craigb
FYI - Rubycon will be VERY different than some of their other material that came later. Lots of really good synth music to do acid to! Phaedra is similar.
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TD has several stages, and there is the real early one (Atem, Phaedra and Rubycon), then the next one (Stratosfear, Force Majeure, USA, Ricochet) and then the next stage that Craig mentions, and then the 90's with Linda Spa and Jerome of which "220 Volt Live" is an amazing concert, and then the stage after 2010 when they start redoing some old stuff ... and the Phaedra redo in 2014 and Supernormal, are both incredible, as are Booster 6 and 7 ... for example.
But, for me, the very best was Robert Schroeder's first album on the IC label, which was Klaus Schulze's label. The album "Floating Music" could be played in both 33RPM and 45 RPM, and what you get is an amazing thing ... a wonderful piece of music at 45RPM, and then a really heavy teutonic hard sound on 33RPM that was even better than the faster version. The only thing missing were the fantastic long distance stage sets for the early German operas of the 20th century, the setting designs of which are legendary ... simple, some columns and amazing lights. And a voice coming out of the middle of it out of "nowhere". This, became one of the huge influences in Werner Herzog, later when it came to lights, specially in his Nosferatu version, which even includes visuals for our delectation, even though he had already done psychedelic stuff with Amon Duul 2's Phallus Dei, which was one of his first films. Apparently he was a part of that commune, and he never really lost his free form stuff, from the camera to the actors, as evidenced by Klaus Kinski more than once and many films, when things just go all over the place.
But some LP's are worth having for the turntable. The Cosmic Courier albums (Cosmic Joke specially) sound really well and pretty in its simplicity, and just a bass guitar floating. Ash Ra Temple's New Age of Earth is a must get for the turntable. One of the first "new age" albums all around. CAN's Ege Bamyasi shold also be here, but their Future Days, and specially Soon Over Babbalooma, are even more valuable as the long cuts go from frenetic to slow to a simple touch for a transition ... that just melts away musical thoughts. And my two favorite albums to blow out on the turntable, because the CD's sucked rotten, will always be Amon Duul 2's Wolf City (full blast that thing ... and the album's later releases have the sides reversed ... should start with the title cut!) and then Vive La Trance, as the 2 big cuts are a massive treat for your ears! The CD versions are nice, but the separation is not there and I have not heard the remastered versions yet, but I doubt they will be better than the original.
Other things that were great ... Jethro Tull's Passion Play. Yes' Tales from Topographic Oceans. Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene.
In general, most of the regular rock stuff was never really improved, but the more experimental stuff and different from the regular top ten, had way more life and beauty in it, than otherwise, and it made them super special.
None of the CD versions of this, came close in quality, and the worst offenders (even remastered) were Sgt Peppers, White Album, DSOTM. The Steven Wilson remixes are not that great, and I personally thought that his attempt to do ITCOTCK made it look like the band was not together at all, and when you see it in the Live in Toronto 2015 with the 3 drummers, you know right away that was not the case ... RF's work is (generally) really tight and together!