Tangerine Dream – Alpha Centauri

#TangerineDreamTuesday Week 2: ALPHA CENTAURI.

Tangerine Dream - in space!! The Pink Years continue with TD's second album, which takes on decidedly more cosmic overtones than its predecessor. But first...

Enter: Christopher Franke. With Schulze and later Schintzler departing, the 17-year-old drummer s the group - and his collaboration with Froese will become TD's backbone over the next two decades. They are ed by organist Steve Schroyder, who returns as a guest musician on Zeit.

The album begins with "Sunrise In The Third System": tinkling keys, and the return of a swelling organ. But unlike the first album, no guitar freakout is waiting to strike; instead the track is content to wander, and shifts seamlessly into "...Comas Sola", which continues the grandiose organ sound amidst space effects and, eventually, a psychedelic percussion assault courtesy of Franke. Unlike the previous album, the flute also appears to be behaving itself this time! The final track is a 22-minute behemoth named "Alpha Centauri", their longest track to date and a triumph of longform ambience, an aural representation of the vastness - and loneliness - of space. (A special highlight: when the flute drops out in the last four minutes, and the eerie choir takes over.) Longer tracks will become a mainstay for TD over the next few years, and it all starts here.

Finally a mention for Monique Froese, who begins contributing to TD's album artwork and design with this album. Suffice to say, it looks amazing. Every one of TD's album covers in the Pink and Virgin years still stand up today - and many remain iconic! - all thanks to her artistic skill. Next week, the deep space journey continues with 1972's Zeit... but before that, there's an important single to cover first! And ing Edgar Froese and Chris Franke - an important band member to introduce, too...

I realize this is a nearly 50 year old recording, but I feel it needs to be pointed out that the very poor production here works as a real detriment...Zeit, just one year later, sounds infinitely (no pun intended) better by comparison. There are a lot of great ideas heard here (and understand that it still has its pleasures), but the production is so unbearably thin that it just robs it of most of its power. Consequently, it isn't very much fun to actually listen to....Start with Zeit and go from there!