There is just to much. Just start with some essential stuff from each period.shadow wrote:So I've been thinking about starting to listen to TD for a while now, and since I just came around to Kitaro I thought why not immediately continue. Especially with the collaboration album coming. But what's the best place to start? I've seen their discography and it's huge, and I have only heard a few loose tracks of them.
Should I start at the beginning or should I start at a later and probably more accessible part?
Tangerine Dream's catalog covers three distinct periods:
early 70s:
Experimental stuff, (just like Klaus Schulze in that period): a lot of mellotrons, modular synths and sequencers. Best albums (in my opinion) were Rubycon, Phaedra and Ricochet. The earlier stuff (Zeit, Atem) is less accessible.
80s:
More pop-like stuff. Le Parc, Livemiles and Underwater Sunlight are key albums. Optical Race is probably climax of this period. It's the most happy, uplifting, mainstream pop-like album they ever did.
90s (Melrose years):
Guitars and Saxophones come in. Rockoon is a nice one. A lot of electric guitar there. Turn of the Tides too. This period was more like rock.
At the end of the 90s it became a big chaos. There were remixes (Dream Mixes), a lot of compilations and also remakes (*real* "new master recordings" ) of earlier stuff, rarities and soundtracks and a bunch of fresh music. I really like the very recent Grand Theft Auto V Cinematographic score-CD.