Tangerine Dream
Atlantic Walls
Well, here’s TD album number 8 in this marathon issue. I suppose one of the great things about TD for the collector is the fact that they release enough to genuinely warrant a collecting approach. OK, compared to some of the Schulzian box sets it may seem a drop in the ocean but few bands can pull off a project like this... and on their own label.

‘Atlantic Walls’ carries on where ‘Atlantic Bridges’ leaves off by delving through the albums I mentioned in the ‘Bridges’ review. I wish they’d have printed a key to the tracks so I could look really switched on by reeling off the relevant album with each track. But I stopped keeping the albums after hearing ‘Lily’ so I’m struggling a bit (OK, ‘Dream Mixes’ and one or two others aside). But, really it doesn’t matter I suppose. It’s the tracks themselves which matter and quite a few do stand out:

‘Too Hot for my Chinchilla’ for having the word “chinchilla” in the title

‘Graffiti Street’ for bringing to mind banal guitar axe postures and jeans with ripped knees

‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ for reminding me of Greg Lake saying “we’re gonna give you pictures at an exhibition”

‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ for reminding me of spaced out trips listening to Tomita’s ‘The Ballad of the Chicks in their Shells’ on headphones

‘Little Blond in the Park of Attractions’ for being mistyped twice and reminding me that I haven’t listened to ‘Le Parc’ for a while

If I’m sounding a bit frivolous here I do apologise. TD fans know better than I do what this album is all about, and they’ll buy it on this basis. Tangerine Dream are big enough to absorb any comments anyone throws at them, and it would be hugely presumptuous to think otherwise. There’s little else to say really, other than the fact they’ve spelt compilation wrong again.... (GG)

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