[ Hypnos Forum ]

I found the bandcamp previews.  Sounds damn good to me.  Don't you guys wish you'd just ordered the CD instead?  Case in point why I don't like downloading unless there is no physical release.   :)

Thanks for the list.  I was just about to add Pearl and Music for Urban Meditation to my list.  Just couldn't get into those at all. 

Yay!!! Stephen's back!!! 

Miss your sense of humor.  Even your first new post since last century made me laugh.  Please stay so I can chuckle once in awhile here. 

;D

PS:  I'm getting "ramp[ed]" up with aniticipation for these new albums, hopefully there will not be any "astral disasters" here on Earth to spoil the impending fun.  8)

I didn't even know it was on Bandcamp.  Which one?  The label, or Grassow's?

Well yeah he wrote all the songs so when Peter died TON died.  I think Kenny Hickey is an amazing guitarist, too. 

This CD was just released by Russian label GSP Production, which released the 4CD box AeroArea.   I haven't heard it but I'll post a short review when the disc arrives. 

Seren, you're right about Hall.  I have the box set and it sounds like a copy of a cassette.  But the rest of the box sounds great.

Phobos, I think you're the only one here who has mentioned Type O Negative, in my top five all-time bands.  Miss these guys so much after Peter's death and subsequent/inevitable end of their career.  Won't be anyone like them probably ever.

Wow, this sounds extremely shady.  I wouldn't buy it and support this kind of nonsense. 

Yet another excellent live Roach document.  This one has some haunting e-bow guitar work on track one.  The middle pieces contain music heard before, like Endorphin Dreamtime from Core.  The last two pieces are sequencer stuff in a style unique to Roach recordings, where he weaves in this kind of ethereal symphonic lead lines over the thick percolating patterns.  Very Klaus Schulze.  I really cannot remember Steve doing anything like this before.  Excellent stuff!!

"That ain't no joke...don't disappear in smoke.".  8)

And I just got confirmation from Ron Boots that it's the original CD, not a CDR

Groove Unlimited always states if a disc is CDR or CD.  Their Planetary listing said CD.

Lots of lists here over the years as to the best Fax/Namlook material, but what about the bad or weak ones.  The label was extremely prolific but there were quite a few that were v weak or even just plain bad.  Below I list my least favorite series and some exceptionally bad CDs whether in a series or not:

Series:

New Organic Life--Featured granular synthesis.  Whatever that is, I didn't like it.  Noisy experiments.
Silence--Just could never get into this kind of modern classical ambient.  There were five in the series. 
Move D/Namlook--Probably the most oversaturated series.  A few excellent ones but lots of weak or redundant installments.
Virtual Vices--Namlook and Spyra.  Most of it, six installments, was weak however Volume 3 was excellent.
Fires of Ork--Namlook and Biosphere.  Never understood what the hoopla was all about. 
Labyrinth--Bland music, oversaturated by five volumes.
Steve Stoll--His series of solo albums were awful, lo fi experimental affairs. 

Others:  A New Consciousness 2.  This album consisted of environmental sounds and no music.

So how was it?????:

Klaus Schulze--Stars are Burning.  Speaking of official boots, here's a two disc set released by the artist via his manager/publisher, Klaus D. Mueller.  Audience recordings from 1977 and 1979 that circulated for years, now cleaned up and official.  The coughing guy is here, he even blows his nose as an added bonus.  Not high fidelity but a cool memento of the time period.  Recommended only for those with more than a casual interest in KS.  As on the La Vie Electronique sets, Mueller gives some really idiotic titles to some of the tracks.

I see there's now another TD bootleg box on Esoteric, I think from around 78-80. 

The bonus disc on Moog box is Evolution of the Dark Side of the Moog, previously issued on Fax.  It's just a collection of excerpts from the first four Moog albums.

The Edgar Froese box set mentioned contained the original studio versions, although the tapes were remastered.  For some reason I prefer all the original Virgin issues from the 80s for TD and Froese.  Some of that remastering can really ruin a perfectly good thing.  As the saying goes, don't fix it if it ain't broke. 

I can see $100 but beyond that it gets ridiculous.  These eBay sellers listing CDs for $250 etc.  And they just sit there being unsold, and sellers don't budge lowering the price.  But my point for this topic was the totally unrealistic price tags of $1000 or more.  Its almost like they're selling it just to fuck with people and put it on public display as a museum piece.

To add to above, disc 3 (1976 Mannheim) is very good, the music is more of the classic Phaedra type style.  Also, disc 4 is only 30 minutes long.  Guess it was necessary so as not to exclude part of the performance, but a waste of 50 minutes, so you only getting 3.5 CDs really.  I think I should give this box more time.  Actually the sound quality IS better than your average bootleg, no doubt due to mastering these old tapes. 

You see these items listed on eBay, Amazon, Discogs, Barnes and noble, etc.  Some seller is asking $1,000 for a CD.  Goes without saying nobody would pay that much.  So what is the motivation for creating these listings?  I just don't get it.

Tangerine Dream Reims Cathedral 1974/Mannheim 1976 official bootleg vol 1 box set.  My final summation after multiple listenings is this set is very disappointing.  The Esoteric label has done high quality TD projects before, but this box is kind of cheap on a physical level.  The recordings are  typical bootleg quality.  They are audience recordings, hence lo-fi, flat, tinny, etc.  Why does every bootleg have some German guy talking to his friends?  And somebody's always having a coughing fit.  I mean who coughs that much?  I bet it was one guy who did it to sabotage all illegal recordings.  The music itself, though occasionally having some nice sounds, is very improvisational aka noodling.  For diehard fans only.