I keep meaning to post this…
Good ol’ WFMU Blog recently posted a whole bunch of MP3s of early Tangerine Dream recordings that really are worth checking out. I’ve always associated Tangerine Dream with their ultra-pasteurized early-’80s soundtracky stuff (yawn), so I was very pleasantly shocked to discover how experimental and often even plain abstract their earlier stuff sounds. I was then pleasantly surprised some more to learn they’d been at it since the late ’60s! I knew they’d been early but, man, seriously cutting edge — at that time there was very little electronic music of any kind occurring outside of academe. (And no, the neo-theremin on “Good Vibrations” does not count.)
The MP3s include a rip of their very first single, some other released rarities, and some choice selections of early live bootlegs. Grab ‘em all, et bon appetit, mes amis.
If you’re ever in a vintage magazine shop with late 70s/early 80s copies of Heavy Metal, check out Lou Stathis’ “Muzick” column. I have Lou to thank for first hipping my teenage self to TD, The Residents, Faust, etc — basically a lot of the ground not addressed in serious detail until Julian Cope covered it years later in Krautrocksampler. Not only did he have pretty wigged-out taste, he wrote some very smart and thorough introductions to the stuff. I still have a hankering to go back and look up some of the Italian prog he raved about, which I could never find in those pre-Forced Exposure days.
BTW next time you see Calimaphone play, ask Benny about The Dream — he’s a huge fan….