1973 - 1983

I started getting obsessed w/ Tangerine Dream back in high school, before I ever heard any of their music.   The album covers for RUBYCON and RICOCHET hypnotized me whenever I walked into a record store, and I loved the fact that they did sidelong pieces, just like Pink Floyd.  Unfortunately, my wants always exceeded my financial grasp, so I had to keep putting TD releases on the back burner.  Hearing their work in RISKY BUSINESS finally gave me the kick in the ass I needed.

'73 - '83 are the prime years for me.  Everything before is too muddy and random, everything after too slick and New Age (in absolute worst Yanni sense of the word).  This decade, though, is filled with an amazing amount of quality music; the official studio stuff, the official soundtrack stuff, the official live stuff and the bootlegs - it's all pretty freaktastic.  I have to include GREEN DESERT in this era, even though it was released in '86, since Froese always claimed it was recorded in the early 70s.  And, to give him credit, if any TD song earns comparisons to Floyd, it's the title track off this one.  Pure OBSCURED BY CLOUDS spaced out bliss.

Most of Froese's solo stuff from this era is pretty tasty, too.  Of course, you gotta look for the original stuff and not the re-issues he fucked up decades later by slathering layers of "smooth" keyboards over the top of everything.  Not sure what the hell was up with that......