25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
NOT for the serious fan..., February 15, 2001
This review is from: I-Box 1970-90 (Audio CD)
I'm not sure if I can adequately describe how disappointed I was in this box set. There is almost nothing here that will interest serious fans. If my rating were based only on freshness, originality, and new material, I would give it ZERO stars! This set is basically a rehash of the material that exists on the "Tangents" and "Dream Roots" box sets, with some additional songs thrown in from '88-'90. If you have those box sets, DON'T BUY THIS! The 'live' songs sound EXACTLY like the originals. I can't believe this band, who used to play improvised and completely unknown material during concerts, has been reduced to playing live music like they were sitting in the studio. They might as well just put a computer on stage, because it would sound the same. And there is NO CROWD NOISE OR BAND COMMENTS WHATSOEVER! BORING!
Another MAJOR gripe I have is that this box set is supposed to cover all 4 `periods' of TD music. `The Virgin Years' (which produced the best TD music by far) couldn't be more poorly represented. Most fans will agree that "Phaedra", "Rubycon", "Ricochet", "Stratosfear", "Sorcerer", "Force Majeure", "Tangram", and "Thief" are probably the finest albums TD ever released. THERE IS NOT ONE SONG ON HERE FROM ANY OF THESE ALBUMS! Almost all the Virgin material comes from only 3 albums: "Encore", "Logos", and "Hyperboria". PREPOSTEROUS! There must be some contractual issue with Virgin Records. And don't get too excited about CD#6 (Live in Perth). If you have "White Eagle", you've pretty much got the whole concert already.
Lastly, the production and packaging are truly horrible. From the cheap jewel cases and paper-thin slipcase to the complete lack of any detail about the music (date recorded, studio/album session, etc.), this set is really lacking. I wont give it zero stars, because, after all, TD are the kings of electronic music, and there are 3 or 4 decent unreleased songs here. But if you are a serious fan, you've already got all this material. If you are a beginner, you'll be better off trying to find the other 2 box sets.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
How many more times will they try to sell this to us?, October 8, 2002
This review is from: I-Box 1970-90 (Audio CD)
This mammoth 6-CD set claims to be the definitive anthology of Tangerine Dream's formative years, bringing into a single collection representative tracks from an unbroken span of twenty years of the band's output. Never before (we are told) has there been any release featuring music drawn from the whole of this period. Well, folks, the bad news is that there still isn't.
This collection has been assembled by Tangerine Dream's own recording company, TDI (hence the title: the TDI Box - TD i-Box, geddit?) Prior to its appearance (late 2000), therefore, many fans had high hopes for this set. There were also rumours that some previously unreleased material would be included too. As it happens, the rumours were true and there are a number of tracks scattered throughout this collection's staggering 395-minute playing time that even ardent collectors of TD recordings won't already have. But, as for the rest being a testimony to twenty years of groundbreaking music making... well, no, not really.
Sadly, what is actually on offer here is a bizarre assemblage of odds and ends, drawn from various places but mostly culled from Edgar Froese's Eastgate Studio tape collection.
The first three CDs in the set contain some 41 tracks, supposedly covering the band's so-called Pink, Virgin and Blue periods. Almost all of these are, however, taken not from any of the original record releases, but instead from two previous Tangerine Dream re-hashed 'period' anthologies: Castle Music's 1996 "The Dream Roots (Pink - Blue) Collection" and Virgin Records' 1994 box set "Tangents". This music, as many will already be aware, consists of horrendously reworked chunks of classic Tangerine Dream from the Pink and Virgin Years, together with live concert renditions of tracks from the later Blue Years and with some 'rare' Edgar Froese solo tracks thrown in for good measure. (Three extra live tracks of Blue Years music, not included in the earlier Pink - Blue set are also included.) What we have then, is but a sad travesty of Tangerine Dream's glory years, tastelessly butchered and forced into the straitjacket of a later musical ideology.
The pioneering sounds of the 70s' Pink Years, for example, are here all but unrecognisable, buried under masses of late 90s' digital synthesiser wash. The great Virgin Years fare a little better, but once again we have substantial new layers of sound, resulting in a unifying gloss which all but destroys the originality that once made these works so special. The Virgin Years releases are scandalously under-represented here, too. Fortunately, the Blue Years are at least represented by decent live versions of the music of that time, a fact that might at least delay the initial impulse of most established TD fans to drop these first three CDs straight into the trash.
Discs 4 and 5 feature works from the so-called Melrose (Private Music) Years (1987-90). The tracks presented all purport to have been recorded live. Personally, I doubt this claim. I can just and so believe it of most of the tracks on the fourth disc (which sound to have come from a handful of gigs in the late 80s). And a couple from the fifth disc show the distinct signs of the heavier playing style of the (live) Tangerine Dream line-ups of the mid-90s, so I'll accept it of them, too. The rest, though, sound more like original recordings subjected to the same tasteless overdubbing found on the first three discs (albeit to a less annoying degree).
Mixed in amongst the so-called 'live' tracks are six previously unreleased compositions. In total, these amount to some 35 minutes of music. Of these, four are Edgar Froese solo compositions. Of these, 'Storm Seekers' and 'Cool Shibuya' sound like virtually very other Froese solo track of the mid-80s; OK but nothing great. 'Ivory Town' is a more substantial affair, with at least an attempt at structure, while 'Akash Deep' is a longer rambling study with some interesting textures in amongst its seven-odd minutes. The Froese/Haslinger composition 'Longing for Cashba' (which sounds to date from the early years of the Franke-less TD) is probably the best of the new material. 'Iguana' (a live heavy rock number, part-composed by Ralf Wadephul, who joined the Froese/Haslinger duo briefly for the 1988 American "Optical Race" tour) runs it a close second, though (provided you like your TD heavy).
The final disk in this collection contains just a single 45-minute track, titled 'Dream Yards (The Perth Tapes)'. This supposedly comes from a live concert, presumably part of the band's 1984 Australian tour. It starts with about ten minutes of previously unreleased material ('Red Velvet Rooster') before descending into a fairly mundane (and heavily overdubbed) rendition of 'Specific Gravity of Smile' (from the Edgar Froese solo album "Pinnacles") and thence on to more clumsily overdubbed material from "White Eagle". If this disc is indeed drawn from a live performance (and there are reasons to doubt it) it must have been a very lacklustre affair.
Personally, I would regard this collection's subtitle ("Tangerine Dream, 1970-1990") to be rather misleading, if not exactly dishonest. A more accurate one would probably be "Edgar Froese, 1988-2000". Any assessment of its worth, then, will depend ultimately upon how much one cares about that distinction. Newcomers to Tangerine Dream's music may not worry that this collection is far from representative of anything historical and so find it an attractive way to acquire a goodly collection of their work with minimum effort. Established TD collectors, though, will more likely curse it as yet another ruse to make them fork out for a large box collection in order to acquire some 45 minutes-worth of material of interest to them. In terms of quality of production, and value for money, the set warrants an unreserved five star rating. In terms of marketing honesty and attractiveness to loyal fans, it is difficult to justify any stars at all. Decide for yourself which might apply.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you don't have Tangents or Dream Roots, a good buy, December 27, 2000
This review is from: I-Box 1970-90 (Audio CD)
The I-Box is a 6 CD set that draws heavily upon tracks from the Tangents and Dream Roots box sets, which is a good thing in my opinion as they are different versions to the original albums. They have been enhanced with new synthesiser sounds, chords and melodies which will make the older material more accesible to many listeners. The set also draws heavily from the Private Music releases, with numerous tracks from Melrose, Optical Race and Lily on the Beach. Much of this material labeled "live" is very very similar to the studio releases, and wether or not you wish to believe they are really live is irrelevant because in this case they sound just like the original releases. The last disc features Dream Yards, a live performance from 1982. Those who bought Sohoman will proabably recogise that it sounds very similar in that it sounds more like a studio recreation of the live set rather than the actual live recordings. However, as with Sohoman it is a pleasant listening experience, although only the first 15 minutes or so is previously unreleased.There are also some very very nice small suprises such as the 12" version of Warsaw in the Sun and some stunning previously unreleased live tracks such as Longing for Cashba and Polish Dance. Most of the other rarities are from the last disc of the Tangents box set.Overall, to most TD fans this is very worthwhile purchase, but for those who have almost everything there is little they are going to consider earth shattering.Tom Earnest
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
