Tangerine Dream’s Virgin Years: Cyclone

From the Tangerine Dream you’ve never heard before … cyclone.

Tangerine Dream disciples insist that Cyclone is a bastardized album which sprung from a questionable marriage of influences and motives. The band’s sixth album with Virgin Records does sit uncomfortably among TD’s other pre-1980 releases. Yet this – I would argue – is reason enough to let Cyclone stubbornly spin under the needle until some of it makes sense.

This 1978 release features the Virgin Years core members, Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke, with drummer Klaus Krieger and English vocalist Steve Jolliffe. Cyclone contains Floyd-inspired themes and fragments that betray an obvious penchant for English progressive rock – on this album, Tangerine Dream diverts a totality of means toward creating decadent epic prog-rock moments. And all of this is enriched by German motorik digressions that should leave you perplexed.

You might enjoy it.

I do.

Tangerine Dream – madrigal meridian

Get the 1978 Tour Programme on Jacob’s Tangerine Dream blog.