First Listens

[redziller]

Do you recall your first hearings? For early purchases I can picture the first time the needle dropped (or cassette played for Tangram) and there's a faint memory of how it sounded the first time. But it's vivid listening to FM & Stratosfear at my grandparents' as I had no record player. Being told off for humming along to Metamorphic Rocks and later 3AM on my own just staring at the inside of the gatefold. EIMP at a mate's house in Manchester. Zeit and wondering when the bleein sequences would kick in.

I can almost grasp the sense of discovery and recapture how it felt the first time not knowing what would follow but it's fleeting.

Can't do it for more recent purchases, I guess that's just a function of age and how much more significant those early memories were, finally hearing music that was so different and yet felt like home.

Sorry - having a soppy moment!

[Steve C]

My first listen was in 1976 when Virgin released Zeit, Alpha Centauri and Atem. I bought Zeit on the basis of a local newspaper review and was absolutely stunned at icy beauty of this new music. I bought everything else which they had released immediately and my all time favourite album remains the magnificent Ricochet.

Good post Redziller, thanks for bringing back memories.

[epsilon75]

I had hardly got into my teenage years in 77/78 and had been listening to heavy rock and the new wave/punk scene which had swept the UK. I was at a mates house with a group of lads who were all 4 to 5 years older than me, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath were the order of the day. One of the guys had brought the "Rubycon" album to the house, and put it on, everyone just sat there, and "what the hell is this" the other lads asked. It was a big difference from DP and BS, but the whole of side one was allowed to play, and from that first listen, I was hooked. I had only heard bits of electronic music before this, namely Kraftwerk's Autobahn, and Jarre's Oxygene and Equinoxe, but this 17 minutes of Rubycon was like nothing on Earth, I just had to have this album. I saved up my money from my newspaper round, and bought it, on listening to the whole album, I was even more hooked, and today the "mighty" Rubycon remains my favorite album from any genre of music, still sounds incredible to this day. 35+ years on, I am still in love with Tangerine Dream, and they have given me more listening pleasure,than any other music act on Earth. Thank you for this thread Peter, and bringing back some golden and happy memories

[redziller]

I never tire of these tales

On a similar note I can only recall snatches of early gigs sadly. We're lucky to have had the tree and the top notch DVDs of current times but again there was such a sense of wonder at a gig where nearly most of the material was new. Hey ho - the joys of youth

[Steve C]

I'm on a roll now !

I remember vividly placing the stylus on Edgar's record Epsilon in Malaysian Pale back in 76 and feeling the hairs rise on the back of my neck as the Mellotron flute theme soared majestically. Wonderful, wonderful stuff.

First concert was the Cyclone tour of 78 at Newcastle. The music after Baumann and pre Schmoelling, whilst successful (in my view) on record, just did not gel in a live setting and I left disappointed. They more than made up for it in the following years with fantastic live shows in 80, 81 and 82 showing the band at the height of their powers. It was a privilege to be there.

[rigel]

I'm on a roll now !

I remember vividly placing the stylus on Edgar's record Epsilon in Malaysian Pale back in 76 and feeling the hairs rise on the back of my neck as the Mellotron flute theme soared majestically. Wonderful, wonderful stuff.

First concert was the Cyclone tour of 78 at Newcastle. The music after Baumann and pre Schmoelling, whilst successful (in my view) on record, just did not gel in a live setting and I left disappointed. They more than made up for it in the following years with fantastic live shows in 80, 81 and 82 showing the band at the height of their powers. It was a privilege to be there.

I'm jealous! I would have loved to have seen the Logos tour, for example. Anyway, I got into Tangerine Dream at the start of 1988. I didn't see them live until October 1990, when I attended both shows at the Hammersmith Odeon! I remember being in heaven when they played a live version of Gaudi Park...wow.

My first listens were the three albums my big brother had: Stratosfear, Force Majeure and Thief. All on vinyl. Then lots of trips to the big Virgin megastore on Oxford Street to buy up the whole back catalogue. I recall the summer of 1988 fondly, and loving the new studio album, Optical Race. Plus Schmoelling's wonderful The Zoo of Tranquillity which came out at round the same time.

I should say though that I believe that my first listen to TD, literally speaking, would have been when I watched Firestarter on home video a few years before!

[tdream4ever]

Sorcerer

[redziller]

Sorcerer -£3.49 IIRC from Woolworths at Rose Hill, Surrey. A very quick hit. Being a kid, looking for patterns I noted the longest track, Abyss was comparable to CBF so wondered if it might be similar (I was only 13) what a delight though - could really picture a descent into Dantesque depths. I think Vengeance was a favourite then, with very direct appeal. I studied the prose at the back as I listened but concluded it was a bit silly. And when it finished with Betrayal, which the speakers couldn't cope with, on it went again and again... reminding of white suns eclipsing oceans of stars shrieking through the midnight dawn. Never ending. Without warning... It reads better now, like a text description of the studio album cover it didn't get. Now there's a TDOC compo!

[td fan]

Sorcerer

Same here....Sorcerer, my uncle's LP, age 12, first track was "Main title"...It scared me at first, but after I turned LP I found Grind, and Betrayal...The rest is history

[Jon]

Late May 1991, some friends and me (I was 16) had a "music contest", playing different music for each other. A mate played Le Parc - LA Streethawk, - WOW! - and it turned out he had bought the CD The Best Of TD. I was hooked.

I remember having read about TD in a review of the first Enigma album in early 1991.

[tdream4ever]

Sorcerer

Same here....Sorcerer, my uncle's LP, age 12, first track was "Main title"...It scared me at first, but after I turned LP I found Grind, and Betrayal...The rest is history

was into Floyd, ELP, Yes, LZ and others at the time. Working at a hospital a co worker lent me his album Sorcerer. I took it home and played the hell out of it for three weeks. Wore it out. Had to go to the record shop and buy two Sorcerer albums. One for the co worker and one for me. The rest is "history".

[GlynRichards]

I stumbled across TD completely by fluke. I saw the Synthetiseur picture CD box set in Virgin Megastore - Nottingham and really liked the box. I Knew nothing about what was inside although I had a few synths so I suspect the name attracted me too. That would date me to be a follower from 1990, I guess.

[redziller]

I was orginally thinking about how our experience of a particular piece changes over time from our first listen but it's great hearing how fans got hooked.

One of the biggest surprises on a later listen was Bent Cold Sidewalk - it was also how I discovered my record player only played one channel. When I played it on my grandpa's unit, suddenly there was extra flute that had been panned hard so I hadn't heard it first off.

It really spooked me out!

[TDludo]

If I remember correctly, my first listen of Tangerine Dream was in 1983 with Rubycon, but not on vinyl or tape. It was the soundtrack of a short experimental movie made by a friend of my mother... Very intrigued, I asked her about that strange music and she showed me her Rubycon LP. I listened to it and was really fascinated, so I began searching for other TD records. The next one was Ricochet...

[bigmoog]

The first time one hears tangerine dream...it etches itself into thy psyche, moulding itself into your very self....subsequent listening reveals layers, nuance and sheer stupendous magick.

I salute the fantastic ability of the music to transend all commentary and just....be.


Tangerine.....dream