The Millennium will see TANGERINE DREAM's thirty third birthday. PINK FLOYD can claim to be their seniors by only a year, both forming in the late 60's - early 70's, an era which begged change, reform and progression. Yet, while both groups favour long stretches of Ivy Tendril meanderings, they have, until this album remained distinctly separate entities. "The Dream Mixes", a double album reviewed elsewhere was in many ways a let down. No one doubts their influence on modern electronic music - they virtually pioneered the use of sequencers as a cold mirror image of LA MONTE YOUNG, STEVE REICH, PHILIP GLASS, TERRY RILEY and the whole Minimalist school - where cold cyber-perfection replaced human endurance in performance, allowing microtonal variations greater liberty - pushing back the boundaries of exploration almost infinitely further. But recently this influence has fed back on them - they have been listening to those who followed their footsteps before exploring virgin territory (EBM, Acid House, Rave Culture) and have been seduced by what they have heard. It's not the first time this has happened - CABARET VOLTAIRE became Teachers-following-Pupils, and while their sound was not exactly BAD, neither did it seem somehow RIGHT. "The Dream Mixes" has much the same effect - soft Acid-Dance electronic music which sounded great in a washed-out, bleached way, but somehow lacked the genius of their former work. Many of the same tracks appear here, but suddenly they make sense. Yes, this is a live album, but as you might imagine, the quality is almost as good as any studio. The opening track is a throwaway bit of Rock Pomp - jump to the next track and start your journey from there. And it IS a journey - much the same as FLOYD live concert is a journey - a thematic adventure storyboard where each piece segues into the next with flare and grace. The addition of guitar - Spanish fingering & overtone Rock sustains - adds just enough overtones to this already colour-rich tapestry of music. This is probably one of their most accessible albums which might open up to a wider audience than any of their previous works - everything's still there - rippling, lulling sequences; large walls of scaling keyboard; short soft Industrial soundscapes, but it's reached a dignified maturity. Perhaps this is as much a cop-out as the aforementioned studio album, but this seems to have so much more dignity, sounds somehow more at ease with itself. More musical than ever, they have entered a new era. More than that, they have come of age. Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.