TANGERINE DREAM: Booster VI (2015)

“Booster VI is a fair compilation that has the defects of its qualities and with a possible insight of what we could expect from TD next”

CD I 69:20

1 Convention of the 24 9:26

2 Asheville Sunrise 8:35

3 Ancient Powerplant 4:28

4 Season of the Birds 5:29

5 Finnegans Excessive Wake 8:14

6 Sahara Storm 5:15

7 The Velvet Meridian 6:11

8 Sphinx Red Lightning 4:57

9 Dream Catcher 7:02

10 Twilight in Abidjan 4:53

11 Agony of Suspense 6:03

12 Sibirian Lights 4:02

CD II| 75:23

1 Betrayal 2013 (Sorcerer Theme) 6:32

2 Weird Village 3:25

3 The Warring Forces of the Twins 4:33

4 The Crystal Ship 5:30

5 Rain Forest 2:28

6 The Dangerous Mile 5:44

7 Mothers of Rain 5:16

8 Pier 54 2013 5:41

9 Madagascar 6:31

10 Voices from a Common Land 4:09

11 Marrakesh 2013 8:15

12 The Silver Seal 3:10

13 Ghazal 5:10

14 Tutankhama 5 :30

15 Puer Natus Est Nobis 3:17

Eastgate 064

(2CD /DDL 144:43) (V.F.)

(Electronic Rock, EM, Soundtracks)

Ah... the very beautiful universe filled with Edgar Froese's controversies. I like the Booster series. I sincerely think that it's a good compilation and a great way to enter into so diversified music world of Tangerine Dream, with a very emperor glance on the various phases of the impressive career of Edgar's band. Proof? This BOOSTER VI spreads its sonic charms from Sorcerer to One Night in Africa, while passing by The Keep and Optical Race and taking out a surprises from Ça Va - Ça Marche - Ça Ira Encore and Transsiberia. Well...Yes there are 10 new titles. Ten new!? Ah, a first controversy … In fact, there are only 6 new compositions, with 4 strong ones by the way. Among the 10 new tracks identified by the Eastgate label, 2 are Froesentized ones, one is an interesting orchestral version Sorcerer Theme (Betrayal 2013) and a Quaeschningized version of Puer Natus Est Nobis which whipped up the ire of certain fans around social networks. Other controversy? A very lazy remix of the boiling Tutankhama which demonstrates the same problem in the mixing as that appearing on Ça Va - Ça Marche - Ça Ira Encore and the compilation Tang-Go. That does not do really serious! Well, there are about 20 other goodies on the compilation among which some very beautiful surprises, things that we like to rehear and others that should have stayed in the anonymity. But all in all, this BOOSTER VI thing is a very pleasant compilation.

At the level of new music that is good to re-hear let me quote Convention of the 24, from the Plays Tangerine Dream album, Ancient Powerplant, Weird Village, Voices from a Common Land and The Silver Seal from the album The Keep. Were they remodeled? Remixed? It's not that obvious. It seems to me that it sounds slightly different. I hear new pads here and there, where it seems to me that there was not. But it's also could be just the strength of the sound that was amplified. But the most important thing is it's always pleasant to hear this great stuff. Asheville Sunrise is my first beautiful surprise. Pulled out from the Knights of Asheville live album, the ambience here is quite mysterious with chthonian choirs, layers and tears of synth as well as lamentations of guitar which float such as metallic spectres on a rhythmic motif knotted with sequences among which the beatings and the irregular debits tune their arrhythmic dances in the resonances of pulsations and heavy percussions. A beautiful dark and mysterious track. There are also Finnegans Excessive Wake and The Warring Forces of the Twins. But we don't really miss these because Finnegans Wake was released in 2011. I also like re-hearing this modified part of Sphinx Lightning in Sphinx Red Lightning. A small rebel of Transsiberia? Why not with the soft ballad which is Sibirian Lights? Mothers of Rain ? How not to recall of it and not like it? And the too underestimated Rain Forest from Sorcerer? Very good and especially very appropriate to rediscover it some 35 years farther. On the other hand, I would not mind if we haven't had to hear again Ghazal, from Optical Race as well as Sahara Storm, Twilight in Abidjan and Madagascar; three tracks out of One Night in Africa whom is too recent. Unless we try to boost its sales, but it's not with these tracks that it's going to help. Rain Prayer would have been a better target. At the level of the novelties now? Ah … There are some nice candies here.

I like Season of the Birds. The rhythm and the dark ambiences, and what a beautiful sequencing pattern, have nothing to envy the big titles of TD. We remove these so lifeless choirs and we plunge in the Flashpoint years, just like Dream Catcher and its nervous sequences which skip ardently in the fluty drizzle of a synth which also abounds of these annoying infantile choirs. I also like the slow rhythm and the bewitching ambiences of The Velvet Meridian. Very good! One would say a mixture of the melancholic atmospheres of Atomic Seasons and of Sonic Poem Series' supernatural moods. I listen to and I am always bewitched. Seriously, this is a very big TD track. More black, more intense with a sonic motif very near the kind of horror movie and with a slower tempo but more punchy, Agony of Suspense is also a very pleasant surprise which is poured into the same mold as the last ones from the SPS. The Dangerous Mile wants to go on the same paths, but he becomes short of breath and colors. The last new track is The Crystal Ship. It might be new to the world of TD but not for the one of rock because it's a version of a The Doors track that Thorsten sang during the North American tour of 2012. Do we smell here the basis of a new chapter of Under Cover? Now there are the false novelties. Remixes of Betrayal 2013 (Sorcerer Theme), Pier 54 and Marrakesh. Nothing to write to her mom, especially that I didn't like Pier 54, and Marrakesh never felt good between my ears. But Betrayal 2013 (Sorcerer Theme) takes a very orchestral form. Not bad at all! I like it and it gives another rather interesting dimension to it, especially with the sequencing pattern which is clearly wilder here. Does grandpa Froese reserves us a great surprise with the music of TD played with a symphony orchestra or mixed with symphonic arrangements? That would be a blast! I wrote about Tutankhama on top of the review. I have nothing more to add. Now Puer Natus Est Nobis! This new version of Gloria (The Keep) made enormously chatter in the circles of Tangerine Dream. Some see a kind of sacrilege there. Desecration? I find that the idea to replace the artificial choirs by real voices is rather interesting. In fact, the whole of it sounds quite well. Even more moving. Except that there is no beginning. No intro! Thorsten Quaeschning takes a portion of Gloria, either the middle, and makes of it a more ambient track. A more ethereal track. It's not bad. I read that there is a flaw, a mixing error on it. My ears didn't detect it!

All in all, BOOSTER VI is a fair compilation that has the defects of its qualities. By travelling at so random way through his ages, Tangerine Dream gives to his new fans what the old ones, whom I am, appreciate least. And the opposite applies. I am very curious further to the remixes of Sorcerer Theme and Puer Natus Est Nobis. And with Thorsten Quaeschning, I say to myself that the future of Tangerine Dream is between good hands.

Sylvain Lupari (March 13th, 2014) ***½**

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