The Electronic Thread

Tangerine Dream - "Ricochet" (1975)

This was my first crack at the Berlin School legends' first live album & it's been a lovely experience too. The record is comprised of two lengthy pieces known as "Ricochet" Parts 1 & 2, neither of which appear on any of Tangerine Dream's studio albums. This is mainly because they were put together in the studio from a variety of recordings of improvised sections from shows that took place in England & France, as well as some additional studio recordings. The result is much less ambient than some of the group's earlier post-krautrock era albums like "Zeit" with piano & electric guitar popping up at times. There's a great energy to this material & you can even find some sections that appear to provide a lot of the blueprint for trance in some of the arpeggiated synthesizers & percussive builds included in part 2. "Ricochet" is well worth seeking out if you have a taste for Berlin School or progressive electronic music in general, even if the themes are a little less obvious due to the experimental nature of the performances.

For fans of Klaus Schulze, Edgar Froese & Redshift.

4/5

I love that album, it is one of the first TD albums I bought, alongside my favourite Rubycon. I was a massive fan of the band back in the 70's and I was lucky enough to catch them live at Manchester Apollo when they were touring their Cyclone album. They had an awesome laser show that really suited their music and made for quite a trippy experience. For all the iterarions of the band since, I think the Froese, Franke, Baumann trio provided the pinnacle of the band's material.