Rubycon is the sixth studio album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. It was released in 1975.[1] It is widely regarded as one of their best albums. Rubycon further develops the Berlin Schoolsequencer-based sound they ushered in with the title track from Phaedra.
Although not quite matching the sales figures for Phaedra, Rubycon reached number 10 in a 14-week run, their highest-charting album in the UK.[2]
Music
The album consists of two long tracks, each just over 17 minutes long. "Rubycon, Part One", the A-side of the LP, "ebbs and flows through tense washes of echo and Mellotron choirs, as primitive sequencer lines bubble to the surface”.[3] The B-side, "Rubycon, Part Two", "opens in a wonderfully haunted way" before "the synthesizer arpeggios return to drive things along". [3]
From contemporary reviews, Chris Salewicz of the NME wrote that "a touch more electronically sophisticated than Phaedra [...] perhaps, and the technological massed choir that floods out of the speakers a couple of minutes into Part Two indicates a considerable degree of carefully wired panache." Salewicz summarized the group as being "so thoroughly frustrating because there's nothing you come across which you find you can actively dislike. On the other hand there really does appear to be little there for the moment which warrants more than a luke-warm vague affection that, broken down, would seem close to some nebulous sympathy."[5]
Tom Moon includes Rubycon in his 2008 book 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, saying: "This voyaging vision of sound, ever-unfolding and not quite ever arriving, has been imitated endlessly since 1975. But somehow its admirers haven’t quite captured the openness and faraway grandeur of Tangerine Dream."[6]
In his 1997 book Digital Gothic: A Critical Discography of Tangerine Dream, music journalist Paul Stump praises the album, noting:
“Rubycon is simply a refinement of its predecessor—but to an acme of excellence, and demonstrates a mastery of primitive technology breathtaking in its audacity, tenacity and sheer artistic vision. It is probably the best album the band have made…” [7]
Tour
After the album was released, Christopher Franke's Moog synthesizer was damaged in transit during a tour of Australia and when Franke powered it up, for the first time after the journey, he was nearly killed by an electrical shock.[8]
Track listing
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Rubycon, Part I"
17:18
2.
"Rubycon, Part II"
17:35
A new CD version was issued in 2019 re-mastered from the original master tapes. It contained the bonus track "Rubycon (extended introduction)" mixed by Steven Wilson. This track was previously unreleased.
Personnel
Edgar Froese - Mellotron, guitar and VCS 3 synthesizer on "Rubycon, Part One" ; organ, Mellotron, guitar, gong and VCS 3 synthesizer on "Rubycon, Part Two"
^Stump, Paul (1997). Digital Gothic: A Critical Discography of Tangerine Dream. Trowbridge: SAF Publishing Ltd. p. 67. ISBN0946719187.
^Prendergast, Mark (1994). "Tangerine Dream: Changing Use of Technology, Part 1: 1967-1977". Sound On Sound. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. According to Franke: 'All the modules had been built into one big case, to save time setting up on stage. The large case was shipped upside-down, and after 48 hours on the plane, the heavy transformers came loose and fell through the circuitry. When I first plugged it into the mains in Australia, I got a heavy electric shock. It wouldn't make any sound, and two days were spent repairing it and flying stuff in from Germany. That was a nightmare -- I nearly lost my life on that one'.
^Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 304. ISBN0-646-11917-6.
