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Music > Albums > Tangerine Dream - Dream Encores (2001) Retail CD
added on February 10, 2007, at 11:27 by allcdcovers

I've never been a great fan of encores; or at least, not when they are taken out of context, as here. They're fine at the end of a concert, as a means of rounding off musical proceedings but I can't help feeling that a dozen of them strung end to end on a CD is more than just a little odd. After all, encores are, almost by definition, pieces after the affair: works designed to calm an audience down after the excitement of the main event itself and provide them with a sense of satisfaction and satiation, making them ready for home. And let's face it, few bands will be putting their all into their encores, will they?The pieces in question here are drawn from Tangerine Dream concerts during the band's various North American and European tours during the period 1986 to 1997. Sadly, despite having 11 years worth of concert material to draw upon, this collection presents little that isn't already readily available elsewhere. Indeed, over half of the disc includes numbers virtually indistinguishable from their originals, all previously released on Tangerine Dream albums, mostly from their "Seattle Years". Some of these even have timings that are identical-down to the nearest second-to the originals, suggesting that digital sequencer technology is contributing more to these performances than anything the live musicians may be doing. Whilst this is no doubt acceptable to a concert audience at the end of an evening of live entertainment, I think it is a bit cheeky to try to market these on CD as something new.In fact, only three of the tracks on this disc are of music unavailable elsewhere. And, to be perfectly honest, even the most ardent TD fan would be hard-pushed to argue that there would be anything lost to the world if these tracks remained unavailable! The longest, 'Order of the ginger guild' (Vienna, 1997), is over 9 minutes of aimless, meandering bopping that sounds more like a warm-up piece than an encore. 'Fort Worth runway one' (Budapest, 1997) starts out quite promising, with its introductory taped radio communications between a pilot and air traffic control, but it quickly loses its way once the synthesisers and sequencers enter-and goodness only knows where it is when it finally lands! And then we have 'Eleanor Rigby' (London, 1996)-a nostalgic nod to Tangerine Dream's earliest days when almost their entire repertoire consisted of Beatles covers? Thank goodness they moved on! Two other works supposedly unavailable elsewhere are, in fact, merely reworkings of older material-although, ironically, these offer more of interest than the three new works! 'Thief Yang and the tangram seal' (London, 1996) is a famous TD encore piece consisting mostly of material from the "Tangram" album. (Gosh! Who'd have guessed?) 'Dominion' (London, 1986), on the other hand, is a live rendition of part of the "Logos" set (no surprises there, either) and is also well known to followers of the band as an encore piece. Tacked onto the end of this CD (almost as an encore to the encores!) this track-the oldest of the encores here-really points up how automated TD's encores have become!Despite its 74-minute duration, this release is really very disappointing indeed. Considering just how much 'rare' Tangerine Dream encore material should be available for release (the band habitually tape and archive every single gig) it is difficult to see why 34 minutes of it should need to be identical to previously released and readily available tracks. Where, for instance, is 'Rarebird'? Or 'Loved by the Sun'? Or countless other encore pieces for which the concert-going fans have long clamoured? Could the phrase 'commercial exploitation' occur somewhere in the explanation, perhaps? No, no, of course not, silly me! Nevertheless, I suggest you save your money here, and spend it instead on the multi-CD collection, "The Real Dream Encores". (But you didn't hear that from me! OK? And, no, I can't tell you where to get a copy...)

back 1789 x 1372 px

front 1426 x 1379 px