Syd Barrett

The Madcap Laughs is Syd Barrett's first solo album after being replaced in Pink Floyd by his old school friend David Gilmour. The title of the album comes from a line in the song Octopus. After leaving the group, Barrett began recording sessions with former Pink Floyd-turned-Syd Barrett manager Peter Jenner in May 1968. Although the sessions were brief, and they produced some fine material, the project was abandoned for almost a year while Barrett spent much of the year as a recluse.

In the 32 years that elapsed between Syd Barrett’s last unproductive visit to a recording studio in 1974 and his death on July 7, 2006, much was written about Pink Floyd’s former creative leader, most of it based on pure conjecture. Barrett’s retreat away from his former life méant that, as his myth grew through his absence, he was effectively viewed through the fragments he presented of himself in his recordings. This bespoke Mojo collection seeks to present that elusive sense of what can only therefore be described as “Sydness”.
Included are tracks by artists that influenced Barrett-era Floyd (fellow sonic adventurers AMM alongside Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, the two bluesmen who gave the band its name), as well as Syd’s contemporaries (Soft Machine, Gong, Hawkwind, Frank Zappa, the Bonzos, Kevin Ayers)…