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Music : Phaedra
1 2 3
Rating: 
- pivotal moment in electronic music
The fledgling Virgin label signed two important German bands in the early 70s: Faust and Tangerine Dream. First, they released The Faust Tapes album, a collection of studio experiments and outtakes, in a Bridget Riley sleeve for only 50p (the price of a single in those days: very tempting to a schoolboy prog-rocker, I can tell you). Then along came Phaedra. Both showed aspects of so-called "krautrock" that were very different to the melodic pop of Kraftwerk, who were enjoying their 15 minutes of fame at that time courtesy of their "Autobahn" single riding high in the charts. Phaedra and TFT combined electronics (largely homemade, in Faust's case) with white noise, tape effects and elements of musique concrete, to often disconcerting and at times frightening effect. The passing years have been kind to TD and they are rightly revered as pioneers in sequencer-driven electronic music whose influence has been widely felt. Future Sound of London's "Lifeforms" in particular, and also Orbital, show an obvious debt. Chris Franke got a unique sound out of his Moog that, once sequenced up, sounded like nothing else at the time (with the exception perhaps of some of Isao Tomita's reinterpretations of Debussy), and providing the glacial minimalist rhytmns that underpin the classic TD trilogy of Phaedra, Rubycon and Ricochet. In fact, the nearest I heard was years later on the 12" mix of ex-Propaganda singer Claudia Brucken's "Kiss Like Ether": a bautiful synthesized opening with washes of mellotron only spoiled by the arrival of some rather clumpy beats.
But back to Phaedra. The title track clocks in at 17 minutes and has truly stood the test of time. What is shocking 30 years on is the sheer pace of it. Instruments and sounds come and go swiftly, all played out over Franke's sequencers and short mellotron bursts. There's an intensity and precision to it that makes me think of Pink Floyd's "On the Run" from their "Dark Side of the Moon" album the year before, where a scampering synthesiser rhythmn dominated the entire song, overlaid by a collage of odd voices and stranger sounds. But Phaedra is a more varied beast. Out of abstract and etherial sounds come mellotron and synth lines that rapidly mutate into a machine-like humming, before a classic Franke line comes through to dominate proceedings. Already by the three minute mark a crescendo is reached, with a simple stereo-panning and heavily phased mellotron theme that is quickly replaced by a bass guitar riff before Franke's main sequencer line comes in to dominate proceedings. It races ahead with more rhythms, mellotron and other effects piling on top of one another, until it spectacularly crashes and burns (intentionally, or was this the Moog going out of tune as another reviewer suggested?) around the 10 minute mark. we're then into the wind-down, starting with an eerie soundscape played on what sounds like an old Farfisa organ. Echoing electronic bird calls and lapping waves evoke some alien wildnerness, only to be replaced by a cold mellotron coda overlaid with flute and organ sounds for the final five minutes or so.
So why four stars? Next track "Mysterious semblance.." has not aged well, in my opinion. It's long (about 11 mins), saddled with a pretentious Prog title and is largely mellotron driven. In fact, it recalls the worst of that era when mellotron meant an "orchestra in a box" to many musicians and a chance to impart a quasi-classical feel to a song. Fans of Barclay James Harvest or Genesis and their "Watcher of the Skies" will probably disagree, but mellotron is best used here on the title track, peeking out of the rhythms now and then, or supplying the complete change of pace and style that marks the final third of the piece. "Visionary" is OK but unremarkable: more robust sequencer lines, but it lacks all the things that make the title track so extraordinary. But "Sequent C' is a great 3 minute coda to the album, a series of beautiful looped and overdubbed melancholic flute lines. It makes me recall "Coelacanth" from Shriekback's Oil and Gold album: gloomy, dark and brooding. All in all though, an important album and an influential one, not just to others but also to TD themselves. Elements of composition on Phaedra are re-worked to great effect on the superb "Rubycon" parts 1 and 2 the following year, where Franke's hypnotic sequencer lines were often given centre stage and allowed to dominate proceedings unhindered at times.
A gripe on the packaging though: as someone else said, where are the paintings that originally graced the gatefold sleeve? A fuller history of the band plus more photos to accompany these Virgin remasters would have been nice.
Rating:
- The synthesiser comes of age!
Like the excellent review written by DSR below, and being of the same age, Phaedra was the album that started it all for me too - but for slightly different reasons!
Being very interested in electronics and audio, I was very keen on all aspects of synthesised music; and at the time I was getting very frustrated with the way synthesisers were being very much under-used merely to create cover versions of well-known pop/easy listening tracks. Wendy (Walter) Carlos's legendary album "Switched-On Bach" was a step in the right direction, but to me, the synthesiser had yet to make its mark and command the respect it was due.
Tangerine Dream's Phaedra changed all that!! Quite simply, the first time I heard it played on Alan Freeman's legendary Saturday afternoon radio show in June 1974, it just blew me away!
For the first time I was hearing the synthesiser creating a sound and genre of music (now known as "Berlin School") that no other musical instrument or group of instruments could possibly create. The synthesiser had finally arrived - and it was creating something new, exciting - and unique! And with this album Tangerine Dream proved just what a powerful and versatile instrument the synthesiser could be. Did Bob Moog ever envisage this style of music when he created the Moog Synthesiser I wonder?
I was just mesmerised by the way all these sounds and pulsating sequences and rhythms were woven together to create not just a musical but an emotional experience as well! If you do buy the album (and I strongly recommend doing so), listen to it through headphones and let the Phaedra track take your imagination on a journey of fantasy.
I won't do a review of the various tracks on the album as DSR has already done an excellent one, but what I'll add by way of conclusion is to say that far from being a purely 1970s phenomenon and by now long dead and buried, both Tangerine Dream and the Berlin School genre are still very much alive and "sequencing". How many "pop" groups and genres of music can claim to still being active nearly 40 years after they were first formed? Not many!!
Do a web search for "Berlin School music" and see what you find!
Rating:
- Lava Lamps At The Ready!!!
Tangerine Dream were something of an oddity when they first broke the mainstream in 1974. The albums the band had made in their native Germany between 1969 and 1973 were very much improvised, freeform efforts. Other than the quite compelling 'Alpha Centauri', the music Tangerine Dream were making was often unlistenable and hard to stomach.
Thanks to DJ John Peel, who had become quite a fan, people in the UK were getting to hear the bands music on his radio show, and an underground fan base was born in this country. Once Richard Branson signed the group to his Virgin label, Tangerine Dream were able to reach a much larger audience, and with it being the 1970s, bands of a more experimental nature always had a chance of success.
'Phaedra' was the group's first effort under the Virgin banner and you have to admire the boldness of Edgar Froese and co for making an album like this on their mainstream debut. The title track shows the band taking their improvisational ideology and with the use of sequencers, give the music a bit more rhythm. Then they add lots of Mellotron and ultimately create twenty minutes of moody, atmospheric 'soundscapism'. Musically, there isn't much going on, but the odd injection of melody here and there makes 'Phaedra' an absorbing listen.
The second 'side' of the album shows the band experimenting with shorter tracks.
'Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares' is a lush, dreamy piece that conjures up the mental image of a vast, otherworldly coastline. It also wouldn't sound out of place on Jean Michel Jarre's 'Oxygene'.
'Movements Of A Visionary' sees Chris Franke go to work on the sequencers once again and 'Sequent C' provides a low key, atmospheric finale to a quite fascinating album.
There is nothing remotely commercial about 'Phaedra' and the production seems slightly muffled at times. However, there's a certain originality and uniqueness about this record and it is regarded as a classic. Having said that though, I would strongly advise people thinking of getting into 1970s Tangerine Dream to start with either 'Ricochet', 'Stratosfear' or the quite brilliant 'Force Majeure' before you explore this era of the band.
'Phaedra' is the kind of album best enjoyed in a college/university dormitory with the joss sticks going, the lava lamp switched on and a joint lit.
Rating: - Music that melts
This album was sold as 'Music That Melts' when it first came out. I remember the adverts in the New Musical Express with a record that had been heated and melted. It wasn't this album that they used in the pictures though. That one had about six or seven tracks on one side, not the four tracks on two sides of Phaedra (where did I put my anorak?). I bought it within days of its release. Wow! I found myself regularly lying in a darkened bedroom being carried away on waves of sound. This is not 'ambient' music designed to be played in the background while you do something else. You should devote yourself to listening to it while it is playing. See if you get carried away too.
Rating: - This is the one that started it all for me........
It's not an exaggeration to say that this one particular album changed my life. I distinctly remember the first time I ever heard it as a naive seventeen year old, shortly after release and the massive effect it had on me as those ethereal sounds first coalesced between and around the speakers. I love it with a passion and play it regularly to this day, finding new aspects of the instrumentation and arrangements to enjoy each time. The sounds are spontaneous and send an icy shiver down ones back, unlike the warmer feel of the followup, the mighty "Rubycon."
Up to the release of Phaedra, I'd had an interest of popular Electronic Music, having been brought up on the likes of the original Doctor Who theme, Wendy (Walter) Carlos, Barry Gray's amazing "spacey" soundtracks and effects for Gerry Anderson's classic TV series' especially the supremely "spacey" ending music of "UFO" and, a little later, TONTO's Expanding Headband, a vintage masterpiece of an album.
None of these aforementioned records/soundtracks prepared me for the first time I heard this album. The other worldly soundscapes, those sequencer rhythms swirling and almost lost in a sea of reverb, getting in tune, building to a climax and then followed by a quieter, more meditative section, completely blew my mind. The other tracks were awesome too, if not *quite* as mind blowing as the title track, although recently I've come to appreciate their worth much more fully, especially "Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares." The final two tracks, "Movements Of A Visionary" and the awsome "Sequent c" sum up TD of this period for me, the delicate sequencing in the former track and the l-o-n-g delays on the flute on the latter final track.
One thing that comes to mind regarding this record is that it would be almost impossible to re-create this again either live, or in the studio. A couple of acts have had a go (not forgetting the awful - in my opinion - Phaedra 2005 by TD's own Edgar Froese), but NOTHING equals the original!
If you have ANY interest in electronically derived music, I'd recommend this CD without hesitation. It was a benchmark in its day and it's fair to say that all of TD's early to mid seventies output (the Peter Baumann years in fan-speak) basically created a whole new genre (not forgetting ex-band member Klaus Schulze, who was also creating lengthy soundscapes with similar instruments to different effect).
One final thing - most early LP's of this record suffered badly from the mid 1970's oil crisis, resulting in noisy LP pressings and poor quality control. The sound quality was a bit ploddy too (I've several LP copies still). The current SBM CD issue sounds very much better to me and it's now possible to play this loudly without the sound muddying up... The end of the title track has also been put at the beginning of the second track for some reason - not a problem if the album is played all the way through!
This album is so important to me, I've had several goes at re-writing this review and cannot quite get across what I wish to say. By today's standards these compositions STILL sound as fresh as if they were done last week. The sound is now better than ever, although a little "dulled" compared to the crisp, squeaky clean sounds of TD's current releases (please give "Madcaps Flaming Duty" and the "Nagasaki" series a few plays to hear what they're doing today)...
- pivotal moment in electronic musicThe fledgling Virgin label signed two important German bands in the early 70s: Faust and Tangerine Dream. First, they released The Faust Tapes album, a collection of studio experiments and outtakes, in a Bridget Riley sleeve for only 50p (the price of a single in those days: very tempting to a schoolboy prog-rocker, I can tell you). Then along came Phaedra. Both showed aspects of so-called "krautrock" that were very different to the melodic pop of Kraftwerk, who were enjoying their 15 minutes of fame at that time courtesy of their "Autobahn" single riding high in the charts. Phaedra and TFT combined electronics (largely homemade, in Faust's case) with white noise, tape effects and elements of musique concrete, to often disconcerting and at times frightening effect. The passing years have been kind to TD and they are rightly revered as pioneers in sequencer-driven electronic music whose influence has been widely felt. Future Sound of London's "Lifeforms" in particular, and also Orbital, show an obvious debt. Chris Franke got a unique sound out of his Moog that, once sequenced up, sounded like nothing else at the time (with the exception perhaps of some of Isao Tomita's reinterpretations of Debussy), and providing the glacial minimalist rhytmns that underpin the classic TD trilogy of Phaedra, Rubycon and Ricochet. In fact, the nearest I heard was years later on the 12" mix of ex-Propaganda singer Claudia Brucken's "Kiss Like Ether": a bautiful synthesized opening with washes of mellotron only spoiled by the arrival of some rather clumpy beats.
But back to Phaedra. The title track clocks in at 17 minutes and has truly stood the test of time. What is shocking 30 years on is the sheer pace of it. Instruments and sounds come and go swiftly, all played out over Franke's sequencers and short mellotron bursts. There's an intensity and precision to it that makes me think of Pink Floyd's "On the Run" from their "Dark Side of the Moon" album the year before, where a scampering synthesiser rhythmn dominated the entire song, overlaid by a collage of odd voices and stranger sounds. But Phaedra is a more varied beast. Out of abstract and etherial sounds come mellotron and synth lines that rapidly mutate into a machine-like humming, before a classic Franke line comes through to dominate proceedings. Already by the three minute mark a crescendo is reached, with a simple stereo-panning and heavily phased mellotron theme that is quickly replaced by a bass guitar riff before Franke's main sequencer line comes in to dominate proceedings. It races ahead with more rhythms, mellotron and other effects piling on top of one another, until it spectacularly crashes and burns (intentionally, or was this the Moog going out of tune as another reviewer suggested?) around the 10 minute mark. we're then into the wind-down, starting with an eerie soundscape played on what sounds like an old Farfisa organ. Echoing electronic bird calls and lapping waves evoke some alien wildnerness, only to be replaced by a cold mellotron coda overlaid with flute and organ sounds for the final five minutes or so.
So why four stars? Next track "Mysterious semblance.." has not aged well, in my opinion. It's long (about 11 mins), saddled with a pretentious Prog title and is largely mellotron driven. In fact, it recalls the worst of that era when mellotron meant an "orchestra in a box" to many musicians and a chance to impart a quasi-classical feel to a song. Fans of Barclay James Harvest or Genesis and their "Watcher of the Skies" will probably disagree, but mellotron is best used here on the title track, peeking out of the rhythms now and then, or supplying the complete change of pace and style that marks the final third of the piece. "Visionary" is OK but unremarkable: more robust sequencer lines, but it lacks all the things that make the title track so extraordinary. But "Sequent C' is a great 3 minute coda to the album, a series of beautiful looped and overdubbed melancholic flute lines. It makes me recall "Coelacanth" from Shriekback's Oil and Gold album: gloomy, dark and brooding. All in all though, an important album and an influential one, not just to others but also to TD themselves. Elements of composition on Phaedra are re-worked to great effect on the superb "Rubycon" parts 1 and 2 the following year, where Franke's hypnotic sequencer lines were often given centre stage and allowed to dominate proceedings unhindered at times.
A gripe on the packaging though: as someone else said, where are the paintings that originally graced the gatefold sleeve? A fuller history of the band plus more photos to accompany these Virgin remasters would have been nice.
Rating:
- The synthesiser comes of age!Like the excellent review written by DSR below, and being of the same age, Phaedra was the album that started it all for me too - but for slightly different reasons!
Being very interested in electronics and audio, I was very keen on all aspects of synthesised music; and at the time I was getting very frustrated with the way synthesisers were being very much under-used merely to create cover versions of well-known pop/easy listening tracks. Wendy (Walter) Carlos's legendary album "Switched-On Bach" was a step in the right direction, but to me, the synthesiser had yet to make its mark and command the respect it was due.
Tangerine Dream's Phaedra changed all that!! Quite simply, the first time I heard it played on Alan Freeman's legendary Saturday afternoon radio show in June 1974, it just blew me away!
For the first time I was hearing the synthesiser creating a sound and genre of music (now known as "Berlin School") that no other musical instrument or group of instruments could possibly create. The synthesiser had finally arrived - and it was creating something new, exciting - and unique! And with this album Tangerine Dream proved just what a powerful and versatile instrument the synthesiser could be. Did Bob Moog ever envisage this style of music when he created the Moog Synthesiser I wonder?
I was just mesmerised by the way all these sounds and pulsating sequences and rhythms were woven together to create not just a musical but an emotional experience as well! If you do buy the album (and I strongly recommend doing so), listen to it through headphones and let the Phaedra track take your imagination on a journey of fantasy.
I won't do a review of the various tracks on the album as DSR has already done an excellent one, but what I'll add by way of conclusion is to say that far from being a purely 1970s phenomenon and by now long dead and buried, both Tangerine Dream and the Berlin School genre are still very much alive and "sequencing". How many "pop" groups and genres of music can claim to still being active nearly 40 years after they were first formed? Not many!!
Do a web search for "Berlin School music" and see what you find!
Rating:
- Lava Lamps At The Ready!!!Tangerine Dream were something of an oddity when they first broke the mainstream in 1974. The albums the band had made in their native Germany between 1969 and 1973 were very much improvised, freeform efforts. Other than the quite compelling 'Alpha Centauri', the music Tangerine Dream were making was often unlistenable and hard to stomach.
Thanks to DJ John Peel, who had become quite a fan, people in the UK were getting to hear the bands music on his radio show, and an underground fan base was born in this country. Once Richard Branson signed the group to his Virgin label, Tangerine Dream were able to reach a much larger audience, and with it being the 1970s, bands of a more experimental nature always had a chance of success.
'Phaedra' was the group's first effort under the Virgin banner and you have to admire the boldness of Edgar Froese and co for making an album like this on their mainstream debut. The title track shows the band taking their improvisational ideology and with the use of sequencers, give the music a bit more rhythm. Then they add lots of Mellotron and ultimately create twenty minutes of moody, atmospheric 'soundscapism'. Musically, there isn't much going on, but the odd injection of melody here and there makes 'Phaedra' an absorbing listen.
The second 'side' of the album shows the band experimenting with shorter tracks.
'Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares' is a lush, dreamy piece that conjures up the mental image of a vast, otherworldly coastline. It also wouldn't sound out of place on Jean Michel Jarre's 'Oxygene'.
'Movements Of A Visionary' sees Chris Franke go to work on the sequencers once again and 'Sequent C' provides a low key, atmospheric finale to a quite fascinating album.
There is nothing remotely commercial about 'Phaedra' and the production seems slightly muffled at times. However, there's a certain originality and uniqueness about this record and it is regarded as a classic. Having said that though, I would strongly advise people thinking of getting into 1970s Tangerine Dream to start with either 'Ricochet', 'Stratosfear' or the quite brilliant 'Force Majeure' before you explore this era of the band.
'Phaedra' is the kind of album best enjoyed in a college/university dormitory with the joss sticks going, the lava lamp switched on and a joint lit.
Rating:
- Music that meltsThis album was sold as 'Music That Melts' when it first came out. I remember the adverts in the New Musical Express with a record that had been heated and melted. It wasn't this album that they used in the pictures though. That one had about six or seven tracks on one side, not the four tracks on two sides of Phaedra (where did I put my anorak?). I bought it within days of its release. Wow! I found myself regularly lying in a darkened bedroom being carried away on waves of sound. This is not 'ambient' music designed to be played in the background while you do something else. You should devote yourself to listening to it while it is playing. See if you get carried away too.
Rating:
- This is the one that started it all for me........It's not an exaggeration to say that this one particular album changed my life. I distinctly remember the first time I ever heard it as a naive seventeen year old, shortly after release and the massive effect it had on me as those ethereal sounds first coalesced between and around the speakers. I love it with a passion and play it regularly to this day, finding new aspects of the instrumentation and arrangements to enjoy each time. The sounds are spontaneous and send an icy shiver down ones back, unlike the warmer feel of the followup, the mighty "Rubycon."
Up to the release of Phaedra, I'd had an interest of popular Electronic Music, having been brought up on the likes of the original Doctor Who theme, Wendy (Walter) Carlos, Barry Gray's amazing "spacey" soundtracks and effects for Gerry Anderson's classic TV series' especially the supremely "spacey" ending music of "UFO" and, a little later, TONTO's Expanding Headband, a vintage masterpiece of an album.
None of these aforementioned records/soundtracks prepared me for the first time I heard this album. The other worldly soundscapes, those sequencer rhythms swirling and almost lost in a sea of reverb, getting in tune, building to a climax and then followed by a quieter, more meditative section, completely blew my mind. The other tracks were awesome too, if not *quite* as mind blowing as the title track, although recently I've come to appreciate their worth much more fully, especially "Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares." The final two tracks, "Movements Of A Visionary" and the awsome "Sequent c" sum up TD of this period for me, the delicate sequencing in the former track and the l-o-n-g delays on the flute on the latter final track.
One thing that comes to mind regarding this record is that it would be almost impossible to re-create this again either live, or in the studio. A couple of acts have had a go (not forgetting the awful - in my opinion - Phaedra 2005 by TD's own Edgar Froese), but NOTHING equals the original!
If you have ANY interest in electronically derived music, I'd recommend this CD without hesitation. It was a benchmark in its day and it's fair to say that all of TD's early to mid seventies output (the Peter Baumann years in fan-speak) basically created a whole new genre (not forgetting ex-band member Klaus Schulze, who was also creating lengthy soundscapes with similar instruments to different effect).
One final thing - most early LP's of this record suffered badly from the mid 1970's oil crisis, resulting in noisy LP pressings and poor quality control. The sound quality was a bit ploddy too (I've several LP copies still). The current SBM CD issue sounds very much better to me and it's now possible to play this loudly without the sound muddying up... The end of the title track has also been put at the beginning of the second track for some reason - not a problem if the album is played all the way through!
This album is so important to me, I've had several goes at re-writing this review and cannot quite get across what I wish to say. By today's standards these compositions STILL sound as fresh as if they were done last week. The sound is now better than ever, although a little "dulled" compared to the crisp, squeaky clean sounds of TD's current releases (please give "Madcaps Flaming Duty" and the "Nagasaki" series a few plays to hear what they're doing today)...