Customer Reviews

Soundmill Navigator - Live at the Philharmonics 1976, (Classics Edition)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I agonized about buying this CD, but ultimately did and, perhaps because my expectations were limited (among others, because of the wildly varying reviews here on Amazon), I was very pleasantly surprised. This 1976 live recording fits nicely between the 1975 Ricochet live CD and the 1977 Encore live CD. The 41 min. track starts off tentatively, but gets really going about 14 min. into it, with throbbing sequencers and Mellotrons all over and a ripping Egdar Froese guitar for good measure. According to the liner notes, the entire piece was improvised as they played along, which only makes this even more intriguing and impressive. I'm trying to reconcile this with the review of this CD by Christian Turk (see his review), and in the end can only say that it sure doesn't sound like we listened to the same CD. Finally, as to some complaints that this CD is "only" 41 min. long: get over it already! Ricochet and Rubycon clock in each well under 40 min. and that doesn't bother anyone. Bottom line, I find this album to be a very welcome addition to the classic Tangerine Dream repertoire of the 73-77 era.

I found this album, like some of the previous reviewers mention, to be quite disappointing. In the cover sleeve, they put the emphasis on the fact that this was a hard album to make in and of itself, since it was recorded "live", which means that anything can and does happen. At no point do they tell you about the song or the sequences, which leads me to believe, after listening to the album, that indeed, they knew it was low on content. Do not buy this album if you want a sample of TD's original seventies music. This is not representative of their best material. Instead, may I suggest Ricochet, Force Majeure (My favorite from that period), or even some of their late seventies, early eighties material, such as Thief or Tangram. In truth, most of their seventies albums, "Virgin Years" as they are called, are quite impressive. I'll leave it to you to discover for yourself.

I agree with other reviewers that this is a modern overdub of a classic live recording.
That said, I think this is what TD has been doing since it's beginning. Ricochet is an excellent recording BUT is a studio overdub (with studio tracks included) of a mix taken from TD's previous European gig, and that doesn't make Ricochet a bad recording but on the contrary it's a masterwork. Other examples of TD's overedub action being, Encore, Poland, Tangents (compilation)and the 3 dream mixes.

Soundmill Navigator does not deserve to qualify as a masterwork BUT it's an enjoyable fictional performance. Forget any expectation about listening to a historical record and you'll enjoy a kind of partially invented, or fictitious, live performance, mixing 21st century dubs with 30 year old synths.
It's very spacey, ambient, if you like, so if you enjoy a more rhythmic TD this CD might disappoint you.

Francisco

I got this album expecting it to sound something like "Ricochet" from the year before, and I was SEVERELY dissapinted with it. What's with all the overdubs? Where's the trademark synth arpeggios in the background? And most importantly, WHAT is that sound that keeps going "whit-whit, whit-whit" back and forth between the speakers for the CD's entire length, even after the crowd stops cheering!?
So obvoiusly what TD did was dig into their tape vault, pull out a mediocre, badly recorded tape, and overdub a zillion times to try to mask the old tape's flaws. The liner notes say this was the first half of the concert. So why didn't they put the WHOLE concert on the album? Probably because it sounded even worse!
What I don't get it why TD always makes a big deal about how "it was so hard to tour in the '70s with analog synths, and if even one cable was misconnected, the whoe thing would collape, blah blah". Emerson Lake and Palmer never had problems like that! Lots of other bands never had problems like that! Either TD is exaggerating or they were using VERY bad equipment.
So my advice would be: go buy Ricochet. Sounds a lot better (musically and quality-wise) and it's not half as annoying. Good grief, a lot of the sounds on SN weren't even AVAILABLE in 1976! Gimme a break.

Lower your expectations; this is no 5 star disc. A quick aside: I've learned to skip most 5-star reviews of anything, as they're usually overzealous fans trying to help their favorite artists by proxy. With that said -

Soundmill is a cozy companion to ENCORE, hazily distant, with that unique ambience of the Baumann era. If you are not a fan of Encore, avoid Soundmill. If you haven't heard Encore, buy Encore first. Soundmill sounds like 'found' material that didn't make it onto Encore [I know this wasn't part of the Encore tour, but if the liner notes said otherwise you'd believe it].

Soundmill builds very slowly, but never quite plumbs the depths of imagination the way Desert Dream, Monolight, etc., do. You feel like you're waiting, waiting as they build up, and... it's over?! :-/ More like an 'in-betweener' piece: time to refill the bong, recycle the brew; you won't miss much hearing it through the bathroom wall...

A scant 41 mins. is almost inexcusable. Long gone are the time limitations of the old LP format [most of their 70s output averages only 40 mins. because LP's literally couldn't hold more time]. I wish they'd taken more care to complete the disc with more material, out-takes, variations (the way Klaus Schulze does)and spend less time on cover (re)designs. Soundmill isn't quite strong enough to stand completely on its own.

Bottom line: Encore fan? Buy it. If you're unfamiliar with the classic Baumann era, do yourself a favor and get ENCORE, STRATOSFEAR and RICOCHET for starters. Soundmill can wait.

First, lie on the living room floor.

Now picture this, a stage overburdened with three large stations for the three members of Tangerine Dream circa 1970, each station made up of at least three different kinds of analogue sythesizers.

Add to this the understanding that what you hear, they completly made up on the spot, tweaking knobs and repatching cables, not knowing if they could really pull it off-- that is keep the dinosaur of sound they create moving, driving, flying!

Add to all this, an audience, and you have quite a moment, a brilliant moment for Tangerine Dream caught on tape like a firefly in a jar. There is a tape mechanism looping in the mix, but if you close your eyes, put on your headphones and let go, it will distintegrate along with your mind. You will find yourself aware of the carpet fibres on your living room floor whispering thier love to you, as a smile draws itself across your face and you are taken in.

This is a good one, ambient supreme. If you liked Phaedra, Rubycon, or any of the heavy on the LFO Tangerine Dream albums this will warm you up this winter.

For those not familiar this is the sound that The Orb, RadioHead (during thier analogue synth experiments), and most electronic greats emulated at somepoint knowingly or not. Try it.

TD's best years, and an OK to good live performance. The lineup can't be beat, and if you're into something similar to Ricochet but maybe not quite as organized-sounding, this is for you. WARNING: There is an annoying "wsp wsp wsp" bouncing back and forth between the left and right channels throughout most of this release. TDI says it's from the master tapes. Further, I have heard that Edgar Froese has added some stuff to the original concert tapes (I have not heard the original tapes to know what he may have added).

The concert on this cd (June 27, 1976 Berlin Philharmonie) can be found unaltered along with a bunch of other excellent, untampered concerts on the Tangerine Dream Bootleg Box Set Volume 1. This is an official release and sounds better than actual bootlegs or the mess that is Soundmill Navigator. Cheesy, obviously digital overdubs turn this cd into a wreck. The actual concert during the brief periods where you can hear it over the "Tangentization" is a classic. 1976 was a transitory year live for Tangerine Dream. They were beginning to bring some element of structure to their concerts. The freeform Moog freakouts were gradually being replaced by sequencers and the guitar noodling sounds suspicously like the opening chords to Pink Floyd's "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun". However, there is plenty to like, especially with their classic line up. Its a great concert. The band was in form that night (and many others). Soundmill Navigator is just not the place to buy it.

Subtitled Vol. 2 of the Tangerine Dream Classics Edition (Vol. 1 being "Sohoman") "Soundmill Navigator" is a remastered release of previously unavailable live material, drawn from the first half of a concert the band gave on June 26th 1976. This gig was a classic Froese/Franke/Baumann improvisation of the highest order and proves to be quite different from much of their other material from that time. It begins with a vast cloud of coloured noise out of which soft synthesiser lines - dominated by the characteristic sound of the Mellotron - slowly emerge. (Long time fans of Edgar Froese will recognise fragments of "Epsilon in Malaysian Pale" drifting over the heavy underlying textures here.) After a while, this is replaced by a typical Tangerine Dream sequencer pulse accompanying a meandering Froese guitar lick, upon which the other band members build to produce a mesmerising study of electronic textures. Some elements from "Stratosfear" wander through the soundscape too, before the carefully constructed minimalist rhythms are dismantled by growling analogue synthesis calls and the return of the haunting voice of the Mellotron. Finally, the opening material returns to sing the performance to a gentle conclusion.

Now, while this release is undoubtedly welcome (especially to long-standing fans of the band) and the music it contains is refreshingly different from Tangerine Dream's other output, there are significant deficiencies preventing an unreserved recommendation of this CD. Firstly, with a total playing time of less than 42 minutes, the disc is hardly generous. Surely more than just the first half of this concert could have been included? Secondly, the 24-year old master tapes have clearly suffered and there is a noticeable (and at times quite distracting) high frequency recording fault bouncing from channel to channel throughout its entire duration. This won't be enough to put off the die-hard collectors, but those with only a passing interest in the band should beware: this is a release of mainly historical interest, greatly marred by technical problems, which the remastering has been unable to eliminate. And finally, the purists will argue that there are studio additions, spoiling the recording's historical accuracy!

Certainly, if you want to hear good quality live recordings of this band from this period, you'd be better off with "Ricochet" and "Encore". If you want to hear the original performance unadorned, go instead for "The Bootleg Box Set, Vol. 1", where it appears under the title 'Electronic Rock at the Philharmonics'.

This takes me back to those long hypnotic pieces like Rubicon. This is a performance definitely made up as it went along, but its a must for Tangerine Dream fans... but then again I am biased.