Tangerine Dream Rubycon CD

Tangerine Dream: Edgar Froese (guitar, Mellotron, organ, synthesizer, gong); Peter Baumann (piano, electric piano, prepared piano, organ, synthesizer); Chris Franke (prepared piano, organ, synthesizer, gong).
Recorded at The Manor, Shipton On Cherwell, England in January 1975.
Composers: Christopher Franke; Edgar Froese; Peter Baumann.
Personnel: Edgar Froese (guitar, organ, Mellotron, keyboards, synthesizer, gong); Peter Baumann (piano, electric piano, organ, keyboards, synthesizer, ARP synthesizer); Christopher Franke (piano, organ, synthesizer, Moog synthesizer, gong).
Recording information: The Manor, Shipton On Cherwell (01/1975).
Photographer: Monique Froese.
Unknown Contributor Role: Christopher Franke.
Arrangers: Christopher Franke; Edgar Froese; Peter Baumann.
The members of Tangerine Dream continued to hone their craft as pioneers of the early days of electronica, and the mid-'70s proved to be a time of prosperity and musical growth for the trio of Chris Franke, early member Peter Baumann, and permanent frontman Edgar Froese. The three of them had been delivering mysterious space records on a regular basis, and their growing confidence with early synthesizers (the best that money could buy at the time) made them virtuosos of the genre, even as they kept things organic and unpredictable with gongs, prepared piano, and electric guitar. Rubycon has aged gracefully for the most part, making it a solid companion (and follow-up) to their 1974 album, Phaedra. The somewhat dated palette of sounds here never overshadow the mood: eerie psychedelia without the paisleys -- Pink Floyd without the rock. "Rubycon, Pt. 1" ebbs and flows through tense washes of echo and Mellotron choirs, as primitive sequencer lines bubble to the surface. "Pt. 2" opens in a wonderfully haunted way, like air-raid sirens at the lowest possible pitch, joined in unison by several male voices (someone in the band must have heard György Ligeti's work for 2001). Rising out of the murkiness, the synthesizer arpeggios return to drive things along, and Froese weaves his backwards-recorded guitar through the web without really calling too much attention to himself. The piece evolves through varying degrees of tension, takes a pit stop on the shoreline of some faraway beach, then ever so gradually unravels a cluster of free-form strings and flutes. The rest are vapors, your ears are sweating under your headphones, and the smoke has cleared from your bedroom. This is a satisfying ambient record from the pre-ambient era, too dark for meditation, and too good to be forgotten. ~ Glenn Swan
RUBYCON is an undisputed classic in the vast Tangerine Dream canon, referenced by many of the new electronica generation. But at the time of its creation, Edgar Froese, Chris Franke, and Peter Baumann were themselves young men experimenting with technology.
RUBYCON is split into two sections, both of which offer the band's trademark mix of ululating sequencers, ghostly synthetic twilight, and mysterious electronic effects. Part One begins with intergalactic whispers, before coalescing into one of the Dream's most uniquely designed rhythm patterns. Part Two moves the sequencers' BPMs up a notch, matching them with whistling electronics and howling, deep space atmospheres. Truly astonishing stuff, and essential to anyone interested in the advancement of both electronic music and Krautrock in general.Q (5/95, p.134) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...[a] remarkable achievement, given the then fledgling nature of synthesizer technology and the leading role therefore thrust upon the unwieldy and limited Mellotron..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.153) - "RUBYCON is the zenith of the band's exploration of ever-shifting synthesized textures and rhythmic layers, with sounds adrift in endless space of echoing through vast subterranean caverns."