Fans of mid-'70s era
Tangerine Dream will more than likely be excited by this double-disc offering of new material issued by Cleopatra. Essentially,
Edgar Froese, the only original member of the group, went back into the storage closet and hauled out a few tons of vintage gear: sequencers, analog synths, primitive drum machines, and assorted keyboards to revisit the sound of past albums like Stratosfear,
Phaedra, and
Rubycon. That said, there are, of course, vestiges of the band's current sound as well -- the one that has appeared on innumerable new age and soundtrack recordings and scored them some Grammy nominations. While by no means suggesting that
Booster is on the same artistic par as the classic recordings, its sense of drama and tension and its spacious time-sequenced modalities make for the most engaging listen to
TD in years. ~ Thom Jurek