there been a movement to remix these guys, a la Kraftwerk's The Mix or Can's Sacrilege?), but this stuff is perilously close to skincare instructional video soundtracks. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, disc three drops "Song of the Whale", parts one and two! Wow. In summary, skip this set and check out the early Tangerine Dream records instead-- they're all being remastered (with bonus tracks!), hopefully making Journey Through a Burning Brain obsolete sooner rather than later.