Customer Reviews

Poland

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Tangerine Dream's "Poland" is an album I can listen to repeatedly; it truly is a classic slice of early Tangerine Dream. I've been listening to Tangerine Dream since the initial release of Phaedra in the UK - I'm a Brit you know! - and have followed them ever since, managing to see almost every gig they played in London over the years, from the early 70's, and all the way into the 90's. My favorite TD albums are, in no particular order; Phaedra, Ricochet, Rubycon, Poland, Encore, Pergamon, Force Majeure, Logos, Stratosfear, 220 Volt Live, and Underwater Sunlight. I also like Edgar Froese's Epsilon in Malaysian Pale, and Aqua, plus Chris Franke's London Concert.

Poland, for me, harks back to the Glory Years of Tangerine Dream... 3 guys hidden behind banks of analogue electronica, indicator lights blinking away in the darkness, cables all over the place; the 3 of them taking the listener on an aural journey through strange and beautiful alien soundscapes. While many of the much-maligned later albums function as `background' music at best, Poland is music to actively "listen" to, to immerse and lose oneself in completely.

The first 11-minutes or so of the album are simply breathtaking - the best they've ever committed to a recording? - and you wonder how they can possibly follow it... rather like Pink Floyd crashing a plane onto the stage at the end of the first track during "The Wall" gig! But don't worry, they do, and in spectacular fashion! Each of the four tracks is a gem, sonic 22 carat gold, and for me, their greatest live recording since Ricochet, especially considering the arctic conditions under which the concert, and the recording itself, took place.

This is without doubt, a beautiful recording of a live event that I only wish I could have attended, and would recommend it unreservedly to anyone wanting to experience the classic, "live," Tangerine Dream sound, along with Ricochet, Pergamon, and Encore!

One of the many criticisms I read in various reviews of TD music is the change of direction the music took, especially with the leaving of Baumann and Franke. Much of the criticism is vicious, and aimed squarely at the head of Edgar Froese. As I said earlier in this review, I consider much of the later material to be `background' music at best, banal and derivative, a far cry from the "classics" I personally love. But let's put all this into perspective; Edgar Froese has been creating music for over 30 YEARS(!), and yes, maybe some of what's been released should never have seen the light of day... Ambient Monkeys anyone?!

Putting aside completely pointless arguments about who was the creative genius in the band, without Froese there wouldn't have BEEN a Tangerine Dream, without Froese we wouldn't HAVE Phaedra, Ricochet, Rubycon, Encore, Pergamon, Poland, Force Majeure etc to enjoy and to cherish! Some of us love the "classics," some the later works, very few of us like everything, but guess what, in over three decades of music making, Froese has, almost literally, created something for everyone!!!

Another criticism - though highly relevant this time - is that in this age of digital technology, we have to put up with the clumsy editing of 20+ years ago, when continuous recordings had to be broken up into "sides" because of the limitations of the vinyl medium. This, I think, is most noticeable on Poland itself, although the break in Pergamon is also jarring, and spoils the flow of the music.

Well, if you have a PC, a CD Ripper, and some good quality digital sound editing software, you can now "bridge the gap," so to speak! I have the `complete' 2 CD edition of Poland, but was always dissatisfied with the breaks in the tracks, and of not being able to enjoy the "show" as one continuous piece. The solution was simple; I `ripped' the tracks into my PC, then edited them together, via a 20 second or so cross-fade from track to track. I then burnt the resulting `single' track onto an 80-minute CD. The results of this are that I can now enjoy Poland as a continuous, 79+ minute, coherent performance.

I wasn't at the Poland concert, so I don't know if the 4 tracks were played continuously by the band, they probably weren't, so I took a further liberty, and - shock, horror! - rearranged the running order! "My" version of Poland now plays as, Poland, Tangent part 1, Barbakane, Horizon, and Tangent part 2, which is so obviously an encore piece that it works perfectly in this arrangement.

I'm sure that any purist reading this is reaching for the smelling salts and looking for a comfy chair to fall into, but as a listening experience, this edit beats the hell out of 4 separate tracks with a change of disc half way through! Remembering those magical, heady concerts from the 70's and early 80's, I can close my eyes, and almost believe I'm there!!!

Tangerine Dream has gone through many iterations, periods, flavors, etc. This is the last in a series of three amazing efforts from the early 80s, which is my favorite period, the other two being "Logos" (also live, 5 stars) and "Hyperborea" (4 stars). This period was more abstract and trancy than the earlier "classic" stuff (Phaedra, Stratosfear, Zeit, etc.), and not as "packaged" as their soundtrack work and more recent music. The lineup through this period was Edgar Froese, Chris Franke, and Johannes Schmoelling. My die-hard T-Dream friends think Schmoelling is schmaltzy, but I think he adds a nice melodic touch, so the music isn't TOTALLY sounding like a funeral march.

The original vinyl of "Poland" was two discs, with one long song per side, for four total tracks. All are nice, long, intricate patterns of slowly changing synth loops and sequencers. Some people find it like musical wallpaper, but I actually like to actively listen. It's amazing on your walkman for skiing, by the way.

Tangerine is instantly recognizable, yet each album subtly changes and evolves, and this is one of their best. If you like Teutonic trance music, you'll love "Poland."

Recorded against all the odds at a concert played in sub-zero temperatures and plagued by powercuts in Communist Poland in December 1983, this album represents the very pinnacle of Tangerine Dream's live achievements in their 80's incarnation of Chris Franke, Edgar Froese and Johannes Schmoelling. It also marks the band's break from Virgin records, being the first of their releases on the Jive-Electro label, and thus the first album of their so-called Blue Years.

Featuring four sets, each of about 20 minutes duration, all of the music here is flawless, both in its construction and its execution. It bears all of the classic Tangerine Dream hallmarks: beautiful synthesiser melodies, staggering guitar playing, gorgeous electronic textures woven about slowly developed minimalist percussion patterns and chord changes. With lots of variety both of tempo and timbre, and with some beautiful sampled sounds and stunning percussion programming, "Poland" holds the attention as few other Tangerine Dream works either before or since. It contains not a single dull moment and offers much to both surprise and delight. And now as a single CD instead of a double LP, it's also great value for money!

Incidentally, the 5-CD "Dream Roots Collection" includes almost half of this album, scattered over its 3 central CDs (including the encore piece 'Rarebird', which oddly does not have a track to itself here, but is incorporated into the 'Tangent' track). Realistically, though, how can anyone manage without this stunning album in its entirety?

"Poland" is one of the most memorable recordings of that famous German band, and certainly deserves recognition it gets, considering the actual conditions under which the performance took place. Tangerine Dream visited Poland on the 9th of December, 1983, right in the middle of one of the coldest winters Poland had in the 20th century. At that time, Poland recovered from the politcal turbulences it has been undergoing for the last three years, and Tangerine Dream was one of the first "western" bands to visit Poland in the 1980s. That was not a novum for them, since just three and a half years before, they had performed in East Berlin, being in fact the first western band allowed to do so. One might guess why - they had no "imperialistic" lyrics to present, and their music was aloof enough for censors to let them through. I was born and bred in a country under regime, and I know first-hand how hard it was to get hold of any "western" recording at the time. So did my countrymen, who in their mass greeted the band with enormous applause and frequency. Everywhere Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze toured in Poland in 1983, they enjoyed enormous popularity, with their tickets sold out well in advance. Hundreds of thousands of poeple attended their concerts, and both Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream cherish memories from the tour to this very day. Tangerine Dream came back to Poland a few times more years later, trying to restore that atmosphere from 1983. They still have a large audience, but perhaps due to the changed musical path, feelings have cooled a bit since 1983. That year, when they performed in Warsaw, they had to use woollen gloves to protect their freezing hands, since the stage was not heated enough for them to play comfortably. Also, due to extreme frost, the equipment falied to work a few times, and the Warsaw concert had to be interrupted. Nevertheless, as both the band members and those who listened to them at that day say in unison, the atmosphere was so cheerful and warm, that the band played the concert to the very end, and surprisingly, that was one of the greatest musical moments of their career. Such is life!

"Poland" is a long album, over 83 minutes in total, and to tell the truth, that is not enough. It is never enough. The first, title track starts off a bang, a hit in the keyboard much like on "Hyperborea", the album which this tour of 1983 was intended in part to promote. Following the bang, there comes the announcer's voice in Polish, and a HUGE cheer from the audience. If you have been there, you will be touched, for the atmosphere will be brought back right into your heart. he band starts mechanically, with Chris Franke's electronic percussion rhythm, and then, to our everlasting bliss, the famous trademark Arpeggio fills the space, and we have the chance to experience the most beautiful arpeggio of their recording career. One by one, many tunes chime in, and interlaced together, after several minutes, bring us to the peaceful end, which is full of meditation and quietness of ecstasy. Broken into parts because of vinyl edition requirements of 1984, when this album was released by Jive electro, the title track blends with the next one, "Tangent". The latter is also monumental. The music is dark, introspective, full of strange noises, and yet carrying the tune. I guess that the word that best describes their music on "Tangent" is a meditative musical collage. I absolutely love that composition. Only certain synthesizer lines were pre-programmed, and that can be certainly heard at the end of the track, subtitled "Polish Dance", and in the next track, in the part subtitled "Warsaw in the Sun". However, most of the performance was spontaneous, with band members once again composing alive, in the very presence of the audience. Never later it was the case, sadly. This is yet another reason why "Poland" is so cherished as an album; it is the last one which may be described as art of musical spontaneity. The album ends with "Horizon", a powerful set of arpeggiated themes interconnected by very spooky musical collages - audible landscapes of imagination that to this very day, after nearly twenty years from its release, still generates the same set of emotions as it did the first time. My only peeve about this album is the very ending, which is somewhat bizarre, and which was later used in their soundtrack work on "The Park Is Mine". This minor fault ignored, this album is stellar, in every dimension possible. It is the very first album of Tangerine Dream that I ever heard, and it remains my first love to this day. I love Poland, and I love "Poland".

I originally bought "Poland" many years ago as a single cd with only three tracks on; "Tangent" had been removed to squeeze everything onto one disc. (There was a double cd version available but I could never find it)! Even then I thought it was nothing short of awesome, so when the complete album was re-released I felt I had to have it!

I was not to be disappointed. I think to say that this is the last great TD album is a bit unfair; "Underwater Sunlight" has "Song Of The Whale" on it, which is one of their finest ever tracks and it's hard to believe it was written at a time that some would say the group started it's decline. However, to say it's their finest live album is entirely justified. Although only a couple of years later than "Logos", the advancement in song structure and composition is staggering. The sounds are new and interesting and none of the tracks seem to outstay their welcome, which has sometimes been a TD live trademark. (See "Ricochet" and parts of "Encore" for what I mean).

Anyway, back to "Poland". The opener is classic TD; building rhythms, slowly becoming more complex, themes buiding on themes and vanishing just as they rise to the fore, taking sounds and ideas (those treated piano chords) from "Sphinx Lightning" on "Hyperborea" and expanding them to new depths. But it was "Tangent" I was most eager to hear, it being entirely new. What a track! How could this have been left out? Synthesized polka... who but TD would dare? The second part is a bit like "Dominion" from "Logos", but you can forgive them.

"Barbakane" slowly works towards one of the finest melodies TD have written. Surely the work of Johannes Schmoelling, who seemed to be the creative driving force at this point.

...And onto the finale; "Horizon" is one of the defining moments of TD. The epic atmospheres of the first section never cease to send tingles down my spine! (I kid you not)! This builds to some of the most intense drum machine and instrument sequencing you'll ever here; very heavy... and then it's gone, evaporating to nothing but leaving you yearning more. If you buy no other TD album from the Schmoelling era, BUY THIS ONE!

Poland, originally issued in 1984 and as a double album, is the last truly great "must have" album of Tangerine Dream. This album is the first post-Virgin Records (74-83) era album, but in spirit it belongs with the Virgin releases. This CD contains all 4 (side-long) songs of the original double album (great value too: about 75 minutes on a single CD). Best songs are the title track (which opens with an incessant beat and builds from there), and Barbakane, which features an amazing guitar solo of Edgar Froese ("his longest ever" according to the liner notes) in the midst of the usual moogs and synhesizer sounds we have come to appreciate and love from Tangerine Dream. Unfortunately, shortly after this album, TD decided to become more "accessible" and make shorter, more dance-oriented songs. What a shame. Enjoy this gem, though!

Yes, this is TD at their best. The track, Poland, is perhaps the best instrumental they've produced. The sound technology at the time seems to be able to create just what they wanted to produce and the whole thing works so well. It's, like, they were waiting for this moment. There's a whole mix of droning synths and upbeat rythms. People joke, by saying, "how many TD albums does a person need". I undertand this to a certain degree, because it's all mainly soundtrack stuff and the amount of music they've produced is unaccountable, but Poland really is what TD is all about. Good, pulsing, atmospheric, electronic music. It's a place in time and a real classic.

Poland is such a wierd, kick-ass, electronic progressive FEAST...

DISC ONE

Part One POLAND - I can't think of a cooler, trippy downtempo funk groove in history - maybe 'The Message' comes close. The beat builds, evolves, sequences merge and harmonize, subdivide & multiply. Oh Boy does that PPG Wave sound KILLER.

It's all goin' on and it sound SO EXCELLENT ...who needs 'songs',anyway?

Part Two TANGENT - More relaxed first half but still those blippity patterns and an incredible build gives it a character all it's own. Middle section has a wierd "doing"-y pulse to it that meanders for a while before merging into a very DX7/FM-sounding groove that is a bit like "Choronzon" from the 'Exit' album.

(hidden track)Part Three- Similar to the end of part Two in feel and tempo, with a totally SWEET bridge where everything sort of 'melts' together in a very satisfying way, then the main theme comes back, then it's the end of Disc One.

DISC TWO

Part One BARBAKANE - With a relaxed vibe you can hear the crowd diggin' the concert and stretching out to get into the second half - the effect is palpable as one listens - few LIVE albums have this kind of ambiance. Also very cool is the introduction with a Mellotron-like flute line and a sparse downtempo rhythm. Soon it joins with a bagpipe line and some funny synth 'high-string plucks', then dissolves into the middle section: This is where the Barbakane theme comes to light - a big revolving beautiful groove that twinkles, stutters, pulses MASSIVELY and...oh, well describing it is just so futile.

The last section is a percussion & synth 80's-sounding mellow bit.

Part Two HORIZON - The closing 20 minutes are more akin to the traditional TD 70s live set - dark, murky intro with strange sounds dotting the soundscape here and there, then the long bass patterns with washes of sounds. A nice thematic build about 8:00 in distinguishes it from similar offerings from years before... The main 'updates' to the 70s sound here are the FM and Wavetable synths, and the drum sound is more developed. Rhythms cease at the 10:00 mark and the way is cleared for another bassline pattern-driven trip, complete with a Froese guitar solo. All in all, this sounds something like Encore mixed with Tangram - which I really like! With enough innovation going on elsewhere in this set it's nice to have a return to the the more familiar sound - and fitting for a concert album.

This is an amazing, unique journey of sound that makes me wish I could have been there when it happened!

I'll just shut up now so you can go listen to it.

I still haven't been able to find another Tangerine Dream album that equals this one, which was the first one I ever heard. Truly brilliant. If you're used to newer electronica and synth music, this album may be a bit slow for you, and it's much closer to classical music than to William Orbit or Moby. Like a lot of older electronic music, this album needs to be listened to, not just played in the background. It's great music for writers, as the development of the music sets your imagination loose and makes you forget all about the world around you. Or maybe that's just me. Anyway, if you're seriously interested in Eighties avant-garde, the development of electronic music, or just brilliant psychedelic synth work, Poland is a fantastic album.

Poland by Tangerine dream.

Great live album, just go get it.