Although their decade-long contract with Virgin lastly expired after 1983’s Hyperborea, digital music innovators Tangerine Dream remained a sizzling property. Their albums offered steadily; they’d begun a profitable parallel profession soundtracking Hollywood blockbusters equivalent to Dangerous Business and Firestarter; and their stay fame was second to none. This latter attribute clearly struck a chord with the band’s new sponsors, Clive Calder’s UK-based Jive imprint, whose first Tangerine Dream launch was November 1984’s Poland. A lavish two-disc stay LP, the report was compiled from highlights of the 2 triumphant exhibits the Berlin-based trio carried out at Warsaw’s cavernous Ice Stadium on December 10, 1983.
Tangerine Dream had lengthy since constructed up a large following in Communist-controlled Jap Europe, and so they have been one of many first main Western outfits to make vital inroads behind the Iron Curtain. They performed a extremely acclaimed present at East Berlin’s Palast Der Republik in January 1980, whereas their 1982 European tour itinerary included gigs in Hungary and Yugoslavia, along with a return go to to East Germany, the place the band performed eight live shows, together with three nights on the Sport Kongresshalle in Rostock.
Tangerine Dream might additionally boast of a loyal following in Poland, and so they performed six gigs once they first set foot on Polish soil throughout their Jap European tour within the winter of ’83. As with the ’82 jaunt, TD wheeled out prolonged units lasting a minimum of 90 minutes, with their repertoire drawn largely from newly composed, beforehand unreleased materials, in addition to a couple of selection picks from their latest studio units Exit, White Eagle and Hyperborea.
Initially packaged as two on-trend image discs, Tangerine Dream’s Poland was launched in November 1984, and reprised the idea behind its in-concert predecessor Logos Dwell, providing followers a number of the all-new materials TD had ready particularly for this run of dates. The similarities didn’t finish there both. Like Logos Dwell, Poland’s 4 tracks (three of which clocked in at across the 20-minute mark) have been every comprised of a number of shorter items segued throughout the primary set – and, within the case of “Tangent”’s closing 4 minutes (subtitled “Rare Bird”), the music was sourced from one of many encores the band later carried out.
Even permitting for this and a few refined remixing, nonetheless, Poland was nonetheless a formidable report which each acknowledged TD’s illustrious previous and supplied glimpses of the course they’d pursue over the following 5 years. The form-shifting “Tangent,” for instance, included a motion subtitled “Polish Dance,” which gave the impression of a precursor of the glossy, machine-tooled sound the group later mastered on 1988’s Optical Race, whereas “Barbakane”s bubbly, radio-friendly third motion (additionally issued as standalone single titled “Warsaw In The Sun”) wouldn’t have been misplaced on 1985’s Le Parc.
Lengthy-term followers pining for the grandeur of the group’s 70s heyday, nonetheless, have been additionally rewarded by the startling, ever-morphing titular observe and the grandstanding “Horizon,” whereby Christopher Franke’s digital beats ricocheted across the area like a hailstorm, and the band piled on the noise throughout a really epic closing coda.
