At the time of his passing, Edgar Froese was working on several pieces of new music and also had decided to take Tangerine Dream back to its pure electronic past and, some would say, glory days. This release is made up of two separate releases, finally brought together to make a cohesive whole as a conceptual idea. This is Tangerine Dream heading back to their cosmic past to reinvent their future.
Intergalactic synths start “Roll The Seven Twice”; then it has that has the kind of sequencing that wouldn’t be out of place on a Cosmic Ground or Node album. The whole track pulses away with such vigour it outdoes much of the new synthwave stuff that’s being produced at the moment. “Granular Blankets” has the sort of rolling synth pattern that would appear on some eighties science fiction film soundtrack. Its melody is both pulsing and lilting at the same time. “It’s Time To Leave When Everyone Is Dancing” has a strong beat and wondrous synth stabs that feel so uplifting that it makes you feel like you want to become the cosmic dancer. Eastern sounds pervade on “Identity Proven Matrix” that hark back a little towards Hyperboria. The track certainly sees you pull towards the elements of travel, with Hoshiko Yamane’s choppy violin adding another element into the percolating brew.
“Non-Locality Destination” has brooding synths holding the piece together as big bass notes keep the track earthbound. A light, breezy synth hovers over the top at times, and again this hints to me as being closer to Tangerine Dream’s eighties sound as the overall patching of the keyboards certainly brings that era’s sound alive. The track also features some stirring guitar playing from Froese, just to remind us how wonderful he was on that instrument, and how he could create beautiful understated passages. “Proton Bonfire” starts with ethereal sounds that bubble away as the sequencer begins to take centre stage for music that catapults you to the edge of the solar system. It’s here that we touch more on the sound of 1970s Tangerine Dream. “Tear Down Grey Skies” has the kind of title that made me think of Blade Runner, and with its sharp electronic beat it certainly wouldn’t be out of place on that soundtrack. The melody is again infectious and has a hint of Stratosfear in its sound. The mood is uplifting, but has that kind of chord change that Klaus Schulze perfected in the seventies, which is no bad thing. “Genesis Of Precious Thoughts” has to be the most typically Tangerine Dream title on the album. Here we have the wonderful expansive sound that Tangerine Dream are known for: we get a slice of the cosmic, but also the kind of rolling sequencer sounds that they do so well.Quantum Key starts where the album left off (if you’re playing them in that order) with “Genesis Of Precious Thoughts”, so there is a certain bleed over of ideas between the two releases. “Electron Bonfire” has some wonderful synth pads that are layered over the top of the ever-pulsing sequencers and the kind of melody that stays in your head for days. Here we see Tangerine Dream hitting more into a synthwave sound, but we also have to remember that without them there probably would be no synthwave in the first place. At time its melody visits the kind of territory that the Yellow Magic Orchestra covered, but this is no bad thing and sits nicely into the overall concept.
Glassy sounds start “Drowning In Universes”, and this certainly has the ambience of staring up at the night sky and looking at the wonders of the Milky Way. Even the sequencing here seems not so in your face as on some of the previous tracks, and is certainly sounds closer to pieces on Encore. The whole piece takes its time with some sweeping string sounds and galactic lead keyboards. The piano is nice touch, adding a slight air of melancholy. As it reaches its conclusion, we are taken off to the outer rim of Saturn’s rings and left hanging there in space for a moment that is quite sublime. “Mirage Of Reality” is a slight piece that is full of mercurial rhythms and a mournful whistling lead synth that plays well over the downbeat chords beneath it.At the end of the day, these two releases are bound to please the old-school Tangerine Dream fans like myself. It’s a fine legacy for Edgar Froese that he mange to tap back into the essence of what made Tangerine Dream such a great band, and one that influenced so many other artists out there. Where the future of TD will be, I can’t guess, but certainly from their recent live performances they are reclaiming that experience that many have borrowed from over the years, and keeping the spirit of Froese alive as he moves towards his change of cosmic address.
-Gary Parsons-
