The 2kDozen 500: #166 - Tangerine Dream, "Thief"

Saw this album mentioned on Twitter somewhere earlier this weekend, and thought I should give it a go. Plus Tangerine Dream are one of the missus' favourite bands. They worked on the Michael Mann film from 1981, "Thief"; and it's listening to this that I realise again how crucial Tangerine Dream were to much of the high Eighties output, that link of moody synths and moodier-yet guitar solos.

This album fits that same mold with "Diamond Diary" dancing up and down the arpeggios and making much with the wailing and windmill arms. "Burning Bar" has that Mayan intensity that I've long come to associate with the Tangerines. "Beach Scene" should probably sound relaxed but it burns with too much Scarface-like energy, as though the circuits are coked up and not quite able to pull off serene. The strangled, claustrophobic guitar sound on "Scrap Yard" is also very High Eighties, jets across the stratosphere and chainsaws in the bathroom and rolled-up neon sleeves and no socks and that. "Trap Feeling" is more at the Doctor Who/Darkplace end of the spectrum. Then it's all warm build at the beginning of "Igneous", a title I'm fond of already, and some serious jangling with what sounds like an electronic wolf in the background.

The movie has got to be worth a watch. Even if it stars James Caan.

Rating: High Eighties out of Mayan