In 1971, when Alpha Centauri was originally released on the Ohr imprint, stern German experimentalists Tangerine Dream had long since set the controls for the heart of the sun, but were still in the process of forging a distinct identity. The Pink Floyd allusion is quite deliberate: despite an avowed influence from avant-garde neo-classical composer György Ligeti, much of Alpha Centauri revolves around textures that sustained the Cambridge crusaders from Piper At The Gates Of Dawn through to Meddle: irradiated Farfisa Compact Duo organ; heavily compressed tom-tom fills and acid-sunrise cymbal washes played with foam beaters; questing Echoplex slide guitar ascensions; the works.
We don’t have a problem with any of that, of course, it’s just that Tangerine Dream only fully set themselves adrift in the cosmos with 1972’s astonishing Zeit, an obsidian space-rock monolith which remains a benchmark of transcendence and terror. Alpha Centauri is not without a rough-hewn charm of its own, though. Fly And Collision Of Comas Sola sounds as if it’s being rinsed in a twin tub halfway through, while the title track, with Udo Dennebourg’s processed voiceover, is a chilly highlight. Bonus tracks are Oszillator Planet Concert, recorded live in Austria in June 1971, and both tumultuous Hawkwindy sides of the Ultima Thule single.
