Paul Stump

You have to be a fan to make your way through this book. The way it's organised makes it a little tedious by the latter stages unless you really care what the author thinks of Tangerine Dream's albums in the 1990s. Some of my assessments of TD's albums are quite different to Stump's: he writes off Hyperborea, which I consider a highpoint, while raving about other work that I found pedestrian. So sometimes it's difficult to know how much to trust his opinions about the albums I haven't heard. The book clearly lacks the critical input of an editor, and, as a consequence, sometimes goes off down tendentious avenues that serve more to show off Stump's reading list (which is the standard one that all contributors to The Wire have been drilled in) than to explain anything about the music.… (mais)