Tangerine Dream – Lily On The Beach (1989)

This is another charity shop purchase from last week, and like so many other names from the 1970s, Tangerine Dream is one name which has me reaching for my wallet.

But I'm well aware that by 1989, the Tangs are a very different band to the cathedral filling electronic pioneers of the 1970s.

Now just a two piece, with guests, of founder member Edgar Froese and Austrian composer Paul Haslinger, this album contains another unprecedented 13 tracks, all instrumental. Gone are the days when the only reason there's as many as two pieces is that you have to turn the LP over.

In 2025, Haslinger is a composer in LA, mostly doing film and video game music, and listening to this album that's no surprise. Everything on this album is incidental. Nothing stands out as good or bad, it's just there. For Tangerine Dream obsessives, there's the first appearance of a saxophone on a TD album, in the longer closing track, Long Island Sunset, that apart, there's really nothing to say about this album of bland, formulaic 1980s electropop.

Link to full album

2* - as far removed from the difficult listens of the 1970s as you can imagine. Background.