Tangerine Dream are considered a pioneering act in electronica. Their work with the electronic music Ohr label produced albums that had a pivotal role in the development of the German musical scene known as kosmische ("cosmic"). Their "Virgin Years", so called because of their association with Virgin Records, produced albums that further explored synthesizers and sequencers, including the UK top 20 albums Phaedra (1974) and Rubycon (1975). The group also had a successful career composing film soundtracks, creating over 60 scores, which include those for the films Sorcerer, Thief, The Soldier, Risky Business, Flashpoint, The Keep, Firestarter, Legend, Three O'Clock High, Near Dark, Shy People, and Miracle Mile.
From the late 1990s into the 2000s, Tangerine Dream continued to explore other styles of instrumental music as well as electronica. Their recorded output has been prolific, including over one hundred albums. Among other scoring projects, they helped create the soundtrack for the video game Grand Theft Auto V. Their mid-1970s work has been profoundly influential in the development of electronic music styles such as new age (although the band themselves disliked the term) and electronic dance music.
Their most recent album of all-new music, Quantum Gate, was released on 29 September 2017. In December 2019, the band released Recurring Dreams, a compilation of new recordings of some of the band's classic compositions.
The group is currently working on a new album as a four-piece to be released in 2021 via Kscope.
Tangerine Dream began as a surreal rock band, with each of the members contributing different musical influences and styles. Edgar Froese's guitar style was inspired by Jimi Hendrix, while Christopher Franke contributed the more avant garde elements of Karlheinz Stockhausen and Terry Riley. Yes-like progressive rock influence was brought in by Steve Jolliffe on Cyclone. The sample-based sound collages of Johannes Schmoelling drew their inspiration from a number of sources; one instance is Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians on parts of Logos Live, and the track "Love on a Real Train" from the Risky Business soundtrack.
Classical music has had an influence on the sound of Tangerine Dream over the years. György Ligeti, Johann Sebastian Bach, Pierre Boulez, Iannis Xenakis, Maurice Ravel, and Arcangelo Corelli are clearly visible as dominant influences in the early albums. A Baroque sensibility sometimes informs the more coordinated sequencer patterns, which has its most direct expression in the La Folia section that comes at the very end of the title track of Force Majeure. In live performances, the piano solos often directly quoted from Romantic classical works for piano, such as the Beethoven and Mozart snippets in much of the late 1970s – early 1980s stage shows. In the bootleg recording of the Mannheim Mozartsaal concert of 1976 (Tangerine Tree volume 13), the first part of the first piece also clearly quotes from Franz Liszt's Totentanz. The first phrase is played on a harpsichord synthesizer patch and is answered by the second half of the phrase in a flute voicing on a Mellotron. During the 1990s, many releases included recordings of classical compositions: Pictures at an Exhibition (on Turn of the Tides), Largo (from Xerxes) (on Tyranny of Beauty), Symphony in A Minor (by J. S. Bach), and Concerto in A Major / Adagio (by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) (both on Ambient Monkeys).
Since the 1990s, Tangerine Dream have also recorded cover versions of Jimi Hendrix' "Purple Haze" (first on 220 Volt Live) and The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby", "Back in the U.S.S.R.", "Tomorrow Never Knows", and "Norwegian Wood".
An infrequently recurring non-musical influence on Tangerine Dream, and Edgar Froese in particular, have been 12th–19th-century poets. This was first evident on the 1981 album Exit, the track title "Pilots of the Purple Twilight" being a quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem Locksley Hall. Six years later, the album Tyger featured poems from William Blake set to music; and around the turn of the millennium, Edgar Froese started working on a musical trilogy based on Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, completed in 2006. Most recently, the 2007 album Madcap's Flaming Duty features more poems set to music, some again from Blake but also e.g. Walt Whitman.
Pink Floyd were also an influence on Edgar Froese and Tangerine Dream, the band in its very early psychedelic rock band phase playing improvisations based on Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive". Madcap's Flaming Duty is dedicated to the memory of the late Syd Barrett. The title refers to Barrett's solo release "The Madcap Laughs".
The band's influence can be felt in ambient artists such as Deepspace, The Future Sound of London, David Kristian, and Global Communication, as well as rock, pop, and dance artists such as Porcupine Tree, M83, DJ Shadow, Ulrich Schnauss, Cut Copy, and Kasabian. The band also clearly influenced 1990s and 2000s trance music, where lush soundscapes and synth pads are used along with repetitive synth sequences, much like in their 1975 releases Rubycon and Ricochet, as well as some of their music from the early 1980s. The group have also been sampled countless times, more recently by Recoil on the album SubHuman, by Sasha on Involver, and on several Houzan Suzuki albums. Michael Jackson also cited Tangerine Dream as one of his favourite bands, especially their 1977 soundtrack for Sorcerer.
Please Excuse My Face
Tangerine Dream Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Lots of love untied,
If my shiny eyes look sad,
Please excuse my face,
Blushing, smiling through the tears,
Please excuse my face,
I feel dead, I'll hide myself away,
I see you through crystal eyesight rain,
Please excuse my face,
Blushing, shrugging, trying to smile,
Please excuse my face,
I feel dead, I'll hide myself away,
I see you through crystal eyesight rain
If see me on the street,
Please excuse my face,
Blushing, shrugging, trying to smile,
Please excuse my face.
The lyrics in Tangerine Dream's song "Please Excuse My Face" reflect the emotional turmoil of someone saying goodbye to a loved one. The first stanza talks about the raw emotions of love that have been left unaddressed, leaving the singer to not know how to react to their own feelings. They feel sadness in their eyes and want to apologize for it, as if it's a burden for others to see. The second stanza describes the singer's attempts at hiding their emotions in public, acting as if everything is normal, but still clearly struggling with their emotions. The use of "crystal eyesight rain" suggests the intensity of their emotions, almost as if they're seeing the world through a distortion.
The chorus repeats the same words "Please excuse my face" as a way of apologizing for their uncontrollable emotions, which they feel the need to hide from the world. It's a reminder that everyone wears a mask in public, making it difficult to express genuine emotions in a world where everyone is expected to be strong.
The song ultimately touches on themes of emotional vulnerability, the desire to hide away from the world and the difficulty of expressing oneself genuinely. It's a song that speaks to the struggle of being human and the burden of emotions that we all carry.
Line by Line Meaning
Silently, you wave good bye,
You leave without a word
Lots of love untied,
An unspoken love that was never fulfilled
If my shiny eyes look sad,
I try to hide my sadness
Please excuse my face,
I apologize for my expression
Blushing, smiling through the tears,
Trying to hide my true emotions
I feel dead, I'll hide myself away,
I am emotionally drained and need to withdraw from the world
I see you through crystal eyesight rain,
I see you through my tears
If see me on the street,
If you happen to catch sight of me
Please excuse my face,
I am not feeling myself
Blushing, shrugging, trying to smile,
Attempting to put on a brave face
Please excuse my face.
I hope you can forgive my expression
Contributed by Sarah E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.