The contrarian

Bored Animal PSYCHONAUT

The Fateful Symmetry MUTE 7/10

Celine Dion, a tree made of coat hangers, Crufts… Thirty years after the startling experiments of Tilt defined SCOTT WALKER ’ s latter-day career, his collaborators reveal all about the idiosyncratic working practices that took him from teen idol to avant-garde hero. “It was almost like a rejection of his past,” one eyewitness tells Rob Hughes. “Almost like anti-music.”

He’s a musician who never plans for anything, but Tangerine Dream fans can rejoice in not just the 50th-anniversary reissue of Phaedra , but also a new album from one of its creators. Synth maestro Peter Baumann makes a welcome return with Nightfall , which continues his ongoing exploration of the human condition. He tells Prog why he prefers to do things in a haphazard way and why he wishes he’d had the chance to work with Edgar Froese again.

With 28 albums’ worth of songs to choose from, “hopefully there will be some surprises”.

U.S. Girls ★★★★ Scratch It 4AD. CD/DL/LP ...