Andy Tillison's thoughts on the album

 

The CD, i.e the MUSIC came first. This is not one of those albums based on a book, or even an idea for a book. All the songs were written and partially recorded before there was even the idea of the book, and that includes the lyrics. So I'd like to talk about the music first, because ultimately that is the most important part of the album.

"Not As Good As The Book" is undoubtedly a rather cathartic album. The recording has been going on, on and off, for two years. This does not mean it took two years of work, but it does mean that it has taken its inspiration and direction from this time. The two years in question have for me personally, been a time of personal upheaval, self doubt, chaos, uncertainty and a slightly nomadic lifestyle. The album started in the optimistic glow of the recently finished "Place In The Queue", and the first few concerts we played in support of that. The 12 year long partnership between myself and Sam Baine was just beginning to break down, and the first song that got penned "A Crisis In Midlife" hints at the trepidation we were both feeling at the time. During the whole break up thing.. which was just as bad for Sam as it was for me, I found myself writing music almost like writing a diary. A lot of this became one of the album's two longer tracks "The Full Gamut". Although this clocks in a 23 minutes, it once was more than twice as long.So both these pieces were written in France.... back in 2006.

The composition of the rest of the album took place here in England. I moved back here at the end of 2006 and have spent the year rediscovering who Andy Tillison is now. I found out that he's just a 48 year old bloke with very little extraordinary about him, and I thought I'd write some songs about being just that - because everything seems oriented towards schoolkids, celebrities or younger people these days with very little relevance to who I (and a lot of US) am/are. Really, I CAN use the car and I'm NOT too young to vote and those Summertime Blues are more than 30 years away.The first CD is a series of shorter songs (in other words nothing less than 6 minutes, nothing more than 13!!) We've grouped tham all together under the "Crisis In Midlife" heading. They include some stories to make you smile (including another episode of Lost In London), a character who works in an office but always wanted to be an astronaut, a modern day love affair on the internet, a born-again biker and little old me worrying about getting old.

Second CD "Throwing Metal At The Sky" finishes off with "The Full Gamut" mentioned earlier... a travelogue based on the events of 2006, but starts with "Four Egos, One War" - an unreleased Po90 piece that has now been re-performed by The Tangent because the damn war won't go away.

Does it sound like a normal Tangent record? Well... yes... and no. When I heard it back in full for the first time, to me at least it sounded like a different animal. It has a lot of the trademarks, but we seem to have digressed somewhat from the formula of the previous three. Sometimes I can almost feel Dan and Alex from Po90 are trying to knock the studio walls down. Probably the most telling comment came from a friend of the band who said.." Sounds 100 percent like the Tangent, and NOT AT ALL like the Flower Kings. I suppose he's right. I can't deny that Tangent was very TFK inspired at first.... after all we did have 3 current members in the band. Now we share bass players and have their ex drummer with us. Listening to "The Sum Of No Evil" and "NAGATB" - two entirely different moods and experiences I think you'll find. And before anyone kicks off.... TSONE is a fabulous favourite album of mine.

Jakko of course is new boy, and as usual we have someone new bringing something to the table. His guitar work is another style from either of our previous geniuses, and he also brings a new voice to the band. We can't say at this point whether he'll stay with the band or not, he's a very busy working musician, bu it was a great experience making the record with him. An odd moment was when I had to do the jazz piano solo. We couldn't be ourselves without one, and I missed Sam then. I only hope what I did is worthy of her. The learned among you will realise that I tend to play fake jazz whereas Sam played the real deal. Guy has played a large role - multi layered voices and acoustic instruments are a prominent feature on this album, it was great to be working side by side again and the bulk of the album was made here at his studio in Leeds, including live performances on motorcycles, dinner trays, sheets of tinfoil and so many silly acoustic stringed instruments I nearly lost count.

It seems that after each album there is no future possible for the band. Including the live albums the Tangent have now created six!. After Queue it really did seem to me that it was all over. The enthusiasm of the other participants and the bands friends really forced me to work hard to get back into writing again. We've never yet succeeded in making a studio album with the same lineup as the previous one. However, we usually seem to have the same spirit and perhaps that is where we win.

So.... this Book. What's all that about then?

Well, the idea for the book came to me in Jonas Reingold's Jacuzzi. I was lamentably alone in it, and was only there because my passport was 500 miles away in the North of Sweden where it had been sent by an over enthusiastic lost property person at Malmo Airport, and the only person in the world who wanted to be in the Jacuzzi with me was 2000 miles to the south of me. Jonas had had to move on to recording his next project, and I wiled away the hours with my laptop computer trying to make the stories in the songs link together into a miniature story that could be used for the album's sleevenotes. It wasn't until I got home that I realised that "we're gonna need a bigger book"

The stories of the songs had turned into memories in the mind of the central character, who is being cloned 88,000 years into the future. Needless to say, perhaps he looks an awful lot like me, but it's a composite of people I know, people who I have shared ideas and beliefs with over many years. It's supposed to be a humorous book, taking a slightly odd view of the fate of progressive rock music both in its original era, the way it is seen now, and a ludicrous idea of how important it may be in the future. "Yes" accidentally destroying the world? The fate of an entire race resting on the memories of two Van Der Graaf Generator concerts?.. The book is subtitled "A Midlife Crisis in A Minor".... with the Court of the Crimson King turning 40 years of age this year, it's not just the likes of me who experiencing this crisis.

In France I met a remarkable young man called Antoine Ettori (self portrait left) who at 22 years of age can draw so well that I reckon he must have done abstract paintings with his baby food and fingers. I was looking at a picture of his on a toilet wall, which I suddenly realised was exactly one of the ideas in the book. My 'hero' Dave is in a dull office job, wishing he was an astronaut, or doing something really exciting with his life. And this drawing was of people working in a humdrum office with loads of amazing things happening outside the window. I asked him if he could do something like this for the Tangent, and ended up with a large selection of beautifully presented Bande Dessiné (Comic Strip) all of which complement the story perfectly.

The picture above is the second half of one of the comic strip sections which tells the story of two young men collecting refundable bottles to finance record buying back in 1975.

I hope you will find time to listen to our new album. It's been a part of our lives for the past two years, and we'd like to share it. Peace Love ATD Dec 2007