The Virgin Years: 1974-1978 [Box set, Original recording remastered]

In my opinion the Virgin albums by Tangerine Dream Were and still are the ultimate pieces of work for this genre.Stunning music that took you somewhere else.
This superb value for money 3cd set starts with the album Phaedra which was Virgins first worldwide release.The title comes from the Greek myth of Phaedra the daughter of Minos and Ariadne.The second album is Rubycon and this title relates to Julius Caesar and the river Rubycon.A fine piece of work in two parts.We now move to 1975 and the Live album Ricochet from their British And French tours featuring a new piece of music in two parts Riochet Part 1 and 2.Its now 1976 and the release of Stratosfear full of moog and mellotron but also with touches of other instrumentation like accoustic guitar,piano and even mouth organ if you listen carefully.The last recording in this set is 1978 Cyclone.This album featured vocals for the first time from Steve Jolliffe.This album in my opinion is so underated.
As with all the albums above.Turn off the lights and let the music take you away.The packaging is a jewel case with a 6 page booklet.

I have to agree with the other reviewer, the Virgin Years were the pinnacle of Tangerine Dream, and electronic music. This selection is a perfect example of why TD could sell out tours across the globe, with mysterious, inventive, wonderful music. If only they made music like this today, how different things would be.

This is an excellent primer for anyone wanting to take a journey back in time to experience the best of the best, when they were the best!

Tangerine Dream produced some sublime, peerless and futuristic music for the Virgin label, and the period represented here is arguably their peak of artistic achievement. They were once a thrilling, interactive, improvisational, cutting edge 3 piece group of electronic musicians. This of course was a long time ago....the reality of TD today is all too different, unless you need a soundtrack for your corporate video, then E.Froese and son will I'm sure be happy to oblige.

This collection could have gone either way and served a purpose. It could have been a cheap and cheerful introduction to TD newcomers to the music of the classic years, or it could have been an in depth and serious study of the band's Virgin era, with intelligent track selection, insightful sleevenotes and the inclusion of rarities from the Virgin vault to tempt those who are already familiar with the main body of work.

If it was (as it seems) designed as a cheap introductory anthology, designed to wring a few more quid out of the catalogue, then why not double up `Phaedra' with `Rubycon', `Ricochet' with `Stratosfear' and on the third disc instead of `Cyclone' include `Encore' the stunning and inexplicably missing live album which falls within the time frame ? `Cyclone' came with a new line-up, post Peter Baumann, and with vocals, and doesn't really belong in the company of the others. The obvious cut-off point is the end of the `classic' line-up after `Encore'. Who do they get to compile these things, and why are they always so totally clueless ? There are legions of fans out there who would doubtless have done it for nothing. A more accurate title should be `The Virgin Years 1974-78 except 1977 which is missing for no reason'. So...definitive it is certainly not. There are standards being set for reissues by the likes of Esoteric Records, Cuneiform and Fripp/ Wilson's ventures into the King Crimson catalogue, which make efforts like this look like a joke.

What makes this dog's breakfast even worse is the inexplicable and pointless inclusion of 7" single edits masquerading as `rarities'; they are not, they were chopped together in ten minutes by a hatchet man no doubt without the band's involvement for the purposes of radio promo or jukeboxes back in the day and are of no value whatsoever....hell the edits aren't even in time they're that bad. If that wasn't enough, we are then invited to enjoy further `excerpts' from tracks we have just heard in the same collection on the premise that they have been tweaked in some way indiscernible to these ears. This is not only gigantically pointless, but means that the collection cannot even be listened to as a whole work without needless repetition or having to re-programme your CD player.

I really don't understand why Tangerine Dream's legacy is treated so poorly. The Virgin `Definitive Editions' of the mid nineties were a joke, riddled with inaccuracies in track titling and personnel, abysmal sleevenotes, and suffering from some atrocious mastering decisions which made even the original botched CD reissues a more enticing prospect. So whilst the likes of Virgin label mate Mike Oldfield has had his catalogue beautifully re-issued with bonus material, early mixes and in every way definitively, (by another company it has to be said) Tangerine Dream are still falling victim to hacked out, thoughtless affairs like this. At the very least the individual albums deserve to be reissued to today's standards.

Will we ever get to hear the music from `Oedipus Tyrannus' recorded in 1974 between `Phaedra' and `Rubycon' and which would have been perfect here? Will we ever get to hear the magical cathedral concerts they gave in 1975? I suspect that like Tangerine Dream's much talked about (but curiously never utilised) concert archive, it doesn't actually exist. If it does, one hopes someone might take charge of the restoration of this legacy and do it justice, even if none of the original band could care less about what they did when they were young.