j o e

The watershed album for Tangerine Dream was this, their first release for Virgin Records, Phaedra. If Zeit was music recorded on Jupiter, this was music recorded on Pluto: icy, distant, alien. The beginning moments of the title track always manage to bring shivers up my spine, as we are gently blown by a jet stream from up above, until slowly descending down into a mechanical throbbing like something you'd imagine hearing in a mad scientist's lab or in the shadowy corridors of an H.R. Giger painting. Gradually, this throbbing speeds up, until an angelic mellotron choir parts the waters. Soon over this, enter a wavering mellotron string lead, swirling in and out like quicksilver, and in the hands of VCS3 manipulation, almost sounding like a Moog at times. This early climax, perhaps the most incredible section of the title track, then hangs a sharp left turn unexpectedly into a new terrain of pulsing sequencing that would become the band's signature for the remainder of the 1970s. This similarly builds slowly to a peak, before screeching to a halt altogether once it reaches its top limits. Then the listener is left alone on an immense, deserted beach, with only synth-gulls and lonely mellotron to provide companionship. The haunting disorientation of the children's playground in the distance is the icing on the cake. On my remastered CD, this is placed as the beginning of the next track, "Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares," and as I never owned the original LP I assume that's where it should be — but for me it will always be the close of title track. "Mysterious Semblance" is pretty much Froese and one of the all-time classic mellotron tracks: ten minutes of pure, unadultered 'tron beauty. To date, the only other track I've heard yet that equals it as a mellotron showcase is Popol Vuh's "Aguirre." Despite its foreboding title, it is for the most part a soothing, peaceful piece, and one that can't help but evoke the blue and white upper-reaches of the sky, especially with the windy bursts of white noise that augment the mellotron's song. The two remaining tracks, "Movements of a Visionary" and the Baumann-composed, quiet-as-a-whisper "Sequent 'C'" are also quite strong. Phaedra remains Tangerine Dream's most recognized and best-selling album today. Despite this, it also thankfully remains a challenging work to absorb, to the extent that I'm somewhat surprised it enjoyed the commercial success that it apparently did. In any case, we're talking indispensable stuff with this one. With the move to Virgin and improved production, Phaedra represents peak work from this band--a classic of ambient and electronic music that sounds just as great today as it did back then. review by Joe McGlinchey — 6-10-06 —

m a t t

In 1973 Tangerine Dream signed with Virgin Records, recorded Phaedra and embarked on the most commercially successful and critically lauded phase of their existence. What made Phaedra different from Tangerine Dream's earlier albums was the use of the sequencer (the band had used sequencers on their previous recording, Green Desert, but that album was not released until much later), a device that was a crucial component of the band's classic style. Take the sequencer patterns out and what you are left with — spacey phrases produced by Mellotron, organs and synthesizers — isn't tremendously different from what the band had already been doing. With those patterns in place, though, the music takes on a whole different dimension. What had once sounded airy, atmospheric — even free-form — moved with significantly more purpose and drive once locked into that mechanical pulse; by contrast, the passages without sequencers are rendered all the more effective. Nowhere are these new developments more definitively on display than Phaedra's powerhouse title track. Almost as great is "Movements of a Visionary," a piece of similar style that packs in even more of the band's new hi-tech toys. Ironically, though, it's the sequencer-free "Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares" that I think is the album's best. With an unexpectedly moving sense of grace, the piece absolutely perfects the "cosmic cathedral" atmosphere that recurred across the band's earlier records. Phaedra is a landmark album of 1970s electronic music and was also Tangerine Dream's most accessible and "musical" to date. I think that it is the best of the band's first six albums and one of Tangerine Dream's two or three best overall. review by Matt P. — 2-28-07 —