Rubycon

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Tangerine Dream's 1975 album picks up where 1974's Phaedra left off--with sequenced teases of palpitating synth under ambient washes of cosmic sound and traces of melody. If Phaedra was the marsh of dank electronic washes and eerie sounds in the night, Rubycon is that marsh just before dawn, awakening in a dusky light of bubbling metallic sequences and murky movements of lush synth. There's plenty of dreamy sections here, continuing on for several long delicious moments while creating a cosmic space that hovers between the unconscious and awakening. "Rubycon, Part II" builds an electronic wind tunnel of sound before breaking like a sunbeam through a cathedral and soaring into softly urgent skies of nuanced melody. The piece moves as an ocean wave, washing gently into a shore of tinkling cosmic rocks that reverberate and find hints of subtle, aching harmony before finally evaporating into the album's end. A brilliant ambient work. --Karen Karleski

Rubycon,Tangerine Dream,Virgin Records,Electronic,New Age / Meditation,Pop,Popular Music

Rubycon

Tracks:

Rubycon
Rubycon (Part II)

Amazon.com essential recording

Tangerine Dream's 1975 album picks up where 1974's Phaedra left off--with sequenced teases of palpitating synth under ambient washes of cosmic sound and traces of melody. If Phaedra was the marsh of dank electronic washes and eerie sounds in the night, Rubycon is that marsh just before dawn, awakening in a dusky light of bubbling metallic sequences and murky movements of lush synth. There's plenty of dreamy sections here, continuing on for several long delicious moments while creating a cosmic space that hovers between the unconscious and awakening. "Rubycon, Part II" builds an electronic wind tunnel of sound before breaking like a sunbeam through a cathedral and soaring into softly urgent skies of nuanced melody. The piece moves as an ocean wave, washing gently into a shore of tinkling cosmic rocks that reverberate and find hints of subtle, aching harmony before finally evaporating into the album's end. A brilliant ambient work. --Karen Karleski

Customer Reviews:

Timeless.......2007-06-19

Rubycon is a tremendous improvement over the previous year's "Phaedra". Tangerine Dream seem to have gained mastery over their instruments and they let loose with every sound in their electronic arsenal.

Both tracks begin with synth washes thay convey a sense of eeriness and then pure wonderment and joy. After a while, the sequencers kick in and sound upon sound is layered together to form a chaotic yet controlled composition. At various intervals, synth voices seem to well up out of nowhere and explode into oblivion. Both tracks evoke a sense of urgency and profound ambience.

Please, by all means, add this album to your TD collection.

Woooossshhh!.......2006-11-09

My hat is off to anyone who can describe this music. I love this album, and since getting in on cassette a month ago (after having it on vinyl for about ten years) have been listening to it almost every night at bedtime...and almost every morning as I get up! I love this era of Tangerine Dream, from 1974's Phaedra up until about 1983. Though there are not too many melodies floating around, I find I can both fall asleep to it and listen to it. Actually, this isn't music that you really listen to...you put it on and just let all the synthesizers and keyboards and sequencers wash over you and absorb you. Even their album covers put me to sleep! Actually, the music is like the soundtrack to the cover...when I listen to the music, I think of the cover and the inside sleeve.

I would say this album is a slight improvement over Phaedra...I don't know why. Maybe because I think it flows better or the fact that it only has two seventeen minute songs (or pieces, or movements) on it. My only complaint? It's not long enough!!! This is wonderful electronic, ambient music, and at the time being, one of my favorite Tangerine Dream albums.

Experimental Music At Its Best.......2006-05-28

I have had both Pheadra and Rubycon since they first came out on imported LP's!. When they finally released them on CD I bought 2 copies of each title!. This is experimental or if you prefer advant-garde music at its best. I have most of Tangerine Dream's CD's and even saw them live at Radio City. I can tell you Rubycon and Pheadra are thier best works. When I really want to get away from it all, this is the music I listen to. Only early Steve Roach (Structures From Silence)comes close.

GREAT MUSIC FROM PRE NEW AGE SUPERSTARS.......2005-09-30

THIS IS A TRIP BACK TO WHEN EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC WAS ALLOWED. I RECOMMEND THIS TO SOMEONE LOOKING TO HEAR A TRIPLE KEYBOARD BAND. AMAZING

Another Tangerine Dream Classic.......2005-01-22

"Rubycon" is TD's 5th album release,coming right off the huge international success of their previous release,the now-classic,"Phaedra".In many ways,"Rubycon" is similar to "Phaedra",both in style and in the use of instruments,such as mellotron,etc.,but there are also many differences as well,with one of the most obvious being the lesser amount of only two tracks instead of the usual four,but even with the fewer tracks,"Rubycon" is still able to dazzle you with its lush mellotron soundscapes and stimulating musical directions.The first piece,the appropriately titled "Rubycon",can be considered the light side of the album,with its gently pulsating mellotron in the background and the other synths taking you away,sucking you into a whole other dimension of sound that you will never want to leave from.The beauty of this early ambient piece surrounds and consumes you,leaving you in a natural,music-induced high.Once again,I find that words cannot fully describe the emotions that I feel while listening to this electronic soundscape of no return.Simply breathtaking.This brings me to the final piece,"Rubycon Part 2",which is the dark side of the album.From the very first seconds of listening to this piece,you will instantly know that this track will be different than the first.The first few minutes consist of what I believe to be some of TD's most darkest sounds ever in their entire history,with electronically generated chorus-sounding male voices that remind me of some gothic horror film,truly an eerie few moments of dark ambient bliss.Eventually,the artificial chorus gives way to some equally eerie sounding synths,continuing in this pattern for a good portion of the rest of the track.Simply astonishing,considering this was recorded in 1975!The final few minutes of the piece sees the eerie atmosphere slowly dissipating,and for the rest of the piece,the darkness gradually fades and the sun starts to peak out of the black clouds for the first time since the beginning of the album,with the piece ending with a beautiful,brighter melody of calm,and then,sadly,the album comes to a close,leaving you with the mindset that it could have gone on for all eternity and you wouldn't have minded.This album's theme is most accurately described as a journey to the darkest corners of the universe and back.A powerful early ambient masterpiece by Tangerine Dream.Very Highly Recommended!

Average customer rating:

Rubycon
Tangerine Dream
Manufacturer: EMI Japan
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Electronica | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | New Age | Styles | Music

Meditation | New Age | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Progressive Rock | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

Dance & DJ | Imports | Stores | Music

New Age | Imports | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Phaedra
Tago Mago
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Trilogy
Living in the Past

ASIN: B00028XEEO
Release Date: 2004-08-02

Tracks:

Rubycon, Pt. 1
Rubycon, Pt. 2

Average customer rating:

Indispensable, just indispensable!

Rubycon
Tangerine Dream
Manufacturer: EMI Int'l
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Electronica | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | New Age | Styles | Music

Meditation | New Age | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Progressive Rock | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

Dance & DJ | Imports | Stores | Music

New Age | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00005QZGC
Release Date: 2002-12-17

Tracks:

Rubycon, Pt. 1
Rubycon, Pt. 2

Album Description

UK Super Audio CD reissue of 1975 album for Virgin.

Customer Reviews:

Indispensable, just indispensable!.......2001-12-07

25 years since I first heard it, Tangerine Dream's "Rubycon" still has the power to send shivers down my spine! Their second album for Virgin records, and consisting of just a single 35-minute work (split in the middle for the old vinyl side-change, of course) this is perhaps the most symphonic of Tangerine Dream's works. It is certainly, even now, the most beautiful and the most elegantly structured, as well as the most mystical, with its soaring, contemplative mellotron choirs, lush tam-tam rolls and hypnotic pulse-laden textures. It is also the least overtly 'pop' in style and steadfastly refuses classification even now. Haunting and delicate synthesiser motifs blend with the sounds of prepared pianos and custom modified organs and other electronics, all of which ensure a uniqueness to the sound world which no-one has ever come close to emulating. A superb mastery of minimalist rhythmic patterns, together with a perfect sense of timing in the development of their material and knowing just when to introduce new elements combine to make this a truly great masterpiece that is set to live forever.

This newly remastered edition is a joy to hear, too. Although some parts of the quiet opening passage remain a little murky, many of the technical problems of the original have been more or less eliminated (or at least substantially reduced) and the louder passages have come up an absolute treat. The flanging of the recorded beach-breakers in the middle of Part II comes through beautifully, too-much clearer than on older releases. The rather raggy ending of the original has been tidied up too and I think Virgin are fully justified in labelling this release as the definitive edition!

At less than 35 minutes overall, this CD remains as scandalously stingy as it ever was, but its beauty soon forces you to forgive it this failing. Own it! Treasure it! Short it may be, but it is oh, so sweet!

Rubycon
Average customer rating:
Rubycon
Tangerine Dream
Manufacturer: Atlantic / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
Electronica | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
General | New Age | Styles | Music
Progressive Rock | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music
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Release Date: 1990-10-25