Tangerine Dream - Madcap’s Flaming Duty

A dozen songs spanning 70-plus minutes pay homage to Syd Barrett by matching Tangerine Dreams’s lush synthscapes with vocals from Chris Housle, and lyrics derived from poems by the likes of the Renaissance man Sir Philip Sidney, metaphysical poet George Herbert, pre-Raphaelite Rossetti, visionary Blake, Romantic Shelley and comparatively latterday US scribes Whitman and Emerson. And the marriage mainly works. From the nigh-on 10- minute opening Astrophel & Stella, the burbling keys, rifling beats and incisive guitar work complement the vocals well. Shape My Sin sounds like Opera Sauvage-era Vangelis, The Divorce adopts a downtempo millennial Marillion mode, and the sleek, flute-laden A Dream Of Death filters Floyd by way of Depeche Mode or Pet Shop Boys. Celtic strains appear here and there, and some tunes are less vital but, on the whole it’s a laudable, albeit less than psychinclined, tribute.