Tangerine Dream Live Sydney 1982 (Bootmon 4)

Bootmon 4 brings us the TD's brief tour down-under in early '82. Being sourced from FM radio, as with Montreal, it's been around the block a few times in the form of various bootlegs (eg 'Dreaming' and well before that the rare vinyl 'Leprous Appearance on Wednesday'). More recently disc 1 formed the basis of 'Sohoman'.

Some housekeeping duties before we get onto the music. Firstly the faults list. There's an extraneous two second gap in between 'Mojave Plan' and 'Thermal Inversion' - annoying considering how easy it would be to remove. More annoying is the sledgehammer end to 'Choronzon' half way through. The Tangerine Tree Vol 37 (from which this disc originated) has no gap, and 'Choronzon' is nearly 5 minutes longer. Totally unbelievable.

Next, sound quality - not sparkling to be truthful considering it's FM source. It's best described as patchy, doubtless the cassette origin is a factor. Not as good as Paris or Montreal, but better than Aachen. Finally, presentation. Packaging is again quite nice, pleasing colour gatefold, individually numbered, some decent pictures in the middle. Both discs again picture CDs. Black marks only for the sleevenotes which are again identical to the other Bootmons even down to the typos.

On to the music, which is a total pleasure to review. With 'White Eagle' hot off the press, and 'Exit' not too distant a memory, they certainly had a gamut of magical EM to weave into the performance. We start with 'Convention of the 24', an atmospheric into gives way to a slightly stuttering sequence which gathers velocity and structure. Superficially a decent track but it lacks sufficient melodic guile to really grab you. The atmospherics return with a vengeance for the ending of the track which then bridges beautifully into the hypnotic sequencing which heralds 'White Eagle'. If you want to hear a studio perfect rendition of this track in less than perfect sound quality, look no further! More bridging atmospherics then lead into the pulsating 'Ayers Majestic'. High on drama and rhythm, it has similarities to the closing section of 'Horizon' from 'Poland'. Another decent package which only just fails to transcend the merely very good. Ah, but next we have the sensational melodic section from 'Logos Part 1', emerging from more fine bridging effects. This section of 'Logos' has always been a personal favourite and it never fails to delight, the only disappointment is that there's very little variation from the "official" version - though of course variation isn't what they were aiming for here and it shows what brilliant musicians they were to play this so consistently.

The sound quality deteriorates noticeably towards the end of the track but revives as we approach the final piece on CD1 'Bondy Paradise'. This is a great track, flowing rhythmics and great melodics. A fitting end to the first part of the concert and the audience shows due appreciation. As a footnote I felt obliged to get 'Sohoman' out to listen to this track "properly" - and it's only now that I realise just how "tangentized" 'Sohoman' really was - especially 'Bondy' which is totally obliterated with a mass of unnecessary additional layers and sounds totally false compared to the original.

Onto CD2 and we are first to a full blown rendition of 'Mojave Plan' from 'White Eagle'. Classic track of course, and it must have gone down a storm at the actual concert, especially being so "hot off the press". It's performed so impeccably however that it's again difficult to distinguish from the album version, though the extra lead lines at the 4 minute mark are tremendous and it's such a shame they weren't featured on the studio release!! After the full 25 minutes I did find myself craving for the next track, which duly arrives (after the annoying 2 second gap) in the form of our old friend 'Thermal Inversion'. And it's another totally storming version of this classic track - I could listen to it all day!! Atmosphere in the shape (I think) of a section from 'Remote Viewing' then gives way to the classic 'Force Majeure' section which is duly rounded off with the 'Logos Part 2' closing section. We must never get blase about the sheer magnificence of this section of music. It is, quite simply, the benchmark.

A well deserved audience ovation gives way to a cracking version of 'Choronzon'. This is a classic example of how to perform an already brilliant track in the live setting - make it sufficiently different to impress but don't totally throw away the essence of the piece. TD judge this to perfection, and it's easy to get completely lost in the moment - until for some inexplicable reason it suddenly stops in full flow and dives into the next track 'Midnight in Thula' (sic). Examination of the original Tangerine Tree Vol 37 reveals there's nearly 5 minutes of this track missing. 'Midnight...' is a very busy piece which has always done it's very best to reach the realms of greatness but for me it's never really got there. The sequencing is OK but the melody is edgy and not that infectious, and the live version here is nigh on identical to the album. Finally we get 'Outro' which presents the original radio broadcast closing comments - a nice touch.