Tangerine Dream
Atlantic Bridges
‘Atlantic Bridges’ is a compilation album containing selected highlights from ‘Melrose’, ‘Optical Race’, ‘Rockoon’, ‘Turn of the Tides’, ‘Dream Mixes I’ & ‘II’, Tyranny of Beauty’ and ‘Lily on the Beach’.

For me ‘Optical Race’ was the last great album which I felt obliged to listen to at length in detail. It is a patchy album which contains some soaring magnificence, two examples of which start off this album. Hearing ‘Mothers of Rain’ and ‘Sungate’ again is a real pleasure, and the most remarkable aspect is that it all sounds so contemporary with what TD are doing now. It occurs to me that perhaps if I give TD’s more recent works more of a chance they may reveal gems in this class. Or maybe it underlines how relatively little TD’s style has shifted over the past 10 years.

Enough of my blethering anyway, let’s just bask in the glory of ‘Sungate’. It really is an electronic music masterpiece. The melody is simply breathtaking, the way the track ebbs and flows is awesome, and the lavish production qualities are magnificent. What contrast then the Kenny G style schmaltz of ‘Long Island Sunset’ which follows. “Double whammy” it with the inane ‘Paradise Cove’ and it underlines what a stinker ‘Lily on the Beach’ really was. It’s incredible that they can produce these two track within a year of ‘Mothers of Rain’ for example. ‘Mothers’ opens with synth riffs from the Gods, then settles into a gargantuan rhythmic barrage which I’ll always remember fondly for taking the HiFi to hitherto uncharted areas of dynamism.

So what else are we treated to on this album? Well, the day must be nearing when I set a question related to the number of times ‘Catwalk’ and ‘Touchwood’ appear on TD’s albums in one form or another. Yes, they’re here again and, yes, ‘Catwalk’ still does the business but... well, I’ve already covered that one in other reviews.

‘Jungle Journey’ sounds rather good here. Muscular rhythmics and guitar which is placed low enough in the mix to blend rather than dominate. The ebullient ‘Time Square’ is also included on this album, and it really is a piece which matures with repeated outings. The most striking aspect is the genuinely strong melody, which just proves that they can really produce the goods when it all comes together.

So, a good album to buy if you are new to TD. But how many people are new to TD? Not as many as the sales will undoubtedly suggest, so for all the completists out there take note of the mis-spell of “compilation” in the booklet. It may be corrected in the next production run so get it while you can...(GG)

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