The Tangent REVIEWS Page

After "Down and Out In Paris and London" topped my personal choices for last year it was inevitable that this was going to become part of my collection. I missed the first release of "A Place On the Shelf" last year and was pleased that the band saw fit to make it available to more people. This, a mere album of otherwise discarded tracks and unfinished demos, seems likely to be one of my favourites of this year already.

"A Place on the Shelf" is marketed as "A special enthusisast's collection". It's nearly an hour long and there is only one track that I have heard before, this being another version of "Everyman's Forgotten Monday" which itself surfaced as a bonus track on the Paris and London album. This track was my least preferred on that album, and despite being preferable to the original remains my least preferred here too. And for the same reasons, it's a sort of Pink Floyd thing with an imitation Gilmour guitar solo and lots of swearing that belongs neither with the Floyd or the Tangent. Lead vocals (good ones) by Guy Manning on various parts of this song do little to enhance or rescue it, these being one of the main differences between the versions, and this version does seem to be slightly faster and therefore less ponderous. that's probably why I prefer it.

Happily, this is (once again) the only track to let down the set. The album kicks off with something I have always wanted to hear:

As a youth, I was always thrilled by the great prog bands' desire to play and reinterpret classical music. As such, ELP's "Pictures at an Exhibition" has been a lifelong favourite, along with many other shorter examples. I have since yearned for something similarly large scale, similarly ambitious, pretentious, portentous and horribly totally PROG. And here it is. The Tangent's version of "The Rite Of Spring" by Igor Stravinsky. Previously unreleased due to copyright, this track according to the sleeve notes formed the basis for a whole Tangent album which was to be called punnishously "Le Massacre De Prentemps". It seems that the band got half way, because the whole of the the first of two main sections of the piece are here, beginning and ending the album. The first section is entirely instrumental and sticks pretty much to the score of Stravinsky's original. It's not an imitation orchestra though. Imagine if ELP had done it in 1978 instead of recording some of the things they did record in 78! But add to that, that Canterbury sound which the Tangent have reintroduced to us all in the past few years and you have a really exciting piece that works so well in the small electric band's hands. The piece is melodically led by synthesisers, hammond organs and woodwind, driven along by a sparking and powerful, as well as uncredited rhythm section! Although some of the hammonds are a bit vicious in tone from time to time (this is an uncompleted recording after all) I found myself turning this into a strength by the third time of listening. A bit, perchance, like the horrible fuzzy guitar tones that make "20 Century Schizoid Man" so wonderful. Listening to this piece, presented in prog format now lets you see where pieces like "Schizoid" may well have found their inspirations!

The second half of the piece comes at the end of the album. Like ELP again, Tillison and his sidemen have decided to add song structures to the original piece with lyrics. Although it seems that the corresponding Stravinsky section is mostly "there", some of the themes have been turned to riffs, the voicings turned to dark power-chords and from these, the song has been grafted in. Typically, Andy Tillison has found something in the title "The Rite Of Spring" with which to inspire another spate of his complaints about our species' behaviour. In this case it appears to be a tirade against everyone decamping to the countryside on a nice hot summer's day armed with Range Rovers, barbecues, and "Cheap Gazebos". There are regrettably no lyrics provided with the package, but lines such as "Coming out like flies on the first hot day", "Ducks feast on the corners of white loaves", "Stella tins on the river-a-floatin'" are particularly well observed objects for his sarcastic dark humoured wrath. I realize that this is a reason many don't like Tillison or The Tangent (Hello Neil!!). To me though, it's part of the deal, part of prog's story, and Peter Gabriel would have written something similar. In fact he DID, but that was when prog had sharper teeth and the audience wanted to see them used. The Tangent still use theirs, as we will see in the other major part of this album "Live On Air".

On the whole I do prefer the more "original" first half of this excellent attempt at "The Rite Of Spring", but still think all of it is just, well, wonderful. I'd always wanted to hear how it would work, and here it is. I guess that perhaps the intrusion of the song in the second section probably breaks up a piece I am too familiar with, whereas when ELP plonked their bits into Mussorgsky I was young enough to probably not have realized, or more likely, more open minded!

"I wanna be a Chick" which doubtless is some reference to Return To Forever, is a pleasing and snappy little piece in a jazzy style with lots of piercing synth soloing and melodic figures, certainly reminiscent of the sound of the "No Mystery" album by the early RTF. Another homage, in much the same way as "The Canterbury Sequence" and "Ethanol Hatnail" pay tribute to the influences in the songs with the titles themselves.

Despite the successes of the tracks described above, it's the 20 minute epic "Live On Air" that is the real meat on the bone on this album. I'd be tempted to say that the Tangent goes where no-one else dares with this song, were it not for the fact that they openly declare that they didn't dare go there and that's why the track was not on (as originally intended) the album "Not As Good As The Book" and why it appears, quietly, here. It's particularly difficult to grasp what it's all about at first. It opens with a displaced guy in a bedsit flat looking out at the rain, feeling lonely and isolated and "writing an opus about his tiny past". Continuation perhaps of the "Full Gamut" love saga one might think. But just as the vampires suddenly take over what appeared to be a heist/outlaw/road movie in the film "From Dusk Til Dawn", we realize that there are terrorists in the flat next door, and that these are the very same who did the 7/7 tube bombings in London - (these people were from Leeds where Andy still lives). From this realization onward, the song goes through some remarkable twists and turns from more Stravinsky influenced orchestral stuff, through space rock, jazz, lampooning of James Bond and 24, terrorists singing in Russian accents, a totally unexpected RAP section ( believe me) a few (mainly American) radio comments of the day including one pundit suggesting that after a disaster like this is a good time to buy stocks and shares, and, wait for it, gasp, the actual final suicide speech of Siddique Khan himself, juxtaposed against an interview with Tillison! Jeez!

If all this sounds like the worst taste thing you ever heard of, think again. Think again a lot. Remember that this piece was withdrawn by the band to start with, and then analyze what you are hearing. Its elements of bad taste are, to these ears at least, specifically there to make you realize in just how bad taste the reporting and depiction of events such as these are. "Without us Mothers", sing the terrorists, "you ain't got no film". "They make entertainment of the horrors that it seems appear" sings the narrator, This whole song sums up our rubbernecking and macabre desire manifested through modern media. I think it's fair to say that the "Sun" and the "Daily Mail" would be disgusted. maybe I should send them a copy and get the band some free publicity.

"Live on Air" is no easy listen. The Tangent have delivered through the years a fair mix of "easy" and "difficult" music to listen to, the uplifting "Where Are They Now" and "Darkest Dreams" is stark contrast to "The Gap In The Night" , "The Full Gamut" and this tortuously complex affair, "Live On Air". I think they were right to shelve it. I can imagine a good part of a hemisphere not 'getting it'

The recordings made on this album are what are described as demos. There were days when recordings like this would have won Grammys. If this band can put out stuff like this as spare material, heaven knows what they still have to offer us. To my mind, the most exciting prog band in a decade, the new Van Der Graaf, the new Roy Harper, the new Yes and the new Billy Bragg all rolled into one, then ignored by everyone.

First things first, this isn’t a new Tangent album. As the sleeve notes point out:

It consists of demo recordings – for the albums Down And Out In Paris And London, Not As Good As The Book, the unrealised Le Massacre Du Printemps – and a song, Everyman’s Forgotten Monday, that originally appeared on the album Lifecycle by Gold Frankincense & Diskdrive.

The tracks are not demos in the traditional sense – they are fully fledged and fully produced songs – so don’t think that the material was discarded because of quality considerations. There are a lot of bands out there who would, I’m sure, love to have released something as good as this. Andy Tillison provides illuminating sleeve notes behind the rationale for the songs not making it on to regular albums.

For example the longest song, Le Massacre Du Printemps, which is spread across tracks 1 and 5, had to be shelved because the record company that controls Stravinsky’s Le Sacre Du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) on which it is based were not prepared to let Tillison release it. The instrumental first half is the Tangent’s Pictures At An Exhibition moment as they rework the original well known classical piece. Keyboards are to the fore, weaving in and out of a solid rhythm section, completing the ELP analogy, whilst the second half is more Tangent-y with a fantastic harmonised chorus that reappears several times throughout the song.

Everyman’s Forgotten Monday must be a first for a prog album, coming as it does with a warning regarding strong language. It’s a song about Burma, with soaring saxophone and restrained soloing by Andy, and a version (the one here is the ‘Fast Mix’) appeared as a bonus track on the limited first edition digipak version of Down And Out.

Instrumental I Wanna Be A Chick has a laid back, lounge room jazzy vibe punctuated by staccato synth breaks.

It’s a traditional multilayered Tangent epic, over twenty minutes in length, withdrawn only because Tillison didn’t want the lyrics misinterpreting. Unusually for a Tangent song it contains “found sounds” – including TV pundits commenting on the day’s events and the final message of bomber Mohammed Siddique Khan. It may also be the first Tangent song to contain a rap section.

This is an absolutely essential purchase for Tangent fans. Do note though that in order to distinguish between the "Limited Edition" originally made available to hardcore fans who heeded the call and supported the band (and paid a premium price), this album does NOT now feature the bonus live track or the Po90 Jitters preview. For those new to the band, or unfamiliar with their work then I’d suggest the studio albums would be a slightly more accessible and hence better place to start.

I have always thought that Greg Lake sounds like Neil Diamond. I've thought that since childhood when my older sister used to play "Hot August Night" ceaselessly. I don't care much for that crooning style and consequently I don't really care for Greg Lake's voice that much. The thing is, I just love ELP. So did I ever wish that ELP had a different singer? No. I've had to listen to my Mum telling me that none of my favourite bands could sing, friends who hate Yes and Rush for the same reason. Did this ever stop Geddy Lee from singing? No.

So it is with the Tangent. I end up loving a band where no review of their music is complete without "despite Tillison's vocals". I wish to be the one who does a review, (my first review since I worked staff at "Disc" -remember that? I think my last review was for Mud) of the Tangent where the vocals are actually the centrepiece of what it is that the band do and why they matter. Despite nothing.

This is the Tangent's fifth studio CD. A band who have quietly dominated my own and many other prog rock aficionados listening during this decade, in much the same way as the Flower Kings and Spock's Beard did in the 90s. Like all the best bands they have a tortuously changing lineup which usually dominates the first half of any review, telling us who's in and who's out. So to pass over quickly, out are all members of Flower Kings, in are Jonathan Barratt (bass) Paul Burgess (drums) and the guitar parts are now handled by Andy Tillison apart from a "guest spot" by Jakko which implies he's not a member of the regulars any more. Theo Travis, Guy Manning and Andy Tillison are still there. Tillison makes big play of the fact that they are all English this time. I don't care if they are from Irkutsk.

The album itself is presented in a sort of blurry digipack package with the Eiffel Tower at night taking the front cover. Throughout the rest of the package, everything seems to be based around blurred traffic shots or "time lapse ribbons" as Tillison mentions in the lyrics of the song "Perdu Dans Paris". It's hardly the Roger Dean style stuff of Ed Unitsky and I think that it looks far more like the front of a jazz album than a prog rock epic, but when you get to the music inside, it does all make sense and in fairness, Ed Unitskie would not have done.

The album kicks off, as Tangent and Transatlantic and Flower Kings albums tend to do, with a twenty minute epic called Where Are They Now, nicely cut up into little meaningless (to the actual playing thereof), but appealing subtitles like Europe by Ebay or The Losing Game. Already a nod to those lovely LPs with subtitles like "Sure as Eggs is Eggs (aching men's feet)", "The Solid Time of Change" and "The Clot Thickens" The Prologue section starts with a kind of cross between Mark Knopfler's "Local Hero" soundtrack guitar theme. I worry about that. For approximately 10 seconds when I realise I like it anyway. By the time the vocals come in we've had the rise and climax of this theme with Wishbone Ash harmony guitars, a pretty obvious phrase from Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" (those of us who have the Tangent's fan-only album 'A Place on the Shelf' know where that came from!), a mad jazzy section with piano a guitar fighting it out against a groovy bass line, some keyboard punctuations that could have been in Karn Evil 9, the re-appearance of the first theme played on flute, the rebuilding of that theme and subsequent development into the first song section. That lot took about three minutes. I've heard whole albums with less ideas and influences than are packed into those three minutes.

"Caught in the lights of the under-pass, a guy who needs no name lights a cigarette and thinks back, he lost the Winning Game" Tillison knows how to hook people into his stories because they actually open like novels or good Tarantino style cinema. Darkness, street lights, traffic, cigarette, mystery. This section gives us the clue to what is happening in the song. It's a series of little sequels to songs that the band have done before. Not musical sequels, lyrical sequels. This one is for the Winning Game, a track from their second 2004 album. It seems that the character here is now down at heel after his financial success and selfishness portrayed in the earlier song, here he's in the recession, with the rest of us. The whole piece whisks us round what it is that the Tangent do best. There's great keyboard/guitar interplay jam sections, diminuendos to gorgeous little themes, complete breakdowns, chaotic sections, songs within songs - rabble rousing choruses, a whole slew of different keyboards sounds. if anyone like myself, fell in love with the band for the songs "In Darkest Dreams" or "In Earnest", well this is totally on a par with those two. In fact "Earnest" is the last stop of the sequels journey, and with some achingly beautiful lines from the apparently "weak singer" - lump in my throat here at any rate - the thing gradually builds up into the best progressive rock sax solo since Wish You Were Here, Theo Travis surely claiming his crown as the King of such things and fades away with a tuneful, soulful guitar solo back into the theme that started the whole thing off a mere 20 minutes ago. Tillison amused me in an interview recently where he was asked about why he wrote songs that were so long. He said "They're only as long as an episode of Scooby Doo" Even I hadn't thought of that and I've been defending long songs for 40 years now. This is a monumental track, a proper epic that deserves its length. It passes fast like "Close to the Edge" does. At the end of boring geography lessons I'd look at my watch and think "20 minutes to go". I found that if I sung "Close to the Edge" in my head, the dinner bell went off a lot faster. This would be an ideal candidate.

After a fireworks display like that we need a respite of course, and for two bars of that sort of Genesis Duke-era drum machine it seems like we're going to get it. Wrong. The whole thing is a trick and Peroxetine 20 kicks in like someone throwing you what appears to be a tennis ball which turns out to be made of lead when you catch it. A randy riff that sounds like Van Der Graaf being annoyed blasts in accompanied by a synth line that's so shrill it sounds like your smoke alarm has gone off. My KIDS told me to turn it down for goodness sakes! A few bars of that and we're into night time traffic again, smoky atmospheres with cool vibraphones, dirty snarling saxophones and references in the lyrics to the Truman Show perhaps "The traffic's just going round and round". This song appears to be about the effects of anti depressants like Paxil and Seroxat which are based on Peroxetine. (Wikipedia - citation needed:-)) Mood and melody do play a big part, this song does rather use that Porcupine Tree ON/OFF technique where things just blast in and disappear. Bass playing is liquid and begins to suddenly make you think, "This isn't Jonas Reingold any more but it's really good" The song suddenly shifts into a more typically Tangent instrumental section. I like this very much with it's twists and turns, yet somehow feel that it one of the album's least convincing transitions and feel that this section is almost incongruously isolated from the rest of the song as though it's an idea they wanted to use so they just stuck it in there. The first of two! Tut Tut! When we get back out of the prog and into the song though, the urgency of the piece is certainly still there and this song is still very good and surprising listening if nowhere near as perfectly formed as the opener.

But with perfect formation we are not finished. We now have Perdu Dans Paris which is for me the Tangent's crowning glory. We do finally get to relax on this one as the song opens ballad style onto a description of Paris - you guessed it - by night. And what a description. Listening to the words, it's like being there. It makes me want to go there now!!. I want to hop on the Eurostar and be there tonight in time to see "The white buildings sautee in the oil of the setting sun" and "The brasseries and sprawling pavement cafes casting lumiere onto the streets of Gay Paris" If the French Tourist board don't launch it as a manifesto for next year it will only be because of the underlying sinister edge, the fact that there are "two cities in this town" where homeless people rub shoulders on the same streets as the wealthy in the shadows of monuments that are famous across the world. A heartbreaking song in some respects, the middle instrumental break is worthy of Genesis at their best, full of joy, melancholy, sadness and amazement all at once. A twelve minute orgy of tune, imagery, terrific playing from all the band, a drop dead gorgeous guitar solo from Jakko, sublime sax interjections from Theo and just the most remarkable vocal performance from Tillison, equal in my opinion to that "The Streets Are lined with camera crews" in "Family Snapshot" on Gabriel Three. The keyboards are held back, there's loads of space, the drums sound amazing. What a song.

Taken into another song If "Perdu" was about down and out in Paris, this must be its London counterpart. The Company Car kicks off sounding for all the world like a track from Joni Mitchell's "Hejira" album, "Old Furry Sings The Blues", complete with that laconic de-tuned guitar strum and very Pastorius inspired bass playing from the by now very convincing and surprising Jonathan Barratt. Where Mitchell is looking at the decline in the fortunes of Beal Street (home of the blues in Memphis Tenessee) at the death bed side of one of the blues legends, Tillison is on the streets of our capital looking at the plight of kids with nothing much to do, families whose only ride in a "company car" will be the car that takes them to the cemetery. Grim stuff. But I'm Grim Tim after all, so it suits me. Sometimes it's the Tangent's moves from one set of inspirations to another that makes them what they are - for good and for bad. Here we get an example of both. The song builds up into a kind of Van Der Graaf frenzy (them again) which from a Joni Mitchell start point is somewhat unusual. It becomes quite punky. This really really works for me. What does not work however is the sudden dive into a piece of ELP almost straight swiped out of the title track "Trilogy" with swooping moogs and nice though that might have been somewhere else (like an ELP album for example) this just serves as a major distraction, totally out of context with the rest of the piece in tone, feeling and sentiment. In a great, poignant and subtle song this is entirely unwarranted. Sorry about that guys, wet fish time!

My edition of the album now has a bonus track. "Everyman's Forgotten Monday" of which I do have an earlier version on the Shelf album mentioned earlier. Bonus tracks normally come last, but this one doesn't. It's the penultimate track and it shouldn't have been. It's a nice little ditty that sounds very Pink Floyd influenced (indeed it's billed as a tribute to Richard Wright). While being pleasant in one respect, the lyrics are decidedly unpleasant in their subject matter (The Burma Crisis a couple of years ago) and also in their use of the English language. Ten or more uses of the word "F***" in a song are perhaps a bit excessive for anyone, let alone a progressive rock band. I'm not a prude and I watch Tarantino movies with great pleasure. I know that what Tillison wants to do is shock people about the situation, but the use of that word no longer shocks and I think, indeed I know he could have chosen better. I'll probably burn myself a CD with this bonus track left out.

And then we have "Ethanol Hat Nail" or the "Canterbury Sequence part 2". Fans of the band are doubtless familiar with the Tangent's penchant for occasionally recreating the "Canterbury Scene" sound of bands like Caravan, Hatfield and The North, Egg and of course National Health. Withe the latter in mind, look at the words "Ethanol Hat Nail" closely! The original Canterbury Sequence was a favourite track from the first album by Tangent, and the other songs in this style have included the "Lost In London" series. I have loved all of them and this one is no exception - in fact, I love it even more than the others. This one really does explore some of the wacky insanity that the bands mentioned before could dole out along with fairly cheerful empty headed lyrics and pleasant tunes. This time there's more traces of the Soft Machine and Henry Cow in the melee, (Theo Travis plays for the Soft Machine too as well as other Canterbury band Gong and traces of Hillage-ness can be found here too.) Try working out where the beats are going to come down in the mad Marimba led opening complete with smashing glass a la Gentle Giant. This is 14 minutes of crazy and fun stuff that delights, entertains and positively sparkles with ideas and references. I genuinely could not have asked for more. I suppose this track might be a real bore for those not into Canterbury stuff, but for me it's difficult to understand how anyone could not anyway!

All in all the negative things I have had to say are about a bonus track and a couple of bits I think we (and they) would have been better without. On the whole though, I think this album represents to me the perfect summing up of all the Tangent stand for and have done. I would be happy now to say it's my favourite of all their albums, yet I don't think they have quite hit the heights of the original "In Earnest" this time. The Tangent have always had a free thinking spirit which I must say I far prefer to the thinly disguised Evangelical dogma of Transatlantic's otherwise terrific album "The Whirlwind". Tillison is almost at pains to declare his lack of religious faith in that first song "Like when people find God, that's a claim I can't boast" and I wonder if he had anticipated the Transatlantic's lyrical bias. Once again the Tangent prove that you can make progressive rock music that has soul and feeling, real emotion as well as blind people with your skill. There are precious few left who can do this. I will look forward to their next and hope (probably once again forlornly) that they can actually stay together to work out the talents they have already manifested here. Certainly totally different from the much more aggressive album by Tillison's other band PO90 which arrived at the same time. I would like to review that too but will not be able to until my eldest son gives it back. (There's a sign) A great album, and for me the high point of 2009 in prog. Not for everyone perhaps, but for me.

User Review from AMAZON UK by "Jim"

Swedes still off the menu - more Yorkshire pud!, 2 Jan 2010 ***** NEXT PREVIOUS

This is the 5th studio album by The Tangent, and the third following the departure of the influential Swede, Roine Stolt. Without the latter's song-writing contribution, those duties have been entirely - and expertly - fulfilled by our Andy. Having done a splendid job on the last two `solo' Tangent albums, Mr T. has surpassed himself on `Down and Out in Paris and London', resulting in an album that is easily the best of the last three, and certainly of equal stature to the first two, which were bona fide classics of the contemporary prog genre.

While AT's influences, including VdGG, the Canterbury sound, even Tangerine Dream, were clearly apparent on the first two Tangent albums, the post-Stolt era seems to represent a progression in which successive releases increasingly encapsulate Mr Tillison's musical vision. As a result `Down and Out' has, to my ears, as much in common with (pre-Jitters) Po90 Degrees as with `The Music That Died Alone'. It's not that different though - notably in the excellent sequel to `The Canterbury Sequence' (`Part 2').

The clean, reverb-heavy, guitar melody in the first bars of the opening track `Where Are They Now?' is wierdly reminiscent of - gulp! - The Shadows, or even Dire Straits, but this is soon rectified as the full band come in, taking the lick to another, more satisfyingly proggy place. The surprise is complete, however, when one learns that the six strings are being plucked, not by some expert, hired guitar-slinger (save on `Perdu Dans Paris', where Jakko Jakszyk contributes), but by Andy Tillison himself. Not only that, but he's taught himself to play the guitar especially for this album! Is there no end to his talent?

`Down and Out' comprises of 6 well-crafted pieces that sound just great. The production is lush without being overly fussy or intricate. The music sounds spacious, with a warm, organic feel. This contrasts greatly, and favourably, with the loud, harsh production values of the latest album by that other feted prog outfit, Transatlantic, whose `The Whirlwind' was released in the UK on the same day as `Down and Out'.

The contrast in lyrical content between these two albums also reveals a vastly different song-writing sensibility that just makes me appreciate the current all-British incarnation of The Tangent all the more. Whereas American Neal Morse clumsily dominates Transatlantic's song-writing with overbearing religiosity, Andy's songs are more down-to-earth presenting pithy social and political observations without being preachy. There is an autobiographical element that has also been present on previous Tangent albums, much of which reflects recently experienced dark places and turbulent times (now, apparently, happily resolved).

Andy Tillison's trademark no-nonsense vernacular vocals (he's a Yorkshire lad, but to me sounds more Essex when singing) might not win any singing competitions but lend an honest, highly individual quality to proceedings, and are entirely in keeping with The Tangent concept. And what might this be? To play excellent, innovative English progressive rock, for one thing!

An excellent album - 64 minutes of pure aural pleasure.

Geoff Feakes' Review DUTCH PROGRESSIVE ROCK PAGE NEXT PREVIOUS

When The Tangent released their debut album The Music That Died Alone just five years ago it was greeted with unprecedented enthusiasm by fans and reviewers alike. After four studio and two live albums there has been much tooing and throwing in The Tangent camp with Andy Tillison (vocals, keyboards, electric guitar) and Guy Manning (acoustic guitar, vocals) being the only survivors from the original line-up. Not a total surprise given that the seeds for the band were sown by Tillison as a solo project and his working partnership and friendship with Manning goes back several years. Also along for the ride once more is Theo Travis (sax, flute) who in addition to his numerous involvements elsewhere has been around since the second album The World That We Drive Through. New to the line-up is Paul Burgess (drums) of 10CC, Camel and Jethro Tull fame and Jonathan Barrett (bass guitar) who has previously worked with Tillison in Po90. Both men have their work cut out replacing the outgoing Swedish pairing of Jaime Salazar and Jonas Reingold last heard on 2008’s Not As Good As The Book.

The opening epic Where Are They Now? is a neat idea containing as it does lyrical references to characters from previous Tangent songs especially In Earnest. For the first time the band is without a fully fledged guitarist leaving Tillison to provide the strident guitar work to open and close the piece. Elsewhere keyboards dominate featuring some of Tillison’s best (and most tasteful) playing thus far with excellent support from Travis. I’m not the biggest fan of saxophone but his soaring solo towards the end of the song is truly inspirational. For the most part however the track continues at a medium to relaxed tempo containing some suitably melodic themes particularly in the aforementioned intro and instrumental coda. Here the guitar really cuts loose before succumbing to a rather premature fade. Tillison is certainly no Stolt, Jonsson or Jakszyk but he acquits himself very well in the role of lead guitarist.

Paroxetine - 20mg is a different beast altogether featuring some very piercing and unsettling synth outbursts to underline this dark tale of prescription drug dependency. At times it feels like King Crimson’s 21st Century Schizoid Man revisited with its pounding sax riff and processed vocals and there’s even room for a brief drum solo. My only reservation is that whilst on a technical level it’s nigh on flawless with Burgess and Barrett holding up the rhythm end in style, it’s not a song that for me lingers in the memory in the same way as previous songs.

To begin with Perdu Dans Paris is a beautifully evocative song that paints an idyllic vision of Paris. There’s a sting in the tale however as the mood changes and Tillison reflects on the poverty and homelessness that’s part of the city’s split personality. Barrett’s prominent fretless bass lines add a suitably sombre note whilst the lengthy instrumental break that follows provides a more upbeat tone with prominent synth and organ plus excellent lead guitar from a guesting Jakko Jakszyk. It ends as it began with the atmosphere heightened by vintage sounding mellotron samples. Overall it’s something of a departure for The Tangent and one of Tillison’s most thoughtful and mature compositions to date.

The Company Car allegedly contains Joni Mitchell influences but if that’s the case it’s very discreetly done and avoids any obvious plagiarism of Joni’s lyrics (Marillion’s Lavender springs to mind here). It begins in mellow fashion with smooth sax, a lazy vocal and some glorious lead bass articulations from Barrett. As the tempo rises Tillison provides some (typically) fiery synth and (less typical) gritty guitar exchanges. A rhythmic Hammond and piano section has shades of Keith Emerson but again despite the excellent musicianship is not to my ears one of the bands most memorable efforts.

The Canterbury Sequence Volume 2 is exactly what it says on the tin although quite what Ethanol Hat Nail means is for us to guess and Tillison to know (it looks suspiciously like an anagram). Within its 13 minute duration the band seemingly encompass ever nuance of the Canterbury style so in addition to the more tuneful Caravan moments there are several avant-garde Gong excesses. Despite being a 70’s throwback many of the sounds here are instantly recognisable as The Tangent including fuzzed Hammond, spiky electric piano (ala GPS Culture), crunching bass sax and manic synth. Before it all begins to sound a tad clichéd Burgess breathes new life with imaginative use of percussion (especially xylophone) and a jazzy but ballsy drum workout.

I have mixed feelings about this latest album from The Tangent which is challenging my overall assessment. Where Are They Now? and Perdu Dans Paris contain some of the best and most tuneful work the band has ever done whilst Paroxetine and The Company Car are for me far less immediate with The Canterbury Sequence sitting somewhere in the middle. Given time my opinion may change but to be fair I have been listening to this album almost constantly for the last few weeks. One thing’s for sure the lyrics are up to Andy Tillison’s usual high standards with his now familiar mix of social consciousness and autobiographical observations. He’s without doubt one of my favourite lyricists and in terms of song writing, arrangements and playing he seems to have taken a lot more on his shoulders this time around. The downside is that Guy Manning’s contributions to my ears seem very thinly spread. New boys Paul Burgess and Jonathan Barrett on the other hand really shine although it’s not a certainty that they’ll be around long enough for the next album given the increasingly elusive Tangent line-up.

I’ll end with a personal reflection on the words to Perdu Dans Paris. Had Andy Tillison been hanging around the Paris Gare De Nord late one night circa 1980 and observed a tall Englishman attempting to find somewhere to sleep then little may he have realised that the same tall Englishman would be reviewing his latest album some 29 years later.

Dave Baird's Review DUTCH PROGRESSIVE ROCK PAGE NEXT PREVIOUS

I'm going to keep this review fairly brief as you can read an awful lot about the album in the interview I had with Andy (which will appear later this week ;0).

The Tangent has always had a floating cast of musicians, Sam Baine departed, Theo Travis replacing David Jackson, Jakko Jakszyk usurping Krister Johnson who in turn took over from Roine Stolt, and Jaime Salazar sitting on the drum stool vacated by Zoltan Csörsz. This has of course led to some changes in the sound of the band over the years, but the core of The Tangent is of course Andy Tillison - he writes the material, sings the songs and plays the keyboards. Add to this the constant presence of bass powerhouse Jonas Reingold and you found a relatively stable sonic presentation between incarnations. Now with this new CD we see the most dramatic changes to date, most notably with Jonathan Barrett (Po90) on bass and Paul Burgess (10cc, Camel, Jethro Tull live) on drums. There's no dedicated guitarist either, Andy biting the bullet and playing himself, although Jakko plays on the one track, Perdu Dans Paris.

I will admit by being quite thrown by the new sound of the band on the first few listens, and it took a good couple of weeks before I was able to see below the changes to the songs beneath. This isn't to say that the bass and drums are bad, absolutely far from it, rather the style of playing is so far from what we've been used to, it's more laid-back and relaxed. Andy himself said "they give the music room to breathe", and I think that's about right. In Where Are They Now Andy resurrects characters from The Tangent's back-catalogue and this is a lot of fun. I won't spoil it as it's nicer to hear it for yourself, although I can imagine Tangent newbies wondering what the hell it's all about. Musically the song is an absolute classic in the typical Tangent mould, think In Earnest and you're not far off. Andy's guitar playing is actually really decent, if you weren't aware it was Andy you probably would give it a second thought, very competent. Andy's voice and lyrics are top-notch, yes not everyone's cup of tea, but as I've said in the past, the closest I can think of to Peter Hammill. The drums are fairly light and the bass deep and bubbling, a really nice tone. Theo Travis' flute is sublime, but the saxophone that soars above the music in the final two minutes really has to be heard, marvelous.

Paroxetine 20mg contains some great oozing fretless bass, but the track fails to grab me for the first half, I just don't like the melody much at all. This all changes after the mid-track vocal break when things pick-up, the rhythm section starts cooking and the keyboards mix it up. As mentioned above, Perdu Dans Paris has Jakko on guitar, but the real highlight is rather the song itself, a great vocal and piano performance with trademark Tillison gritty lyrics. Again there's a lot of nice fretless bass and I find myself liking Jonathan's style more and more. Some nice alto sax playing completes the meandering first third before a more up-tempo mid-section with some more urgent guitar and Moog/Mellotron choir. The song then reverts to the lazy tempo of the introduction to wind down. It's a lovely reflective song that makes you think, but also relaxes at the same time.

The Company Car is another track that doesn't hit me immediately. It's another relaxed song in its first three minutes before all hell breaks loose and we're treated to a superb Emerson, Lake and Palmer/Van Der Graaf Generator style section that for me is one of the highlights of all the music I've heard this year. We even have a nod to the ex band members with a little Mellotron break that could easily have fallen out of a Flower Kings CD. Was this just coincidence or was Andy being a bit cheeky? The return to the chorus is very powerful indeed and despite my misgivings on the intro I totally adore this track. Great stuff.

Everyman's Forgotten Monday was a piece that was played live on the InsideOut tour and is the bonus track for the European CD. It's perhaps the least interesting song on the album although the lyric is poignant and the sax playing once again superb. Closing out there's Ethanol Nail Hat (no, I don't know what it means either, and I forgot to ask Andy…), subtitled The Canterbury Sequence Part 2. This is quite an experimental piece that has several themes that come and go, but seems quite random overall, one thing for sure is that it's not for the faint-hearted and almost defies description. It's a piece that I personally dip in and out of, finding little moments of pleasure in-between the chaos, like an oasis in the desert. I've a limited knowledge of the Canterbury genre, I used to listen to a lot of Gong about thirty years ago, but that's about it, I could imagine my ignorance is making me miss the pointers here. So I'm a little ambivalent still on this one.

So what's the general synopsis? Well very good and once you get used to the new rhythm section you see that it's still The Tangent. One thing I really liked is the keyboards Andy chooses to use on this album, more classic sounds than we heard on Not As Good As The Book predominantly piano, organ, Moog, Mellotron, and none of the pop 80's string pads. If I try to compare with the last two albums I think the quality overall is better - there were a few tracks on Not As Good As The Book and A Place In The Queue that I didn't like at all, this is not the case here. Conversely I'm perhaps missing the killer track, and although Where Are They Now is a classic it doesn't blow my mind the way The Full Gamut or In Earnest did. Nevertheless I'm still listening to this album after many weeks of repeat playing and still enjoying it a lot. I perhaps miss is the guitar of Jakko, sure he's on one track here, but it's rather subdued, I'd love to see him play a fuller role again in the future.

Bold personnel changes and yet another super quality album...

Conclusions:

GEOFF FEAKES : 8 out of 10
DAVE BAIRD : 9 out of 10

Review from the Blog of the INTERNATIONAL PROG SHOW featuring Montreal Rick & Frank next previous

First off, let me say that I hadn’t heard of The Tangent before being exposed to their music by my co-host MontrealRick. He introduced me to two of their albums, while I introduced him to Parallel or 90 dergrees. This might seem bizarre to most fans of The Tangent, but I knew of Andy Tillison’s music through another band. This said, on with my take of the new album by Andy and his friends.

Down and Out in Paris and London is, by my measure, one of the best new album of 2009 – and I have heard a lot of albums this year. From the opening track to the closing bonus song, this album is a pure jewel. And like a jewel, you can hear the beauty of each song, and the skill of the artisan in crafting each of those small jems.

The album opens with Where Are They Now?, a song that has a deceptively simple melody played on a solo guitar, and added on by multiple instruments, but is in reality a masterful piece using mixed meter, starting with what I take to be a suite of 5/8 – 3/4 - 6/8 . These meter changes do not detract from the song, they flow into it, then they rattle you with a cacophonic saxophone section only to bring you back smoothly into the song. All I can say is that this is a magnificent opener, with touches of Camel-like guitar playing, even a guitar solo that sounds like Sanata.

Paroxetine 20mg starts off strong with a fuzzed synth, but becomes a smooth jazzy song with Floydian touches here and there. A great song about the incapassity to feel. Perdu dans Paris, the second of three long songs, starts off smooth, and you can realy feel as if you are walking through Paris on a beautiful evening night. The middle section is more uptempo and offers a beautiful contrast to the whole atmosphere.

The Company Car also starts off smooth with a magnificent bass line and a subtle sax in the background, only to have a middle instrumental section where drums, guitars, synths, and piano play off each other to the hilt on what seems like a wild ride. Then the sax re-enters the fray whaling, only to fade in the background the same way it came in.

Ethanol Hat Nail starts off a-la Gentle Giant, with syncopated percussions and keyboards, even the sound a glass shatering in the background. Going through different moods, this song returns to the main theme introduced at the beginning, only to change tracks completely in the middle section. This song, about the insecurities of being an artist and not trusting oneself to write good melodies, ends with a return to the main theme.

As for Everyman’s Forgotten Monday, this is a perfect song with which to end the album, with a soaring guitar solo in the middle section. This is also Floydian in tone, with sax and keyboards hinting back to Wish You Were Here, and and closing ping-sound very reminescent of the opening of Echoes. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t sound like Floyd songs, they only use sounds that we associate with the Floyd.

This is a “must-have”, and may be the best album to date by The Tangent. This has been playing in my car and at work for the past month, and will be for some time to come.

November 21, 2009 NEXT PREVIOUS
Magnificent PROG ROCK
The Tangent and Parallel or Ninety Degrees
Lars Mikael Doering • A A A A A A

The name Andy Tillison is not necessarily one that says much to the ordinary metal or music enthusiast , but it really should, especially if you generally listen to music in the more progressive end of the rock scale. And it is simply because he now stands as a guarantor of quality and foresight in a niche of rock, which is, or at least should be more cross-genre.

Right now he is currently releasing The Tangent's fifth studio album since 2003, Down and Out in Paris and London.

And the mere three minutes long instrumental opening sequence to the total of nineteen minutes and ten seconds long opening epic, "Where Are They Now?" Is refined and sublime prog rock bordering on the genius.

It is a total experience. Amazingly interesting, fresh and incredibly elegantly put together. Completely in the spirit of his second major project, Parallel or Ninety Degrees, Tillison has diminished the use of keyboards - (if anything, the element that can ruin the experience for myself) - to a tasteful minimum. Neither he nor Guy Manning can deliver the big vocals, but a superb production makes you not miss a single word. As a result, Tillisons forward driving and sharp guitar playing or his almost supernaturally brilliant melodic sense are exaggerated.

Theo Travis' contibution respectively flute and saxophone is also worth highlighting. Freaky!

And though love is certainly felt, as the album's- title suggests - no romantic or sentimental rosy view of the big cities or their inhabitants is taken. For example, "Perdu Dans Paris" is probably as a kind of musical tour guide to all the famous sites, but asks what is it all worth it when" the ghosts of the great artists still do their rounds / as the night comes around / the city settles down / from this hotel room I found / there 're two cities in this town" and then pours out all the negatives.

Down and Out in Paris and London fills already well up in my consciousness and I recommend it highly, but if you are among those who have red buds as soon as words such as avant-garde jazz or growing up of the paper and are really then we'd better stay away.

I’ve been a bit of a Tangent fan for a while now…since the release of A Place in the Queue, really. While I enjoyed the previous two released, I really think the band began to soar once Roine Stolt left the group. This doesn’t mean he was a drag on the sound, but I do think that the Tangent really came into their own once he decided to refocus his energies on his own projects. Andy Tillison and Guy Manning are incredibly strong songwriters with unique voices (vocally and songwriting wise), and having the full canvas to work with has allowed them to soar nicely.

Not as Good as the Book, the band’s second release sans Stolt, only exemplified and enhanced this perception. For me, it was the right album at the right time, and so much of it hit home in ways most personal that at times it felt the songs were written for me or about me (or rather, things I was going through). Coming out the other side now, I think it might be fair to say that due to the intense personal nature of that release, reviewing Down and Out in Paris and London would be, as they call it, a sticky wicket. And it’s true…that previous release is still so personal that in many ways it towers over this new album in ways that make it such that there’s just no way to be fully objective.

At the same time, DAOIPAL is an incredibly strong release. There’s nary a dull moment throughout the roughly 60 minutes of music enclosed on the polycarbonite disc or digital bits that you hopefully legally downloaded and paid the artists for. While some of the faces have changed, this is definitely a Tangent album from first note to last. Tillison’s songs are every bit as strong as ever…and while Manning and Tillison’s voices are still the acquired taste they always have been (a taste that I have seemed to find enjoyment in), they are totally suitable for the songs.

Highlights abound throughout the release…I am particularly enamoured of the wonderfully bluesy solo in “Perdu Dans Paris,” while the devoted Canterbury nut that resides in a certain portion of my frontal lobes dances with glee at “Ethanol Hat Nail,” the second part of Tillison’s Canterbury sequence. It’s nice to see that very British sound still alive and well in progressive music, and while I do rather wish it’d play a larger role in the Tangent’s music, I’ll take what I can get. “Paroxetine - 20mg,” from what I have read, is a song that deals with the rather acquisational side of music fans…in a world where just about every recorded bit of sound is at our fingertips either legally or somewhat less than, how much can we really value any of it? Is it still art, and something precious, or is it just ‘stuff’ to fill up shelves or more likely hard drives and iPods?

(for the record and the curious, Paroxetine is the clinical name for medication that is typically branded under the name Paxil, among others, and is prescribed for a bevy of emotional disorders, including obsessive-compulsive behavious. As such, the title is frighteningly appropriate, though it does lead to a few other questions…)

Theo Travis shines on “The Company Car,” with some harsh and dirty sax work echoing vocal work throughout. And I’d be remiss to not say anything about the 19-plus minute epic opening track “Where are They Now?” I’m sure that’s a question fans are asking of Jamie Salazar or Jakko Jakszyk or Jonas Reingold or Krister Jonsson, but as far as Tangent epics go, this one rates.

This is the first Tangent album to feature a wholly English lineup; Tillison and Manning are joined by Jonathan Barrett (bass) and Paul Burgess (drums), who has been a member officially of 10cc, Jethro Tull, Camel,and a number of other bands. Theo Travis maintains his association with the Tangent on sax and flute, while Jakko does make a few guest appearances throughout. I think that in some ways this is the most band-oriented release the Tangent has crafted to date…everything seems to lock in just a bit tighter, the music feels just a bit more organic, and the flow is just that little bit smoother. While the emotional highs aren’t as intense as those on NAGATB, the overall result is a release Tillison and his compatriots should be intensely proud of. Down and Out in Paris and London rewards repeated listens with a surprising amount of depth and nuance to enjoy.

Andy Tillison and Co. back! Five tracks grace Down and Out in Paris and London with the mastery of conceptual symphonic rock mastery - of course, a few are highly extended and unlike the big two-disc set Not as Good as the Book, became the Thick as a Brick for the new millennium with it's novel and all, the latest, album number five, brings this back to earth in the style of A Place in the Queue filled with the classic Canterbury style of prog ala Camel & Caravan, adding some early Crimson here and there, with symphonic rock musings of Tales from Topographic Oceans and Relayer-era Yes - and you have it.

Brought along on this album is Tillison on Keys, guitar, & lead vocals, Guy Manning on acoustic guitars/instruments & vocals, Jonathan Barrett on bass, Paul Burgess on drums, and Theo Travis on woodwinds for what is now a leaner five piece with a lineup change - still nothing garners weakness on the record. Down and Out... opens up with the near twenty-minute "Where Are They Now," which of course, is this multi-faceted tune filled with the charismatic synthesizer leads & keyboard textures, the sax & flute interludes, the occasional guitar crunch, Manning's vocal harmonies and acoustic touches - it hearkens true symphonic rock with it's lush arrangements, yet elements of jazz impose within the tune sparking it up, but it's the darkened vibe that remains constant that keeps the opus on it's toes. "Paroxetine - 20mg" (the generic name for the anti-depressant Paxil) gives insight into the lyrical content and the continued darkened atmosphere that prevails, yet with it's occasional experiential blips here and there, the song remains a lush tune that continues with midnight jazz overtones and an even blusier feel, why not.

The ballad (yes we can use that word here) runs the motions on the third track called "Perdu Dans Paris;" it was inspired by true events, building up from this mournful sense of melody which leads up to a jam session within the middle of the tune to only wind down back to ballad mode. The six minute plus "The Company Car" balances things out between rock song and jam session - still remaining dark while the final track, the aptly titled "The Canterbury Sequence Vol. 2: Ethanol and Nail" tends to end this album on an upbeat note with the jazzy and experimental textures brought up to a higher level within the track.

Compared to Not as Good as the Book, it's certainly stripped down, but that's not to say that Down and Out... isn't a piece of work, for it is - marking a different lineup within the scheme of Tillison's vision, showing evolution upon provocatively challenging melodies and arrangements. This is one album that shows that true progressive rock, whether to the symphonic or whatever degree is alive and well, as Tillison has created another captivating collection of tines within tunes on The Tangent's latest release.

Copyright & Publishing: 2009 Tommy Hash for Ytsejam.com

Down And Out In Paris And London
The Tangent
2009, InsideOut / Century Media
Prog Rock
Published on: 16/11/2009

It seems that life (that of art, of course) of The Tangent is not as rosy as we want to believe. Contrary to what is the undoubted value of the four discs released over the past seven years, Andy Tillison has always had to deal with an unstable line-up which first saw the departure of saxophonist David Jackson (replaced properly by Theo Travis), followed by abandonment of Roine Stolt and Zoltan Czorsz and now, after two albums the likes of A Place In The Queue and Not As Good As The Book, here is that the stability of the training is again undermined by the split with Jonas Reingold, Krister Jonsson and Jaime Salazar. But the good Andy has not lost his nerve and, after finding viable substitutes rather than the likes of Jonathan Barrett (Parallel Or 90 Degrees) and Paul Burgess (Jethro Tull, Camel and more), go to market with the fifth official album, Down And Out In Paris And London.

Any self-respecting fan of progressive knows what is the enormous contribution that Andy Tillison gave (and continues to give) to the music scene today, along with the most renowned groups from Sweden, of course. What we gave up for dead, finished, now belonging to another age, today is enjoying a second youth thanks mainly to musicians that recreate, with the right amount of personality, a musical genre that in the 70's was regarded as the highest form of experimentation and that some people might call old-fashioned and outmoded. The Tangent themselves had also been given for finite (as he's talked about on the interview) after the abandonment of big shots like Stolt and Reingold, yet here they are again here and, trust me, the quality of the compositions do not has certainly affected. Sure, on one hand, it would be really interesting to see what would come out from the acclaimed "The Tangent + Beardfish union", the casting at one of two ways (though not many) to interpret the prog rock , while still remaining faithful to the lessons taught by the great masters of the school settantiana. Never mind though, Andy is equally successful (with the right amount of patience) to keep up a band that, nowadays, can be considered as one of the greatest exponents of the current landscape of European progress.

From the musical point of view, changed little, maybe just a method of composition a bit more atmosphere Cast: A much more relaxed approach to music which may not affect the immediacy of the songs. Same goes for the overall quality of the songs: once at levels more than optimistic, though not invented practically nothing.
Pieces that have as always a great variety of different shades, such as frequent changes of mood that revolve around Where Are They Now? Long suites placed at the beginning (as had happened in 2006 with A Place In The Queue) or incursions electronic synth suddenly taking the upper hand during the more "modern" Paroxetine - 20mg. To deserve the Palme d'Or but the atmosphere is more intimate and dreamy the next Perdu Dans Paris, perhaps one of the most intense pieces that have ever emerged from the mind of Tillison, where assertive is mainly acoustic guitar and vocals Guy Manning and the always excellent work of Theo Travis on sax. Along the same lines even after "The Company Car, with simple melodies even more direct and that are printed immediately to mind, while the final Ethanol Hat Nail (hereinafter the suite Canterbury Sequence present in the first The Music That Died Alone) leaves much more on instrumental digressions of all these musicians, without the technique is still the upper hand on the emotions, which, in the music of The Tangent is never lacking, especially in this case.

Exciting. This new installment of The Tangent (the third in a row in as many years) exudes excitement from first to last note played, managing also to involve (and convincing) in full, despite the contrary already in the previous chapter, is rated at least ' immediacy, emphasizing the more elegant side, and, somehow, passionate Andy Tillison and members. In short, this disc is definitely the denial for items that gave the "project" as reached its terminus, while all those with a certain amount of confidence, expect a worthy successor to previous releases, can not help but appreciate right in this too Down And Out In Paris And London.

Geoff Feakes' Review for the DUTCH PROGRESSIVE ROCK PAGE NEXT PREVIOUS

The Tangent originally came about as a result of Andy Tillison’s single minded determination to realise his passion for classic 70’s progressive rock. For the 2003 debut The Music That Died Alone he enlisted the services of like minded musicians to form a band to rival the best of the day. Three studio and two live albums later that ideal still holds true although there have been several changes in personnel. Most notably is Roine Stolt’s departure after 2004’s The World That We Drive Through, making his final appearance on the live Pyramids And Stars. It’s been two years since the last studio album A Place In The Queue which was followed by 2007’s Going Off On One live CD/DVD set. Since then the line-up has undergone a further couple of revisions. This time round we have Andy Tillison Diskdrive (keyboards and vocals), Guy Manning (acoustic instruments and vocals), Jonas Reingold (bass guitar), Jaime Salazar (drums) Jakko M Jakszyk (electric guitars and vocals), Theo Travis (sax and flute) and Julie King (vocals). New boy Jakko comes courtesy of Level 42 and the 21st Century Schizoid Band amongst others whilst Julie is a also member of Guy’s band Manning.

Even before a single note is heard it’s evident that Andy and company have invested their time and skills in producing another lavish musical excursion with 95 minutes spread over two discs. Furthermore the special edition version comes complete with a 100 page novella written by the man himself. The CD and book combination is certainly original which even the likes of Yes and ELP, noted for their extravagant album packaging, never came up with. If you’re familiar with the lyrics of Andy Tillison then it should come as no surprise to hear that the writing is sharp, witty and full of wry observations on the folly of modern society. Without giving too much away I can reveal that the novels storyline involves the destruction of planet earth and the Yes album Relayer! I’ll say no more except that it comes heartily recommended not least for the excellent illustrations by French artist Antoine Ettori.

In a recent interview with Guy Manning (coming your way soon folks) he told me how the band had strived for a more modern and punchier sound on this album. That’s certainly true of the opener A Crisis In Mid Life which despite the title has a sprightly and upbeat feel with an uncharacteristically poppy 80’s synth sound. In contrast Lost In London 25 Years Later could easily have been titled ‘The Canterbury Sequence Part 4’. It allows Theo the opportunity to strut his stuff with some superb saxophone soling. Try saying that after a few of beers. Andy provides the jazzy piano and a suitably gritty Hammond sound that recalls the David Sinclair and Dave Stewart playing of old. The Ethernet is a standout track which along with Peter Gabriel style electronic effects includes an infectious vocal hook. The lead vocal may be Andy’s but the harmonies and vocal arrangement have that distinctive Guy Manning stamp. It plays out with a stately ringing guitar theme.

The relatively brief (by Tangent standards) instrumental Celebrity Purée is an impressive jazz fusion workout. It includes bombastic sax and keys punctuations propelled by an explosive Jonas and Jaime rhythm combination. If Roine’s guitar style was more Steve Howe then here Jakko’s is pure Trevor Rabin. It’s not until the title song Not As Good As The Book that Andy’s familiar fiery Moog (modelled on Wakeman’s solo from Topographic Ocean’s The Revealing Science Of God) makes an appearance. Guy contributes an array of acoustic guitar colourings especially around a memorable Spanish flamenco sequence. As with many of the songs here, lyrically A Sale Of Two Souls is almost autobiographical in nature. Although the words clearly come from the heart they remain graphic and refreshingly down to earth. None more so than Bat Out Of Basildon which is Andy’s homage to motorbike anthems. The only gripe I have is that bearing in mind he’s a Yorkshire lad, Bat Out Of Halifax would have made a better title!

As the track listings above reveal, Disc 2 is made up of two back to back epics. This may seem a tad self-indulgent even by prog standards but it works and together they contain some of the strongest moments in a long form song since Transatlantic’s Stranger In Your Soul. Four Egos One War is the most immediate with strident keyboard led sections contrasting with mellow acoustic guitar and flute interludes. The vocals are at their strongest here with Andy sharing lead with Guy, Jakko and most notably Julie during the reflective opening section. Lyrically The Full Gamut is possibly Andy’s most personal song to date dealing with the break-up of a relationship. Again it features some very memorable vocal melodies although it lost me for about a minute during a lazy sax and vocal part at the midway point. The synth and electric piano work bring both Wakeman and Emerson to mind at various points. Although I was expecting it to end with a grand flourish the low-key finale finds Andy sounding remarkably like Roger Waters accompanied by orchestral embellishments that are both cinematic and melancholic.

A fourth album was always going to be test for The Tangent. As is the case with so many bands music that sounds fresh and vibrant to begin with can become dull and repetitive with successive releases. Due to the deadline for this RTR I haven’t been afforded as much listening time as I would normally like before committing a review. However on the evidence of two weeks continuous listening I have a sneaking feeling that this is destined to become not only my favourite from the band but also a contender for album of the year. OK, so I know we’re only two months into 2008 but either way this is an exceptional release demonstrating prog at its finest. It’s a well rounded album with music that’s tuneful and highly listenable but at the same time richly rewarding in its complexity. The icing on the cake is the lyrics. Rather than simply creating and aural backdrop they have real meaning and the ability to strike a chord with the listener. And that’s something you don’t find everyday in a prog album.

Chris Jackson's Review for the DUTCH PROGRESSIVE ROCK PAGE NEXT PREVIOUS

As a fan of progressive rock, I feel it is my duty to buy and enjoy the music of The Flower Kings (Although, I do have a few issues with an album or two). Countless hours of my life have been spent in awe admiring the high quality (And highly prolific!) output of Roine Stolt and company. Because of their close ties to The Tangent, I was led to pick up a copy of The World That We Drive Through at a local CD shop. The looks that employees shoot at me, after asking for unknown prog bands, is pretty amusing!

In order for me to consider a CD a classic it has to accomplish three things; perfectly balance melody and complexity and have the same effect on me many years down the line as it did initially. Not only is The World That We Drive Through one of my favourite albums for those reasons, The Music That Died Alone and A Place in the Queue have been in constant rotation for a long time as well. It’s rare for me to discover a band that has continued to keep me on edge and interested for such a long period of time. Not as Good as the Book follows, and takes further, the sound of A Place in the Queue.

Not As Good As the Book begins with A Crisis in Mid Life, the first of many organ driven songs. The beginning half is very reminiscent of The Sun in My Eyes from A Place in the Queue. Jakko Jakszyk has now taken over for Krister Jonsson on guitars. While I am not too familiar with Jakko’s work, he has played with many members of King Crimson, including the well known cover band 21st Century Schizoid Band. Compared to Krister, he has a softer and less jazzy style more in line with Roine Stolt.

Lost in London 25 Years Later is the first hint that this album is somewhat different from those of the past. If Lost in London drew heavily from early Canterbury bands than this seems to take the jazz aspect of that much further, especially toward Theo Travis’s saxophone solo in the latter half. In fact, there is some similarity to Theo’s jazz band Soft Machine Legacy.

The Ethernet begins rather slowly with a bass and organ melody that wouldn’t be out of place if it was played on a tropical island somewhere. At about halfway through, it finally gives way to a more dynamic and jazzy section. I feel this song could have been better with a few minutes edited away towards the beginning and end. It’s a ten minute long song that feels like fifteen minutes.

Next up are, arguably, my two favourite songs on the album. Celebrity Purée is a short, syncopated instrumental piece that carries a similar direction to Snow era Spock’s Beard or even Transatlantic. This leads nicely into Not As Good As the Book. Jakko Jakszyk handles vocals for a good portion of this song. I was really surprised at how great his voice is. It fits the upbeat melody perfectly. After slowing down for a little while, it again picks up steam with a Spanish sounding chord progression by Guy and leads back into the excellent intro section. This was the first song to really grab my attention and it remains one of my favourites.

I have never really grown to appreciate Van Der Graaf Generator but once you hear Peter Hammill’s very unique vocals and charismatic delivery it becomes hard to forget. Andy Tillison’s vocals here seem to borrow these characteristics in A Sale of Two Souls. While almost entirely acoustic, there is a lot of anger in the lyrics and vocals. It levels out towards the end into a yet another jazzy section.

Up until this album, there wasn’t a single song from The Tangent that I did not enjoy. However, with Bat out of Basildon my patience and sanity where severely tested. This song is very blues based and the lyrics deal with a rebellious motorcyclist. When I listen to music, more often than not, if the lyrics are easily comprehendible, I picture them as they unfold. Unfortunately, because it is subconscious, Bat out of Basildon automatically brings forth horrible memories of one of the worst biker comedies I have ever seen. If you have never seen Wild Hogs don’t because this song will forever ingrain William H Macy running into a stop sign on a motorcycle in some of the most horribly contrived situations possible. Although, for most, this song will provide entertaining, bluesy relief from the denser parts of the album, I’m afraid that for me this song will forever be tainted.

The last two epics seem to diverge from the main story (More on that below). Four Egos, One War was originally an unreleased Parallel or 90 Degrees track that was rerecorded with The Tangent because, in the words of Mr. Tillison, “…the damn war won’t go away”. The lyrics appear to pertain to the horrors of war and those involved. Musically and lyrically this is a very engaging song that manages to keep me interested and wanting more. There are only very short instances when the music lets up in intensity, as epics should do.

The Full Gamut is noticeably slower than Four Egos, One War but not in the irritating sense where you have to turn up the volume to hear it better. From synth to piano and everything in between this is mostly an Andy Tillison piece. Lyrically this pertains to being in a relationship and then breaking up. These last two songs require the most effort to appreciate but it is well worth it.

The book that comes with this album follows and sheds light on the lyrics of the first disc. Without giving away too much, the story follows Dave, a middle aged man who greatly appreciates progressive rock. Because his family doesn’t appreciate it, he is forced to listen to it when they sleep or drive 13 miles per hour home from work while taking the long the route. Oddly enough, I have done the same thing wanting to get through the second disc of Unfold the Future but it actually ended up getting me lost in a neighbourhood I would rather not be lost in. Some of the situations encountered by Dave parallel many of the stories Andy Tillison has written (If you haven’t read them, they are on The Tangent's official site and I highly recommend reading them, they are very interesting). The story of Cid Vicious and the covertly placed mention of DPRP are worth the price alone. The main storyline begins on Venus in 90674 AD when an archiver of ancient Earth receives a rare collection of Prog LPs and Dave, the guy who owned them.

It might already be apparent that I greatly enjoy this bands work and with the one notable exception the same extends to this album. In some aspects this is much like previous albums but in many others, like the greater emphasis on jazz, this is a new direction. I hesitate to say that those who appreciated the first two albums will like this. It is the next logical step in their continually progressing style and may not appeal to those who did not like A Place in the Queue. I have listened to this album many times over the past few weeks and there is always something different that stands out with each listen. Most notably in the last two tracks as they where very difficult to digest until recently. This album clocks in at about 90 minutes and there is only about 15 minutes of which that I am not too fond of. This really is The Tangent at their best but, it took a lot of patience and effort to get there. Highly recommended!

Dave Baird's Review for the DUTCH PROGRESSIVE ROCK PAGE NEXT PREVIOUS

The Tangent's style can be clearly decomposed and traced backward in time to melange of prog giants past. This being said, one could never accuse Andy Tillison Diskdrive (sic) of plagiarism, rather he's just heavily influenced and inspired by these greats of yesteryear and isn't afraid to show it. Not As Good As The Book doesn't dish up any big surprises but does show a satisfying evolution from A Place In The Queue. Still apparent is the late-70's Canterbury style with definite hints of UK and Bruford as well as very clear Hammill influence once again but overall the music on disc one is more up-tempo than A Place In The Queue (although this might be partially a result of the more immediate production style and the more prominent guitar mix) and the second CD is a little more introspective and consists of two 20 minute-plus pieces.

Two changes of personnel, the replacement of Krister Jonsson on aforementioned guitar with Jakko M Jakszyk (Level 42, 21st Century Schizoid Band) for this album (Krister rejoins for the upcoming tour) and Sam Baine has left The Tangent (and Andy) to pursue her own musical direction. Jakko's guitar playing is superb - it comes across a little more aggressive than Krister's playing but I think this really is down to it being given more prominence in mix, stylistically he seems to be somewhere between Roine Stolt and John Petrucci. Still in place is the formidable rhythm section of bass god Jonas Reingold and Jamie Salazar on drums with both turning in stellar performances. Jonas once again stakes his claims as the man to beat in the bass world with his thundering, fluid and bubbling style of play while Jamie's contribution is just spot-on, very busy as always on the snare and hi-hat, it's a real boon to have him active in the prog scene. Theo Travis is still present on flute and sax while Guy Manning again chips-in with some acoustic guitar work and vocals while Andy himself of course covers the keyboard ands lead vocals. Much has been said about Andy's singing, most of it rather uncomplimentary, but give him a chance and you'll grow to appreciate it, as it has character by the bucketload and that's a commodity that's not to be passed over lightly these days. Andy's voice sounds better than ever on this recording - whether that's a conscious effort on his part I couldn't say but I didn't notice any unpleasant moments.

The first disk comprises of seven shorter songs that can be loosely coupled under the heading 'Mid-Life Crisis'. Being at the wrong end of forty Andy dishes up a series of lyrics dealing with many topical issues that some of us have been confronted with in recent years. The music ranges from the 80's neo-prog-funk feel of Crisis In Midlife with it's washes of analogue synths and a definate whiff of It Bites though to the Hammillesque A Sale Of Two Souls which could easily have been written for a latter-day The Silent Corner & The Empty Stage album. Turning-up the tempo is the title-track - soaring moog lines and driving bass interplay with a syncopated rhythm guitar and beautifully phrased lead guitars. On top of this we have Andy's wry lyrics playing out the tale of a disillusioned character who, after reading and dreaming of rocket-ships as a child thought there was more to life than grey offices and Excel worksheets. Less satisfying is the bluesy Bat Out Of Basildon which is a take on the born-again-biker who refuses to acknowledge that he's past it. Really this track is out of place in the album and is a far lower quality offering than the other songs.

The second CD is a different beast altogether and consists of two starkly different longer pieces. The first piece Four Egos One War is obviously about the continuing conflict in Iraq and how we've become accustomed, almost blasé towards it. This isn't an easy subject to tackle lyrically and the music gets a bit lost too chopping and changing between different styles although it reminds quite a lot in places of Neal Morse solo work in the second half. The Full Gamut is a different beast altogether and is surely destined to be a favourite of many people for many years to come. The track deals with the relationship and break-up between Andy and Sam - Andy's using his music here to help him come to terms with his loss of in the same way that Peter Hammill did with his girlfriend Alice on Over, musically there bears no relation though except for the occasional Hammill phrasing that Andy turns up in his vocals. The track opens with the most beautiful piano and the main chorus-refrain that we return to several times. The words are so drenched with emotion and feeling that you cannot fail to be deeply moved, furthermore the melody is both beautiful, haunting and catchy at the same time so you'll have it running though your head non-stop. The track progresses through various key moments in their relationship with varying tempo changes sounding quite reminiscent of Spock's Beard (V period) mixed with more of those Canterbury moments and Hammill/Van der Graaf Generator references. The lyrics are poignant - there must be many 40-somethings that can identify which what Andy's saying and it will touch many people I'm sure. I would expect this to be a strong contender for the track of the year.

To conclude, another stunningly good release from The Tangent and overall better than A Place In The Queue. Andy's singing takes getting used to for newcomers but is worth the effort and I daresay some will not always like the political or personal nature of the lyrics, no change here from previous releases, if you didn't like it then you won't like it now either but you would be missing out on some fantastic music if you pass because of that. Highly recommended.

The Tangent grew out of a series of pieces written by Parallel or 90 Degrees front man Andy Tillison that he put off to the side for a solo project, feeling that their more retro-prog sound was not in keeping with the more contemporary areas he was exploring with Po90. A series of fortunate incidents led to copies of these demos getting into the hands of Roine Stolt, and several phone calls later, the Tangent was essentially born.

9-odd years, later, how things have changed.

Gone is Roine Stolt, focusing now on the Flower Kings and his solo work, rather than the series of bands he had a hand in. Also gone is David Jackson, who added sax and flute to the first album. In their place on Not as Good as the Book, the band's fourth studio album, are Jakko M. Jakszyk and Theo Travis, he of the long resume (work with Gong and Porcupine Tree, among others), respectively. They join the core band (Tillison, acoustic instrumentalist/vocalist Guy Manning, bassist Jonas Reingold and drummer Jamie Salazar) on an expansive and diverse 2-CD set that explores the ordinary experiences of ordinary people placed in situations that end up being extraordinary as a result of the unique nature of that creature called the human being.

Also gone are the fanciful/fantasy-based covers by Ed Unitsky. In their place are edgy and urban/modern illustrations by French artist Antoine Ettori. The darker look of these images matches the material on this new release, which is edgier by far...less comfortable, darker, more intense. The feeling I get, looking at the cover, is that of a person lost in the city. I think that ties in to what seems to be the intent by Tillison to craft an album drawing from his experiences, and perhaps feeling lost in the sea of humanity and emotion that comes from being part of that sea. Ettori's illustrations are also seen more expansively in the novella packaged with the special edition of this album. The novella takes the themes and stories told through the album's 9 songs and shifts them to memories of a character nearly 90,000 years in the future, in a world destroyed by the band Yes, and the fate of the universe "resting on the memories of two Van Der Graaf Generator concerts." The novella is something I am looking forward to reading; it may not be essential to the listening experience, but it's a huge thing to not only craft a 90-minute double album, but add in a lengthy piece of fiction to pair with it.

Disc 1 of this set is subtitled 'A Crisis in Mid-Life," and feels more like a 50-odd minute suite rather than a series of 7 shorter (i.e., not shorter than 6, not longer than 13 minutes) pieces. Don't let the retro/neo- synth opening on "A Crisis in Midlife" fool you; despite the fact that it sounds almost like a 1980's Genesis outtake in some ways, it's far deeper lyrically. The groove is undeniable, and the song rises above the sometimes suspect choices in synth patches. Fans of the band's occasional forays into more Canterbury-influenced areas will go ga-ga over "Lost in London (25 Years Later)," which wears its Caravan influences proudly on its sleeve. Theo Travis' sax and flute really shine here, and the song bubbles along pleasantly and gently. It's just a precious composition, fragile and airy, and the difference between this piece and the poppy, sprightly "A Crisis in Midlife" can't be more obvious. "Celebrity Purée" offers the band a chance to stretch out instrumentally, Jonas Reingold and Jamie Salazar locking into some tricky grooves while Jakko Jakszyk's guitar snarls and wails. All too brief at under 4 minutes, I'd have been pleased with another 4 minutes just like it. "Not as Good as the Book," the album's title track, opens with a keyboard line that somehow reminds of Marillion, but more in execution than actual note choice. I love the vocal phrasing on this piece, with the faux-funk chording in the background of the mix helping to drive the track. "A Tale of Two Souls" perhaps lays some foundations for what's coming on the album's second disc, with painfully self-observant/autobiographical lyrics delivered with a slight Hammill-esque edge.

Disc 1 closes with "Bat out of Basildon," which is for me perhaps the only misstep on this album. It's a nice enough song, but I fond it unintentionally hilarious. I don't have any experience with bikes, or bikers, or riding a motorcycle, and as such I just can't connect with the song at all. I have difficulties even getting past the title, which elicits images of 1970's pomposity. Having said this, the song is sleazy, bluesy, filled with grungy sax and snarling guitar (and one lovely alto sax solo from Theo Travis). I just think it defuses some of the intensity built up at the end of "A Tale of Two Souls." Perhaps different placement on the album might have changed my opinion on this piece (it might also help if I lived in Basildon, but that's neither here nor there), but for the time being...its a song that doesn't make it for me.

CD 2, on the other hand...CD 2 is where everything changes.

While the first half of the album is made up of a series of mid-length vignettes, CD 2 sees the Tangent shift into more expansive prog rock mode. This disc, subtitled 'Throwing Metal at the Sky,' is darker by far, with a pair of 20-minute epics touching on seriously heavy subject matter. The disc opens with "Four Egos, One War," a piece originally composed for Tillison's previous group Parallel or 90 Degrees, and recorded here finally because, as Tillison states, "the damn war won't go away." Julie King's vocals mix impossibly well on this composition, and the shifts in mood, from gentle acoustic/pastoral guitar movements to heavier sections that bear comparison to ELP and Egg (especially the heavy use of thick, punchy Hammond organ sounds) flow with fluid grace. Theo Travis' flute playing is sublime, and the vocals are delivered emotionally...be it wistful, world-weary, strident...the individual building blocks on this piece create something fantastic.

Then there's "The Full Gamut."

If you have ever had a long term relationship fall apart...if you have ever met someone who you believe is The One (tm), building everything around them and with them, only to have it come apart at the seams years later, then you will immediately understand the depth of emotion lyrically on this song. There's a lot of information out on the web that tells exactly what this song is about, and it's not necessarily my place as reviewer to pull this information into the review. All I'll say is that the song as a whole resonates with me, and it feels honest and true and right.

2 albums on now from the departure of Roine Stolt from the Tangent, the band has almost fully shed itself of the obvious Flower Kings influences and forged a sound that can be fully called its' own. Brewing up a pleasing mix of symphonic power and Canterbury whimsy, Not as Good as the Book is the group's strongest musical statement to date.

The Tangent's latest album, Not As Good As The Book, proves to be a spectacular series of musical journeys from start to finish, at times thrilling, intriguing, mesmerizing, flamboyant, joyful, sad, revealing, honest and intimate. Reading those descriptions you might thing that it could be a mish mash of ideas or even a progressive rock train wreck but, believe me when I say it covers all of those bases and much more. As a review this has been one of the most daunting I have had to do in a while as I began to worry that I might not have the vocabulary to do the album justice and when an artist puts so much of themselves into an album, as Andy Tillison has done with this one, the last thing I would want to do is give an inadequate or ignorant series of comments.

Not As Good As The Book was created over a two year period, a time span in which and Tillison had much to cope with including the end of a long term relationship. These changes certainly seem to have fired up his creative juices and inspired him whilst, at the same time, caused him to reassess the progress of his life and to be honest there is so much on here to relate to that one could say the new album from The Tangent will touch many people. Joining Tillison on the new album is his regular back line of bassist Jonas Reingold, drummer Jaime Salzaar, saxophonist Theo Travis and long time musical friend Guy Manning. Electric guitar duties this time around come from the highly respected Jakko Jakszyk who follows the footsteps of Roine Stolt and Krister Jonsson. There is no Sam Baines this time but we do have female vocal lines supplied by the charming voice of Julie King.

The first disc features seven songs that cover many moods and styles The opener “Crises In Midlife” has a title which aptly describes the content and is very much a reactionary song to the situation that Andy has been going through. It’s a song with all the Tangent trademarks but with the added pyrotechnics of the confident guitar playing of Jakko who “rips it up” in a manner unheard of from previous players.” Lost In London Twenty Five Years Later” is kind of a part two of “Lost In London sharing the wonderfully organic sounding instrumentation of flutes in full flight that were draped over the first installment. It’s a charming song with a whimsical innocence running throughout the notes. “The Ethernet” tells the tale of a love affair conducted over the web, intriguing and thought provoking it makes you wonder how many people out there are doing just this rather than interacting with other and enjoying each others “real” company.” Celebrity Puree” is an instrumental that struts and walks the musical walk in real style. Each musician gets a chance to shine and the rhythmic interplay is a joy to listen to as everyone gets their chance to take the music to far-flung progressive places.

“A Sale Of Two Souls” is both heart-warming and sad all at the same time whilst the final track on the fist CD, “Bat Out Of Basildon”, is a great piece of song writing and a song sure to raise many eyebrows and crack smiles across many faces. This song has to be experienced loud as it sticks its two fingers up at the conformists and those that follow the leader like sheep. There is serious musicianship on display and the sound of a band that know how to have fun all mixed together at the same time. When Theo takes his saxophone solo there is a gentle Jim Steinman like quality to the arrangement. It’s fleeting but it’s there.

The second disc features only two songs but they are proverbial epics, musically the “dogs bollocks”. ”Four Egos One War” will, in time, become a Tangent classic. Lyrically it’s succinct, absorbing and very poignant. “The Full Gamut” on the other hand is very much Tillison wearing his heart on his sleeve. The melodies are nothing short of magnificent and the imagery that the lyrics convey are touching in the extreme. Like “Four Egos One War” this track has to be heard to be believed.

With “Not As Good As The Book” the Tangent have delivered another wonderful progressive rock opus. The band have managed to retain their penchant for classic rock instrumentation that has its feet in the seventies and yet have also created a thoroughly modern sound that is both youthful and mature all at the same time. The recent events in Tillison’s life can be felt throughout but that musical optimism that has been a part of the bands albums thus far is alive and well and bodes well for the future. For the time being however this two-disc release will reward the listener time and time again and is a worthy addition to the bands ever growing catalogue.

I have to hand it to musical mastermind Andy Tillison, the guy knows how to express all of his musical influences and skills into his own channel, whether it be jazz, metal, pop, folk and of course progressive rock, but then again, isn’t the latter a mold of just about anything. And then you have everybody else’s personality involved in this ‘supergroup,’ for which ambition is unstoppable. That ambition comes together with The Tangent’s latest album, Not As Good As the Book, a double CD & comic book/graphic novel package which obviously signals that this is a concept record.

The concept itself is about someone being lost in time and the music; well let’s just say it’s nothing less that what we would expect from Tillison and Co. With the division of two CDs you get the true nature of a double album, or at the ‘division’ of one at the least, hearkening the days of the vinyl LPs when you where forced to turn the side over literally creating separate parts, something you can’t do with one CD. Not As Good as the Book takes the same route as albums such as Tales from the Topographic Oceans do, planting as many tunes as one can into a song, regardless of how ‘extended’ a particular piece of music may be, plus you have a series of jam sessions; guitar solo, synth solo, another guitar solo, sax/woodwind solo, organ solo…going on and on (particularly with “Celebrity Puree”), all while the key and the time signatures are changing, bringing the spirit of true progressive rock back.

The music goes back and forth raging from straightforward rock “Bat Out of Basildon” to the more eased back “The Ethernet” to the jumpiness of the title cut; leave the highly epical tracks for the second disc, where both tracks clock in at over twenty minutes, and again feature more tunes within them than most pop albums do (the album is ninety-four minutes long).

Not As Good As the Book is the most musically stirring record that The Tangent has done, featuring more upbeat and even sometimes heavier textures than past albums, which sounded more rooted in neo-progressive rock, being a bit mellower – yet each one has grown, and this one leans towards the classic-era of progressive rock. A truly majestic project from the mind of Andy Tillison, this time he literally conveys his vision through a ‘visual project,’ so who knows what type of experience the next record will entail.

Mark Hughes reviews the CDs

Disc 1: GPS Culture (10:23), The Winning Game (11:34), In Earnest (22:08), Forsaken Cathedrals (6:01), The Music That Died Alone (10:53), Lost In London (8:46)

Disc 2: In Darkest Dreams part one (16:16), After Rubycon (4:30), In Darkest Dreams part two (6:32), The World We Drive Through (13:26), Skipping The Distance (8:43), Fun With The Audience (3:20), 21st Century Schizoid Man (11:25), America (8:59)

Every so often, seemingly out of the blue, a band springs forth that catches the ears of the worldwide prog listening community. Of course, very few bands arrive without having some form of history, as is the case with The Tangent, whose musical pedigree stretches back over a couple of decades and innumerable albums. The experience of the musicians and the creative energy ignited by the collaborations between the members has, since 2003, resulted in three lengthy studio albums, a live album and now a further double live album and DVD. That may seem like the band are milking it a bit, particularly as Going Off On One contains versions of most of the tracks that were included on the live album Pyramids And Stars recorded on the band's first steps onto the stage in 2004. However, it is the musicianship that makes the fear of a potential over-saturation of the market rather redundant. These guys, and gal, can really play and even if the world, record companies and audiences are no longer interested in supporting long world-wide tours where traditionally acts honed their live skills, the increased familiarity with the material and greater experience of working together has resulted in increased confidence in their live presentation allowing them to explore the inherent qualities of the music that bit more. That is not to say that the band indulges in lengthy jams, heaven knows the pieces are long enough as it is, but they are able to present slightly different sonic structures, or sculptures if you will, from what is presented on the studio recordings. Despite the fact that each song is roughly the same length as its studio counterpart, implying, correctly, that the song structures are kept relatively intact, the songs take on a whole new air in the live forum. Anyone familiar with the difference between a Grateful Dead studio track and its live counterpart will have some idea of what I'm getting at.

The other advantage of the new live release over Pyramids and Stars is the presence of sax and flute player Theo Travis. These instruments have an important role to play in the overall sound of The Tangent as was evident from the recordings on that debut live album. Travis' interactions with the whole band, and in particular with the jazzy piano inflections of Sam Baine, are a joy to behold. The other major difference between the live recordings is guitarist Krister Jonsson instead of Mr Flower King himself, Roine Stolt. And a fortuitous replacement it is too. Having never been much of a FK or Transatlantic fan, primarily due to Mr Stolt's playing and writing, it is great to hear Jonsson adding his flourishes to these tracks, his guitar work seemingly to complement the roar of Tillison's Hammond perfectly.

But what of the music? With two tracks from the debut The Music That Died Alone, and three each from The World That We Drive Through and A Place In The Queue all the bases are well covered. There is even a 'rarity' in Forsaken Cathedrals which was included on the bonus disc of A Place In The Queue. So good to see that such strong tracks that, presumably, at one time would have been b-sides to singles, are kept alive and given an airing. All of Disc One and the first three tracks of Disc Two were recorded at Club Riga in September 2006. This is the live album 'proper' and features the band at their best. With Travis on board and Guy Manning adding a touch of lightness on acoustic guitar, the group can present each song in its natural breadth, all the textures of light and shade. Baine's backing vocals are also more evident, contrasting well with Tillison's more earthy lead vocals. Lyricist Tillison often comes over a bit serious with his often weighty lyrics (you can tell he is a Peter Hammill fan!) but shows his lighter side during The Winning Game when he throws in the riff to In A Gadda Da Vida!

If you are searching for justification for buying this album then you can find it in In Darkest Dreams. It is impossible to separate out the highlights of this piece as the entire 27 minutes is a wonder to behold. Even bassist Jonas Rheingold gets a solo! The two parts of In Darkest Dreams are linked by a piece of electronica entitled After Rubycon taking as its influence the Tangerine Dream album Rubycon, hence the title! Tillison has always proclaimed his joy of all sorts of seventies prog including electronic synthesiser soundscapes which he so aptly displayed on his recent solo album Fog. The inclusion works well linking the two parts of the main song together well.

The next four tracks on Disc Two were recorded at the 2005 ROSFEST in Philadelphia and feature the same band as on the Club Riga recording. As with the tracks on Disc One, the two original numbers are superbly played with Jonsson really letting go and showing his worth on The World We Drive Through. Skipping the Distance keeps the groove going with some wonderful keyboard work and the very credible and enjoyable Hatfield And The North inspired section. Fun With The Audience is a band introduction and some banter with the crowd before the band launch into a raucous and convincing version of Crimson's 21st Century Schizoid Man. On this performance, the band could have another life as a Crimson tribute band as they have got it down pat; Travis handles the sax work beautifully and Jaime Salazar thrashes out the complex rhythms as if he has been playing the song all his life. Even though this song will be familiar to all, The Tangent's version is a joy, particularly the great Hammond solo over the prominent bass and the off kilter guitar solo. Final track, a rendition of The Nice's arrangement of Leonard Bernstein's America is actually from the Pyramids and Stars recording but left off that release for reasons of space. Hence, it features Roine Stolt on guitar, Zoltan Csorsz on drums and no wind instrumentation. Tillison's love of The Nice has resulted in several recordings of their songs on various albums that he has been involved with but this is possibly the best one. The keyboard playing is exceptional the Hammond organ getting a fine work out, some ELP synth lines being added and some lovely piano work. Just a shame that Jonsson wasn't on guitar :-)!

With great art work, song selection, performance, packaging and sound quality, Going Off On One is a rather good live package, no strike that, it is a GREAT live package!

Geoff Feakes reviews the DVD

Tracklist: GPS Culture, The Winning Game, In Earnest, Forsaken Cathedrals, The Music That Died Alone, Lost In London, In Darkest Dreams Part One, After Rubycon, In Darkest Dreams Part Two (98:41)

Bonus Material: Tour Rehearsal (4:41), Andy Tillison With A New Opera Live In 1981 (8:26)

With three studio and one live album to their credit, a DVD release from The Tangent was surely on the cards. Enter Going Off On One, originally a limited edition DVD and double CD package which unfortunately is now sold out. The good news is they are both available as separate releases, which explains this duo review. The DVD was recorded in September 2006 at the Club Riga an intimate (i.e. small) venue in the English resort of Southend-on-Sea. Given that the band’s stage line up is not always consistent I’m happy to report that the seven piece from the last album A Place In The Queue are all present and correct. Working from left to right they are Krister Jonsson (guitar), Jonas Reingold (bass), Jaime Salazar (drums), Andy Tillison (keyboards and vocals), Theo Travis (saxophone and flute), Guy Manning (acoustic guitar and vocals), and Sam Baine (keyboards and vocals).

Unsurprisingly songs from A Place In The Queue feature strongly in the set list, replacing several numbers from the first two albums. Of these the sprightly GPS Culture is a perfect opener sounding even more like Yes than the studio version. The pristine sound quality makes it hard to believe that this is a live recording. With solid support from Manning and Baine, Tillison’s vocals are a revelation, looking fit and sporting a short haircut, he actually sounds better than on record. The Winning Game is the only song included from The World That We Drive Through and it’s played to perfection with Roine Stolt’s absence easily overlooked thanks to sterling soloing from Jonsson. He has since departed the band himself so it will be interesting to hear how the sound shapes up on the forthcoming album with new guitarist Jakko M Jakszyk.

Studying each band member it’s interesting to compare facial expressions, from Jonsson’s intense concentration, to Reingold’s characteristic bemusement, to Salazar’s look of apprehension. Tillison appears totally in control standing centre stage with keyboards either side assuming his front-man role with cool conviction. Unfortunately Sam Baine sitting low down at the front of the stage doesn’t get anywhere near the screen time she deserves. During several of her keyboard parts the camera lingers on Tillison even though it’s evident that the sound coming out of the speakers is not from his rig. Jonsson suffers the same fate with the camera often focussing elsewhere during his guitar solo. Occasionally to compensate for this an annoying split screen technique is adopted whereby Jonsson appears in a small frame alongside a much larger image of Tillison.

I’m probably being a tad unfair here because the same level of criticism can be directed at most concert videos. It’s the ‘keep the camera pointed at the singer at all costs’ syndrome. On the plus side the intimacy between camera and stage does allow for excellent close-ups of perspiring faces and fingers on keys and frets. This is especially welcome during the more complex parts of In Earnest which for me is the highlight of the DVD. Vintage World War Two footage is sparingly and tastefully inter-cut with images of the band during this “epic to end all epics” as Neal Morse would say. The climatic image of Tillison with his head back, eyes closed, singing his heart out is quite stunning. The band’s previous claim to fame in the epic stakes In Darkest Dreams from the debut album The Music That Died Alone also gets an airing. This doesn’t work so well in my opinion, with indulgent guitar and sax solos that seem to go on far too long. Better is the more disciplined bass solo from the ever excellent Reingold.

Forsaken Cathedrals is an interesting addition to the set as it originally appeared on the A Place in The Queue bonus disc only. It’s a rocking piece and Manning especially appears to enjoy this one, even adding a touch of Jews harp. After Rubycon is also something of a rarity. A tribute to the Tangerine Dream album of the same name, it allows Tillison to indulge his passion for ambient keyboard effects. It also slots very nicely into the middle of the aforementioned In Darkest Dreams. The elegiac The Music That Died Alone is an essential ingredient of any Tangent show in my opinion. It has one of the best melodies ever written by Tillison enhanced here by the beautiful artwork of Ed Unitsky interspersed with the concert footage. Lost In London, again from the last album, is a not so obvious addition being one of those rare things, a prog song that’s lyrically stronger than it is musically.

The bonus material is typical of most DVD’s, in other words it doesn’t stand-up to more than a handful of viewings. The tour rehearsal in particular is a disappointment, basically a five minute clip from A Place In The Queue, a song that didn’t make the final set list. This comprises a lengthy sax solo from Travis followed by a short solo from Jonsson. It’s strictly low tech in terms of picture and sound. An amateur recording from 1981 is of more interest showing a youthful Tillison on stage with his first band "A New Opera". With an audience made-up of mostly dancing teenage girls the performance is representative of popular music of the time, i.e. it’s more New Romantics than neo-prog. The two songs played are Collapso, which evolved into Uphill From Here, and Resistance, the main riff from which ended up in In Earnest twenty five years later. In addition to Tillison on vocals and “dreadful guitar” the line-up also included David Million who is currently lead guitarist with Guy’s own band Manning.

When The Tangent first came on the scene their debut CD was a wake up call as far as prog was concerned. Although their debut DVD is not likely to have the same impact it’s a worthy addition to any collection, especially for fans of the band. Although the small stage setting belies the epic scope of the music it does have its charm and the basic lighting allows the band to be seen in close and colourful detail. Interestingly, in addition to the professional camera work the film incorporates camcorder footage taken by the audience. This is a first for a DVD as far as I know and is of a very good quality. It’s also so skilfully integrated that it’s difficult to tell which is which. Those that insist on sounds coming from every corner of the room may be disappointed to find that there are no surround sound options. However, if you like your music in good old fashioned stereo then this won’t be a problem, and as I said earlier the sound quality is excellent. Add to that an impeccable selection of material and an unbeatable line-up of musicians and you have one highly recommended DVD.

One of the most surprising new bands within Progressive Rock is without doubt the English/Swedish act The Tangent. Their mix of 70's prog & jazz with a modern touch has hit home for many a young and old fan of the genre. It just took Tillison and the band 3 CDs to suddenly be placed on the top shelf in modern prog rock together with great names like The Flower Kings, Spock's Beard, Kaipa, Arena and so on.

The Tangent's style has a rich sound, reminiscent of the 70's Canterbury style. It's flooded with majestic arrangements, technical brilliance and catchy melodies topped with one of the more unique vocals for the genre today. Apart from playing keyboards, Andy has currently most of the leading vocals, but had help from Roine Stolt (not in the band anymore) on the 2 first albums. On this DVD Tillison took over for Stolt and I think this is nothing but excellent - well done!

A small orchestra with a total of 7 people makes this all come together and it sounds just as good live as on CD, if not better! The sound and picture quality is superb from start to end, showing a magnificent band in tip top shape with a groove and drive that is both mesmerizing and inspiring! A true "must have" for all fans of the band and also a good document to start with for those who are curios about the band.

The luxury edition comes with DVD and two CDs in DVD digipak with slipcase that is limited to 3.000 copies worldwide. The DVD contains a bonus live recording of Tillison's first band, which was formed in 1981. The double CD features, in addition to the DVD titles, four further tracks including cover versions of "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson and "America" by The Nice. Need I say more?

(2007) Many many minutes of Joy!

As this amazing band has no reputation on this website, I figured I’d write this review to spread the word. The Tangent is an extremely interesting mix of many genres of rock and other music which started as a collaborative side project formed by Andy Tillison and Sam Baine (Parallel or 90 Degrees) as well as Roine Stolt (The Flower Kings, Transatlantic, Roine Stolt) and many other progressive musicians. (see Wikipedia article for more info). The band was an instant success in the progressive genre and they were subsequently signed to InsideOut Music (Riverside, The Flower Kings, Transatlantic, Spock’s Beard, Umphree’s McGee). Apparently after the first effort, The Music That Died Alone, Andy Tillison became the chief writer for the band and he kept the name. Since then he has released The World We Drive Through and the latest, A Place In The Queue.
This latest effort is perhaps the most cohesive and interesting that the band has released and features the following musicians. (All music written by Tillison)

Andy Tillison- Organ, Synthesizers, Piano, Principal Vocals
Sam Baine- Piano, Synth and Vocals
Jonas Reingold- Bass Guitar
Theo Davis- Saxophones, Flute, Clarinet, Vocals
Guy Manning- Acoustic Guitars, Assorted Overdubs, Vocals
Jaime Salazar- Drums
Krister Jonsson- Electric Guitar

As these songs are massively long, I hope I don’t bore you with this track by track.

Main Disc Length- 78:54

In Earnest (20:03) Tillison – This first epic is a very slow start to the album with some piano and flute and acoustic guitar during the first part. Lyrics are very strange here, explaining things about a pilot of some sort and tell a story without following verses or choruses. Two and a half minutes in we get into the fast stuff, containing a great bassline and multiple piano parts. The Tangent is defiantly more keyboard-based rock than guitar as seen here. Instrumentals everywhere on this CD are absolutely virtuoso and the layering is outstanding. The piano parts are quite similar to the virtuoso work of piano and synthesizer players in the US jam band scene.
Those concerned with under representation of non keyboard instruments do not fear because there many extremely great wind instrument, bass, drum and guitar work on this CD as well. Once this song gets going it is an excellent tune, utilizing literally 50 different parts instead of verse and chorus traditions. One of the only detractions at first from this music is perhaps the lyrics which are really more comical than interesting (Tillison does have a British accent). This song is nearly always upbeat and happy sounding, utilizing a variety of different musical styles along with excellent use of dynamics to keep the flow going. At times, it seems like 20 instruments are playing instead of just six or seven (which is already more than most bands). It truly is something you have to hear for yourself to understand the virtuosity of the musicianship and song structure. It seems like a quick song even at twenty minutes long and just as enjoyable as 5 or 6 regular length tracks. 4.5/5

Lost In London (8:08) Tillison/Manning- Those who are daunted by the twenty minute track one can start here with this catchy elevator/jazz feeling song. Beginning with some keyboards and clean guitar, you can tell this will be a great song. A flute melody follows and then the catchy vocals. This verse is carried by a solid bassline and a good drum beat until a louder instrumental part which contains soaring flute and big synthesizer. Once again, Tillison proves to be a master composer, never making this song repetitive.
The flute and wind instruments really stand out on this more laid back track as well as the groovy bassline and melodic guitar. Lyrics here are quite a bit less comical than track one. About a third the way through, the song gets heavier, utilizing many layers of keyboards and some slide guitar. About halfway through, all the instruments fall out in a cacophony of sound that is really quite strange but it doesn’t really deter because the next part is just as chilled out as the first half. A sweet keyboard solo follows up into a spectacular flute solo that is very jazzy sounding. After this part, it goes back to the verse and it’s only after this happens that you know just how effective the middle section was. The track finishes after a short jam with many keyboards. Overall, one of the most cohesive and catchy songs here and something almost everyone can enjoy. 5/5

DIY Surgery (2:17) Tillison/Middleton- This song is quite comical as you can tell from the title. It is really quite good filler with a good main motif along side some tight bass fills and a flute solo. It does its job well at breaking up the tracks. 4/5

GPS Culture (10:07) Tillison- This starts out with a rather silly sounding piano motif that is all over the place and is then followed by the rest of the instruments in a cool louder part. This song does follow verse/chorus structure but it is really quite interesting nonetheless. The verse continues to use that first silly keyboard motif interspersed with cool bass fills and the chorus even sees us with some very slight distortion from the guitars. Background vocals are also quite comical but nonetheless this song is pretty solid. The first bridge is quite cool, utilizing dark jazz sounding piano and bass (the bass parts on this album really are quite awesome, one of the highlights for me). Lyrics have to deal with the culture of today’s world with cell phones, commercialism, advertisement, technology and the like. Some good lyrics here are.

“We think we know that riff but where in the world did we ever here that nagging tune”

The above part is really quite funny because the bridge uses the first 3 notes of a riff (probably Crème’s Sunshine for My Love) that we’ve all heard before. After this bridge, things quiet down slightly and it goes into some dark acoustic guitar assisted by some percussion and then some more silly sounding piano. A cool bass solo part follows, aided by some more piano and synth and after that a slide guitar. This song does quite a good job at featuring every instrument such as another flute solo and virtuoso playing of nearly every instrument. Once this part cools down, we are treated with some tight electric guitar work and then some more silly female background vocals which serves as a good transition back into the verse and chorus parts. Once you can get past the silliness of this song it really is quite good because it utilizes each instrument effectively and equally. It also gives us some good social commentary. 4.5/5

Follow Your Leaders (9:21) Tillison- Those that thought that Tillison could only write happy stuff think again. This song begins with some dark synthesizer with a much harder edge followed by some great guitar work and awesome bass work. It isn’t that dark for long because it goes into a section using a quick piano motif that remains through out the verse. A quick bassline takes over as the driving force for the verse aided by cool guitar work. Lyrics here are truly good, enlightening us on the views of Tillison on things such as trends and the like. The chorus here is pretty good even though it is rather sudden, using slightly distorted guitar. After the first chorus we are treated to a great flute solo and then it’s back into the first riff. Instrumentals here are once again extremely good. After a few choruses they go into the bridge which uses some Mars Volta–ish electronic effects as well as cool bassline and keyboards.
The bridge extends into a dissonant sounding interlude which serves as a good transition into another verse. After another chorus, we are treated with a grandiose and epic guitar solo which is quite a nice break from the keyboards. The solo is backed up well by organ and a good steady drum beat and bass. Once the solo is over, most instruments fall out and we are left with some wind ambience and some flute and organ followed by a drum solo for a truly different and cool ending which transitions spectacularly into the next song. Overall, this is an awesome song with superb lyrics and instrumentals. 5/5

The Sun In My Eyes (3:44) Tillison- Please tell me why this awesome song isn’t on the radio. Beginning with a catchy as hell guitar riff and followed by perfect organ and bass, this song is something. Bass lines here are awesome and the verse is catchy, utilizing every instrument well. The chorus shows some good wind instrument and string instrument work which transition into the verse. A synthesizer solo also proves to be a great transition into an awesome bridge which uses some string work and guitar work. The interlude that follows is just as catchy as the following verse. The ending has some great bass fills and even cooler organ and guitar work. If you don’t like this song you are probably the strangest person I will never meet. 5/5

A Place In The Queue (25:19) Tillison/Travis- If you thought my In Earnest review was not substantial enough for its length then I’m going to try to make up for it with this. This masterpiece begins with a drum roll and some epic sounding guitar and organ work which then transition into a quieter part which features some acoustic guitar. Just like In Earnest, this song has literally like 50 different parts and it is nearly impossible to dissect each part. The verse is quite slow and at parts it has some off tone chords and at others it uses some cool elevator music piano. After a strange break which contains some strange and incoherent, low, spoken vocals, the second verse commences along with the first chorus. At times this song is beautiful and at others it is rather dissonant but the structure is very good and it doesn’t get too repetitive.
Some standouts of this first part are the strange wind instrument solos which are quite dark sounding and interesting. Drum work here is also quite standout as well as the bass and organ work. After this solo the guitar takes over the main part and it is back into the vocals. Lyrics in this song are quite interesting because Tillison is talking about life as a long story and how a lot of things are corrupt. Once the vocals die out there is a quieter part with only some piano and synthesizer. However, they jump right back into the vocals, this time much more catchy with a great bassline and cool guitar work followed by some sweet synthesizer and background vocals. Whereas most of the rest of this song is fairly disjointed, this part works wonderfully. Another wind instrument solo soon follows and then a quieter part with vocals. The lyrics here are rather happier which transitions perfectly into the refrain which is quite epic and cool sounding. Just when you think the song might be ending, they jump right back into the previous verse and then one more epic refrain. This time you think its over right? No.
This second refrain is followed by a synthesizer scale and some more instrumentals this time with some orchestral work. A funky drop off or two leads into a sweet synthesizer solo, followed by more instrumentals then some more of that funky verse. After this, we are treated to some elevator music piano aided by a great groovy bassline and then an awesome keyboard solo which all transition into an epic instrumental containing even more layers of synthesizers. Once you think the song is going to come its climax, the instruments drop off again for some more quiet piano and one more verse follows. The subsequent instrumental section contains excellent saxophone work which transitions epically into the final refrain. This song truly is an epic journey and has some great lyrics to boot. This title track proves to be a fantastic way to finish the album. 5/5

The Bonus Disc is excellent as well, containing 43 minutes more of music.

Bonus Disc Length- 43 minutes

Promises Were Made (7:26) Baine/Tillison- This song is great and is only a bonus track because it is considerably different from the first disc. Those that the first disc lacked a harder edge, you can find it here, along with some excellent guitar work. 4.5/5

The First Day At School (5:30) Tillison- A darker and more quiet tune. There is some orchestral string work here as well as mellow piano. Overall, very solid 3.5/5

Forsaken Cathedrals (4:54) Tillison- Another good track that is quite upbeat and utilizes some more wind work. Pretty catchy but probably wouldn’t have fit on the first CD. Great track nonetheless. 4/5

The Sun In My Eyes [Extended Mix] (9:12) Tillison- Already a fantastic tune, this song adds another 6 minutes to the wonderful song that was track 6 on the first CD. This has quite a bit of build up and some orchestral work but is nonetheless interesting. You will find every part of the first version on this, just in different places. Its not quite as catchy and does flow quite as well but it is excellent 4.5/5

Grooving On Mars LIVE (6:16) Travis
A neat and more ambient track, lacking vocals, that is quite neat. I haven’t had that much time to listen to it but it’s still pretty good. Mostly ambient music with a drumbeat and steady bassline. 3.5/5

Kartoff Im Unterseeboot (13:37) Tillison/Jonsson/Travis-
Once again, cool and laid back instrumental ambience. Again, a pretty solid track that can be quite interesting at points with some tribal drumming here and there and mostly wind noises here and there. 3.5/5

All in all, this album is amazing. It may take some time to grow on you with all the extra long songs but once you can distinguish between each one and start noticing all the superb instrumental layers you can really appreciate this excellent album. This is a great CD for anyone into progressive music, jam band music, jazz or for anyone looking for something really different. You will not find more bang for your buck anywhere else, especially if you get the bonus disc which adds 43 minutes to the already epic and 78 minute first CD.

Format: Single CD . InsideOut # SPV48752 - Double CD InsideOut # SPV48750
release date: February 7, 2006 - The Tangent's official website at http://www.thetangent.org/

NEXT

After two incredible CDs called The Music That Died Alone and The World That We Drive Through, and a year's worth of hard work preparing their latest album, It is obvious that many people will have great expectations about A Place In The Queue... all I can say is that people will not be disappointed, as It was well worth the wait! This new album heavily concentrates on the talent and musicianship of its members, For those who love the sound of keyboards, Andy Tillson's work on this CD is simply exceptional, with some of the best melodies and harmonies that you've heard on any Tangent album. Roine Stolt's absence on this CD did not affect in any way the sound of the band, as a matter of fact, it actually released many ideas and sounds that might have been put on the backburner and gave a whole new dynamic to the group, in the words of Andy: "We have more personal freedom, and we take advantage of this freedom". On this new release, you'll find a lot of variety, tracks with Canterbury influences, neo-symphonic, jazz fusion, even some RIO and a disco number! A Place In The Queue is the "Cirque Du Soleil" of progressive music!

The album begins with the quiet piano intro of In Earnest, a 20-minute epic that features the instantly recognizable "Tangent" sound the most, a brilliant, captivating, exuberant composition with stunning keyboard work from Andy and great, touching lyrics. Krister shows some mighty impressive chops on the guitar. Not even halfway through this track, I had gone through the full range of emotions! Impassioned Hammond organ work à la Keith Emerson. Lost In London takes after the first album's "Canterbury Sequence", inspired by Hatfield And The North and National Health, a sweet little number with humorous lyrics and cool canterbury-ish flute work by Mr. Travis. DIY Surgery features a bizzare Zappa-esque intro, breaking into some brilliant jazz fusion sax, with definite RIO overtones. In three words; quick, quirky and surprising! The cheerful keyboard intro of GPS Culture prepares you for one the most enthusiastic tracks of the album, with vocals by the lovely Sam Baine, a very straightforward prog rock track with great interaction between Andy and Krister. Follow Your Leader is an intense track with an aggressive rhythm, about the frenzy of life in general, mixing Canterbury bits with ELP-styled keyboards, featuring great bass lines from Jonas and ending with a weeping guitar solo. The Sun In My Eyes will really catch you by surprise... it can only be described as a tribute to the white suits and bellbottoms of the late seventies, prog disco if you can believe! This dance floor number is a deliciously funny diversion, signs of a tight group of musicians with a sense of humour and self-derision! It will certainly bring a smile to your face, and features funny lyrics about prog music. A Place In The Queue is the dramatic epic of the album and begins with a grandiose sax intro, followed by beautiful, haunting guitar work by Mr. Manning. Sensational keyboards and guitars throughout, a very elaborate composition and a truly mesmerizing track.

The Bonus disk features another 55 minutes of tracks that couldn't fit on the 79-min. main disk, some remixed versions, live material and spacy, ambient pieces, great stuff that makes this exceptional album even more worthwhile.

A Place In The Queue is a spectacular album, with amazing melodies, world-class musicianship, great lyrics, unbelievable variety, impeccable musical arrangements and some of the best keyboard work you can imagine, a wild prog trip! To say that I loved it is quite an understatement. This album definitely establishes Andy Tillson as one of the best keyboard player of our times, easily sharing this title with Dave Stewart, Keith Emerson and Jordan Rudess. A Place In The Queue is by far the most elaborate, well-crafted work of the Tangent, an album that will easily find its way among the top albums of 2006 without any doubt.

The Tangent
A Place in the Queue
(InsideOut Music)

by Pete Prown, guitarist/journalist/author (www.guitargarden.net)

January, 2006

NEXT PREVIOUS

Attention up and coming prog-rock bands: the bar has officially been raised. The new Tangent album, A Place in the Queue-isn't just good. It's not even just great. It's brilliant. While the number of neo-prog bands growing by the minute, the Tangent has just broken away from the pack and is now sitting in that small, rarified circle of prog bands that matter. This is serious progressive rock...with full emphasis on the word "progressive."

Previous Tangent discs featured singer/keyboardist Andy Tillison sharing the spotlight with Flower Kings axeman Roine Stolt, but this is the first album without the mighty Swede on guitar, leaving most of the focus directly on Tillison. Happy to report, he comes through swimmingly. His songs on Queue have extremely powerful melodies, offbeat arrangements and some fairly personal lyrics that are neither sappy nor self-indulgent. As I noted earlier, folks, the bar has been raised.

The CD starts out in ballad form with "In Earnest," a 20-minute suite that runs the gamut from gentle lyricism to heavy instrumental riffing. It's a great and curious way to start the record, avoiding the obviously "bash 'em on the head" approach to album openers. It slowly brings the listener into the heady material and succeeds completely. Lyrically, too, Tillison shows real depth in these bittersweet memoirs of an aging World War II fighter pilot. You don't hear this kind of graceful lyric-writing too often.

"Lost in London" is a biographical story of a young country lad venturing into the big city for the first time, complemented by nimble flute work from Theo Travis. "DIY Surgery" shows off Travis' sax playing, as well as his composition chops-he wrote the song and proceeds to lead the band through some whacked-out, Zappaesque melody lines. It's cool stuff and offers a refreshing change of pace to an already surprising record. I

A Place in the Queue finds its stride with "GPS Culture," which starts with the kind of slam-bang intro that makes all us proggers drool. Here, you'll find all the classic progressive licks of the '70s, cleverly reformulated into a 21st-century package. "Follow Your Leaders" has a typically skeptical lyric about modern pop culture, but there is strong instrumental work, notably in the Jeff Berlin-styled bass solo of Jonas Reingold (also of the Flower Kings) and the tasty guitarwork of newcomer Krister Jonsson. Unlike the bluesy Stolt, this melodic player exudes more of a jazz vibe, which fits well with the Canterbury-prog influences that so often turn up on Tangent records. Throughout the album, Krister offers up a wide array of guitar styles, excelling on electric, though the album's acoustic-guitar solos sound a bit thin and weakly recorded (an odd production flaw on an otherwise beautifully recorded platter).

Saving the best for last, let's look at the two final songs on the album. "The Sun Gets in My Eyes" is a back-handed tribute to disco, featuring a killer beat and cheesy '70s accouterments (dig those reverb-laden strings!), and hysterically funny lyrics about being a young prog fan's struggles in the era of the Bee Gees and Donna Summer. This track is destined to be a cult classic-it's perfect in every way.

Not to take the easy way out, Tillison leads the band through one more extended epic to close the album, the title track, which features a brooding, signature sax line from Travis reminiscent of Traffic or early King Crimson and more excellent ensemble work from his Tangent colleagues (including 2nd keyboardist Sam Baine, drummer Jaime Salazer and acoustic guitarist/singer Guy Manning).

By the end of this album, a few things become apparent. For one thing, the CD's title takes on new meaning-with this recording, the Tangent is boldly claiming their right to take a "place in the queue" of prog-rock's greats, alongside Yes, ELP, Genesis, Floyd and, in recent times, the Flower Kings. Perhaps it's too early to crown the Tangent outright, but A Place in the Queue is a record that-like the very best prog albums-demands repeated listenings, unlike some recent neo-prog efforts that are all nostalgic riffs and a slickly polished sheen.

What pushes this CD into the winner's circle, however, is not the crisp songs, deft musicianship or intriguing arrangements. Surprisingly, it's the warmth and genuineness of Andy Tillison's lyrics and singing. And while he's not a schooled vocalist, somehow Tillison's eccentric, warbly voice conveys a world of emotion and depth. This, ultimately, is what defines Queue-it's a prog album with heart. And when is the last time you heard one of those?

It's not like a prog band to go off on a tangent ever, so I will endeavour not to! Multinational outfit "The Tangent" seems to hail from many countries including Sweden and England, so I'm not sure where they place their roots, but this collaboration is certainly a celebration of many influences. Initially I imagine Yes, hanging out in a lounge somewhere discussing life with Ozric Tentacles, and reminiscing about a Hawkwind concert.

From the outset, The Tangent embark on 20 minute opener "In Earnest", but this adventure does hold a traditional "song like" structure, enabling the listener to stay on track with ease. On that note, "A Place in the Queue" reaches a nice balance of rocking tunes with instrumentals that explore each facet of their array of talents, from keys, guitars and voice, to saxophones, flutes, mandolin, and whatever else they get their mitts on. Each "voice" is executed with exceptional precision, and each holding its own moment in the limelight.

Spanning 79 minutes, "A Place in the Queue" explores the concept that life is one long wait in line, being handed your path by someone above, and conforming to trends an ideals. It is refreshingly light and thoughtful, unlike the anger or aggression of some "metal" takes on the subject. "Follow Your Leaders" and the title track being the most prominent examples of this concept are both exciting and emotional, although one can't help but think that "The Tangent" have followed none of these rules.

If progressive rock is your bag, then you can't go far wrong with this release - the bonus edition comes with a six song bonus disc (which is no doubt longer than most records) - which entertains and inspires, whether you're waiting in line, or breaking from the mould. This is a fine start to 2006.

Within these lines, I have the honour of telling you all about the first jewel/gem of 2006. Andy Tillison is the director and overall leader of this stroke of genius which, under the abovementioned name, offers us a work of progressive music in the widest sense of the word.

The third piece of work from the Britains, or fourth if you count the Live ‘Pyramids and Stars’, and probably the most versatile of all as it brings together, in a stroke of virtuosity, styles which could seem at first to be little compatible. This is 79 minutes of a passion for music displayed in 7 matchless tracks.

Right from the start, with ‘In Earnest’ (20 minutes), we find ourselves with a group who desire to explore all aspects of fusion in its fullest sense. From the most seventies Funk, pianos that ring with positive melodies, Classical or Folk instruments like saxophone, flute and clarinet (Theo Travis), passing through moments of electrifying Symphonic Rock, fantastic guitar riffs and progressive changes of rhythm, this first track is one of the best I have heard for a long time.

Jonas Reingold, bassist of The Flower Kings, achieves an authentic instrumental showpiece, accompanied by the new drummer Jaime Salazar (the replacement for Zoltan Csorsz who is concentrating his efforts with The Flower Kings). Sam Baine, Tillison’s companion since the time of PO90 (the ‘mother band’ of the Tangent), looks after the synthesisers, absolutely splendid choruses, and the piano, with which she stars in great passages, among which is some truly immeasurable jazz.

This master work which opens the disc/album is followed by ‘Lost in London’, a track in which jazz vocal predominate (Fred Astaire(?), Frank Sinatra) although embellished with Celtic Rock (Jethro Tull) and a little Psychedelic Symphonic Rock (early seventies Genesis). Composed between Andy Tillison and Guy Manning (acoustic guitar, mandolin etc), it is nothing other than another fantastic showpiece by Salazar on drums and Baine on piano.

‘GIY Surgery’ lasts two minutes and could be a Psychedelic Symphonic Jazz ‘departure from the stew pot’ which brings you to ‘GPS Culture’, a British Symphonic track which would fit in perfectly in any of the early works of Genesis. The chorus stands out, simply marvellous, as do some ingenious keyboards, which give just the right amount of always optimistic direction/ambience, the unmistakable stamp/seal of the band.

Symphonic Rock and Jazz return to predominate in ‘Follow your Leaders’, even if its changes of rhythm keep giving way to all sorts of sound influences. However, everything changes with ‘The Sun in My Eyes’, a short Funk track which, without losing the characteristic sound of the band, delves deep into the seventies rhythms of the legendary Motown and all its extensive list of musicians who knew how to adapt Soul to the new Rock sounds of that time. Tillison’s voice is the counterpoint, with a tension/tightness of voice different to that which we are used to hearing in Funk.

The closing track is the title track and, in its almost half hour, deepens/extends everything we have heard up to now, touching on everything previously mentioned once or more, which lets you appreciate the great quality hoarded/held by each and every musician who make ‘A Place In The Queue’ a disc/album practically incomparable and ‘unequal-able’. You could place it next to Jazz, Symphonic Rock or Progressive records and it wouldn’t be out of place because its all these and more. Bravo for Tillison.

Translated From the German site "Walls Of Fire" read original in German HERE

It's been one and a half years now since the last Tangent album, "The World That We Drive Through" was released, and its still a collaboration between a Swedish Band and the gifted songwriter Andy Tillison. If one could once regard the Tangent in the same bracket as the Flower Kings, this has now changed with the departure of the Flower King himself, Roine Stolt. Just as saxophonist David Jackson left the unit, he left to be replaced by the new Guitarist Krister Jonsson.

And this change, believe it or not, has totally and utterly worked on this new album. The new man in the role has adopted a completely different emphasis from his predecessor, opting for a more restrained fusion sound, not playing so much and thereby leaving room and space for a tapestry of keyboards sounds of the bands new leaders. However, the guitarist knows exactly the right moment to accentuate the music, for example in the very first (King Crimson-like) break of the song "In Earnest", or in the spellbinding psychedelic undertones of the exciting centre section before working up to a very heated and euphoric finale. This track lasts almost exactly 20 minutes and is a promising glimpse of what the rest of this album has to offer.

In "GPS Culture" and "Lost In London" the Tangent hold back on the virtuosity a little, and though of course there still some real musical fireworks going off in the instrumental sections, they don't go too far off track and are comparatively accessible songs to listen to.

After half time comes "Follow Your Leaders' - another piece with crazy keyboards parts and some rather complicated jazzy guitar runs, but it's surely the Swedes who are responsible for the extended loose but interlocked improvisation section, giving way to the ambience at the end. Strangely, things then continue with "The Sun In My Eyes" which, one knows not why, is an attempt at Disco. The band seem to have put all their prog ideas on hold and thereby done something really unusual. For anyone who's heard the first five tracks (including the saxophone led piece DIY Surgery) how amusing this composition sounds in the context of this jazz laden album.

Before doubts can arise though, the Tangent present their masterpiece in the form of the album's title track which returns to everything promised in the earlier pieces.Jazz, Retro Rock, ArtRock, cinematic themes, improvisation, blues, there's no related category that one doesn't find here. Finally the guitarist really gets to take off and enjoy the freedom of the long soulful introduction that begins the 25 minute track, which develops itself into one of the most ingenious epic tracks that recent prog history has thrown up. Tillison and his band have succeeded in building monumental cinematic prog in such a way that nearly a half hour seems to simply fly by.And I say "band" because that what this example sounds like. No, hang on, that's too general, with what the Tangent have packed here into 80 minutes is worthy of direct comparison to King Crimson and it's not often you can say that.

Whether you are into jazz, artrock, or simply progressive rock the Tangent are in the right place for you, even more in 2006 than before.

The Tangent - progressive rock supergroup - will be releasing their new album, A Place in the Queue, in early February. It's been touted by many as a masterpiece. And I agree, it is.

I heard it on January 1, 2006, on it's live broadcast through Delicious Agony Progressive Rock Radio and again got myself a copy of the advanced version.

If you enjoyed their previous two albums, 2003's The Music That Dies Alone, or 2004's The World That We Drive Through, or even their 2005 live album Pyramids & Stars, you're sure to enjoy the newest album.

A Place in the Queue is a 79 minute masterpiece - top level Neo-prog mixed with heavy jazz influences. In addition, there are obvious ties to the Canterbury prog scene. The Tangent is admittably a very difficult band to understand - a lot more so than bands like Dream Theater or Transatlantic - however, once you give the songs a few listens, you are rewarded.

I'll go as far as saying that A Place in the Queue may be the best progressive rock album since the 1970's. Emphasis on 'may' - but with two over-20 minute epics, a host of 10 minute songs, and a couple extremely innovative short ones, and especially with such a deep concept in the lyrics, you can't go wrong.

Reviewed by Winston, for the Lords of Metal site
The Tangent - A Place In The Queue
Inside Out

NEXT PREVIOUS

file under Prog/sympho
metal

Winston: Like the classic prog bands as Genesis, Yes and King Crimson were greenhouses for other side projects and bands, one more successful than the other, the Swedish band The Flower Kings can be seen the same. The list of solo and side projects is still growing and one of the first releases is the third album of The Tangent. Roine Stolt, the Flower King himself may have left the band for other activities but his follow up on guitar is Krister Jonsson, the guitarist of Karmakanic another band of The Flower Kings bassist Jonas Reingold who also plays in The Tangent. See what I mean?

The style of prog is very much related to The Flower Kings as well but there is more of a classic symphonic feel which attracts a lot of proglovers. The jazzy passages of the opening song 'In Earnest' give the band a flair of nonchalance but then they sprint to beautiful melodic and complex parts. The use of saxophone, flute and clarinet offers peculiar audio joy that fit really well. Apart from the already mentioned song there are five more songs on 'A Place In The Queue' and in general they follow the same path, easy and relaxed, virtuose and fierce at times. 'Lost In London' tells a (true?) story of someone walking through London, ready to make it big time. Especially keyboard player has a main role in with his parade of keyboards but still it never sounds too much or over the top.

A very different song is 'The Sun In My Eyes' which simply can and must be described as progdisco! Something that was never done before to my knowledge, fantastic! One line of the song goes ".or get my head kicked in for liking Yes, instead of Suzi Quatro or The Rubettes", an anthem for all the misunderstood progfans. Humour does belong in prog. I love it, The Tangent prove to be able of making fabulous music even without Roine Stolt. They felt more freedom, as the bio jokingly states. A song like 'The Sun In My Eyes' is the absolute proof. And I haven't even mentioned the closing title track of 25 minutes where The Tangent line up all their best elements again.

And so the first nominee for the list of 2006 is known. It seems early but as the weeks seem to fly by you one must better be prepared.

Rating: 93/100

English Translation: (this album was given a "score" of 9 out of 10 on the original site)

1973 : YES released "Tales From Topographic Oceans", a double vinyl album considered by some to be the ultimate masterpiece, and by others to be an exercise in self indulgence. Andy Tillison belongs to the first category and, 22 years later (it is actually 32 years later - Tangent editorial team) he has used this album as a benchmark and a source of inspiration during the creation and recording of the third album by The Tangent, international progressive dream-team, in which a new Flower King, (Jaime Salazar) has recently appeared

Basically, what The Tangent are offering is an immense and varied work, stretching over 78 minutes in the same way as its illustrious predecessor. Nevertheless, its not just confined to plagiarism of its forerunner. Sure, you could say that there's a certain similarity between the sumptuous booklet cover artwork and the work of Roger Dean, and on the musical side, one song "GPS Culture" does show Yeslike inspirations with a 90s edge with a roaring bass and delicate keyboards..

Bookended by two suites of 20 & 25 minutes, the rest of the album offers an incredible variety of styles from jazz to the purest neo progressive via breaks of harmony, sometimes dissonant...always connected in a very natural manner, for the ears of the listener

This is best exemplarised by the title track of the album, which at 25 minutes is a veritable symphony, giving us a slow build up to instrumental power, held together by Theo Travis' sax and the intervention of joyous passages, before an extended section of musical fireworks worthy of Transatlantic.

It's the same story with "In Earnest" which opens the album, the listener finds himself carried in a musical flux through many different moods from which he emerges 20 minutes later without knowing where the time has gone, such is the way that the sections connect to one another without any dead wood.

The other pieces are (almost all) of the same quality, take "Lost in London" which builds its relaxed atmosphere on a syncopated quasi Brazilan bassline, and "The Sun In My Eyes" - a sort of spacey and dynamic piece with a disco rhythm worthy of the late 70s.

Two little niggles to point out in this stream of praise. "DIY Surgery", a short piece (thankfully) is totally out of place with its Jazz Funk style and distorted voice. Above all, this voice isn't really up to the same standard as the rest of the fabulous instrumentalists, seems to lack a bit of technique, perhaps a little flat-mixed? Fortunately, non of this detracts from the overall pleasure.

The Tangent have delivered an album, remarkable in every way which will satisfy both fans of complex prog, (who will find pleasure from something new each listen,) and also those who are normally a little alienated by such involved projects. To these people (and I am often one of them) I can only recommend to take a little time to get into this work, becuase it really is worth the effort.

© Tonyb

With their third album, A Place In The Queue, The Tangent evolves into a more defined unit, and it would also be fair to say they transform from Swedish-British to British-Swedish, since Andy Tillison is "finally free" from Roine Stolt.

The mastodont album clocks in at nearly 79 minutes, during which time The Tangent dwell with life's resemblance to a queue. For those who can't get enough, there is even a special edition of the album with a bonus disc full of more music written for the same sessions (although omitted because it didn't fit the concept).

The Music
Speaking of the music, The Tangent offers a strange blend of familiar, Classic/Progressive Rock indgredients with more modern beats and soundscapes, topped with truly intriguing lyrics. At its best, the music is vibrant and vital with a lot of presence. At the same time, however, there is a laid-back, British coolness to the music, which sometimes reduces the music's momentum. This phenomenon appears only during some of the longer vocal passages, which seem to spring out from defined meldodic platforms, but without landing firmly, hence sort of dissolving in mid air.

The vocal passages are, on the other hand, rich on metaphors and amusing images, especially the brilliant "Lost In London" and the concluding suite "A Place In The Queue."

The impatient are rewarded, as the first track, "In Earnest," pretty much peaks the album at its onset with its honest and joyful travel across genres and moods into the core of music: soul. There are also other soulful songs onboard, with "Lost In London," "Follow Your Leaders," and "A Place In The Queue" perhaps being the most memorable examples.

The Band
Dynamic is a word that fits The Tangent well, regardless if it's the music itself or the interplay between the members. Of special note, the interplay between guitarist Krister Jonsson and keyboardist/singer Andy Tillison is remarkable! It bears witness of careful arrangements, of course, but never at the expense of the vitality of the music, which by the way, is blessed with a warm live feeling.

Both Jonsson and Tillison deserve a moment in the spotlight for their individual performances, as well. Jonsson for his straight out awesome concluding solo in "Follow Your Leaders," and Tillison for his all over melodic, dynamic, and innovative (yet almost retrospective) keyboard work.

A moment in the spotlight is well earned by Theo Travis, too! His woodwind work is beautifully spine chilling, in particular the soprano sax solo in an early phase of "A Place In The Queue" (man! what a tone, what a tone!). By the way, Travis' collective contribution to this album is worth a review on its own!

The Verdict
There is a certain atmosphere to A Place In The Queue, an atmosphere with a most fascinating content. Although the material lacks momentum from time to time (some of the songs stretch out beyond conception and singer Tillison at times fails to convey the dynamic associated with the rest of the band and its material) this is an album worth checking out. Chances are good that after a while A Place In The Queue will grow mighty big on you. Hats off to The Tangent for a vital Progressive Rock album!

4 stars out of 5

Well, I have been lucky enough to hear the promotional release of this album, which is due out in Feb. of '06.

My first impression was that this is where The Tangent truely becomes a band, rather than a project. No more can there be the "just another Roine Stolt project" tag that was wrongly applied to the other two albums (considering the writing has always been done by Andy Tillison, it was always his baby). But on to the music.

First song, "In Earnest" will undoubtedly be considered the "classic" track for most people on first listen. It has everything a prog lover could hope for, while retaining some similarities in composition with previous Tangent albums. But this is certainly no retread of Suppers Ready or Close To The Edge. It has a modern approach and unique sound that is a result of Andy Tillisons approach to prog. This song, unlike some of the others on this album, does contain some tips of the hat to the "classic" prog bands of the 70's though. But not to the point of plagerism, and they are seamlessly blended into the whole. A truely great epic song.

"Lost In London" brings us back to the Canterbury style found on "The Canterbury Sequence" from the first album, but sounds far less like a tribute to that branch of prog and more like a modern take on the style. Excellent track.

"DIY Surgery" is Van der Graaf Generator through and through, while not really reminding me of any particular song of theirs. So not a rip off by any means, but certainly has the feel of their early 70's material. Interesting considering David Jackson is no longer with the band (but is MORE than sufficiently replaced by Theo Travis.....more on his contributions later).

"GPS Culture" is the one track that doesn't stand out as much to me. Perhaps it is because it is reminiscient of the previous album, which I found a bit lacking in adventurousness, unlike this new album. Overall, a good track, but not as outstanding as the others (with one exception).

"Follow Your Leaders" is fantastic. Featuring a solo section that very strongly evokes Gongs better material from the Radio Gnome trilogy days. This one did not strike me on the first listen, but after a couple of listens I now consider it one of the standout tracks.

"The Sun In My Eyes"......the less said about this track the better :) It is a fun track with some entertaining lyrics, but is also the one that keeps me from labeling this album a masterpiece. Still, it is short, and has a certain retro charm (I'll leave it to the reader to decide what sort of retro I'm referring to when they hear it for themselves.......I suppose it is safe to say that I'm not aware of any modern prog band dipping into this musical style :)

"A Place In the Queue" is not as immidiate in terms of "prog appeal" as the epic that starts the album, but repeated listens reveal that it is just as vital and interesting a piece of music as the first album track. Perhaps even more so due to the fact that it requires a few listens to sink in. Another winner for me, to be sure.

So, overall, not quite a masterpiece, but a definite 4 1/2 stars out of 5 for me. I will add here at the end that others have suggested that Theo Travis is the true replacement for Roine Stolt in terms of contributions to the music (as opposed to new guitarist Krister Jonsson). After hearing this album, I would have to agree completely. He helps to change the whole dynamic of this band, and I think that anyone who may have had doubts about him replacing David Jackson will have them throughly dispelled by this album. This is not to say that Krister Jonsson is not a good replacment on guitar, he is and he plays some VERY impressive solos as well as being an excellent rhythm guitarist. But Theo is as important to the sound of this album as Andy Tillison in my opinion.

All in all, excellent job by Tillison and company. I can't wait to get my hands on the Special Edition when it is released.

מבוא אפשרי למי שמעוניין להכיר את הרוק המתקדם באמצעות אלבום נגיש, כיפי ועשוי-היטב. אין בו שום אלמנט חדשני והוא מבוסס כל-כולו על נוסחאות שהתקבעו כבר באמצע שנות השבעים, אבל התוצאה הסופית עובדת מצויין: לחנים אפקטיביים, עיבודים מגוונים, ליריקה בריטית משובחת, ביצועים מדוייקים להפליא. מה שהחל כפרוייקט אנגלי-שוודי בהנהגת רוינה סטולט (Roine Stolt) מלהקת "דה פלאואר קינגז" (The Flower Kings) הפך עכשיו לפרוייקט אנגלי-ברובו בהנהגת אנדי טיליסון (Andy Tillison), וחסרונו של סטולט לא מורגש כלל.

"מקום בתור" (A Place in the Queue) הוא דיסק גדוש בחומר: שבעים ותשע דקות של רוק מתקדם בסגנון מסורתי. ההשפעות המוסיקליות בולטות מאוד: עיבודים סימפוניים של 'יס', אורגן האמונד של אמרסון לייק ופאלמר, גוונים ג'אזיים והומוריסטיים של להקות קנטרברי מצויינות כמו הטפילד או נשיונל הלת'. ההפקה המוסיקלית מקצועית להחריד והצליל נקי מאוד. אנדי טיליסון מתגלה לא רק כמלחין מיומן שיודע להתמודד עם יצירות ארוכות (20-25 דקות), אלא גם כקלידן בעל שליטה טובה ב'מוגים' למיניהם ובאורגן האמונד, ליריקן (כותב טקסטים) אפקטיבי ומנוסה - וגם כזמר מוביל סימפטי עם מבטא בריטי ברור. לשם ההשוואה, המבטא האנגלי הרעוע של סטולט (שוודי במקור) היה בעוכריהם של אלבומי טאנג'נט עד כה. סוף-סוף אפשר להבין כל מילה באלבום בלי לרוץ אל החוברת המצורפת ולהרוס את העיניים מול האותיות הקטנות.

מנהיג ההרכב, אנדי טיליסון, לא מסתיר את זהותו ומטרתו: הוא מעריץ רוק מתקדם, והוא מעוניין לחזור לתור הזהב של תחילת שנות השבעים בכל מחיר. הוא סוגד לאלילי הפרוג של האי הבריטי בלי בושה ובלי הסתייגויות, ובמיוחד מחבב את אנשי קנטרברי עם השנינות והאלגנטיות המאפיינת אותם. "מקום בתור" מלא במחוות, הצדעות, רמיזות והפנייות לקלאסיקות של הקנטרברי הטוב ביותר, ומעידים על תלמיד מחונן שעשה את שיעורי הבית שלו. נכון, זה לא ממש מעיד על חשיבה מקורית - ולכן 'מקום בתור' איננה יצירת מופת שתשנה את פני המוסיקה.

שתי היצירות הבולטות באלבום הן גם הארוכות ביותר: הקטע הראשון "אין ארנסט" (In Earnest) נמשך עשרים דקות ועוסק בחייהם של ותיקי מלחמת העולם השנייה; טיליסון כתב שיר-אהדה על הקשישים האלמוניים שהקריבו את נעוריהם על מזבח המלחמה ועתה זוכים להתעלמות מוחלטת; אך מעבר לעובדה שגיבורי הקרב נשכחו לגמרי, הם אינם מסוגלים לחזור לחיים נורמליים: זיכרונות העבר מאפילים על כל הישגיהם האזרחיים; "אני לא רוצה נוסטלגיה כזאת", זועק טיליסון ומנסח בסוף השיר כמה היגדים מעניינים על המימד ההרסני של חוויות מעצבות כגון מלחמה בגיל צעיר. טיליסון, היפי חילוני מזדקן עם שיער ארוך ואופנוע, מתחבר בקלות למורשת הפציפיסטית של שנות השישים המאוחרות, ולכן הליריקה האנטי-מלחמתית עוברת כחוט השני לכל אורך האלבום.

הקטע המוצלח ביותר באלבום, יצירת הנושא "מקום בתור" (A Place in the Queue), בנויה כסוויטה פרוגרסיבית קלאסית. מורגשת ההשפעה של קינג קרימזון והיצירה "סטארלס" שחותמת את האלבום "Red" משנת 1974, כמו גם הסקסופונים של ואן דר גראף (דיויד ג'קסון היה חבר בלהקת טאנג'נט משנת 2003 עד איחוד ואן דר גראף בסוף 2004). טיליסון על הקלידים ועמיתו הבריטי תיאו טראוויס על כלי הנשיפה עבדו יפה יחד כדי לאזן את החלקים הדרמטיים עם חלקים קצביים וקלילים, ולארוג היטב את החלקים ה'רוקיים' עם החלקים הג'אזיים של היצירה. הליריקה עוסקת בדרך שבה החיים המודרניים מכריחים אותנו להיכנע להיררכיות וליפול אל תוך מסגרות קשוחות בלי מקום לייחוד אישי. התוצאה היא קלאסיקה פרוגרסיבית שאין בה טיפת חדשנות אבל היא זורמת בצורה נפלאה מההתחלה ועד הסוף, וחותמת אלבום שיסעיר פרוגרים מתחילים, יעניין פרוגרים מתקדמים ואולי גם יכניע פרוגרים ותיקים שכבר שמעו הכל, ראו הכל וקנו הכל.

הליריקה של האלבום "מקום בתור", כאמור, מוסיפה כוח רב לאלבום כיצירה אמנותית. טיליסון עושה הקבלה מעניינת בין הרוק המתקדם ובין דור הפרחים ו'תרבות הנגד' (Counter-Culture) בשיר הפוליטי "אבוד בלונדון" (Lost in London), כולל איזכור מפורש של מלחמת עיראק. גם השירים "תרבות ג'י-פי-אס" (GPS Culture) ו"לכו אחרי המנהיגים שלכם" (Follow Your Leaders) ממשיכים את הקו השמאלי-ביקורתי, התוקף את הקפיטליזם הגלובלי ואת השתלטות המותגים והלוגואים על הרוב הדומם. טיליסון, יליד יורקשייר, משתלב בצורה אורגנית לגמרי עם המסורת ההיפית של שנות השישים, והקו הלירי העקבי מעניק אחידות תימטית משכנעת לכל האלבום. נכון - זה ניאו-פרוג וזה בסך הכל משחזר את מה שכבר היה בעבר - אבל המוסיקה לא מתפשרת על המורכבות המבנית, הוירטואוזיות האינסטרומנטלית והליטוש ההפקתי של המאסטרים הגדולים מפעם.

לסיכום, 'מקום בתור' הוא אלבום עשוי-היטב של להקה שהגיעה סוף-סוף לעצמאות ולבגרות. ביקורת זו מתייחסת למהדורה הרגילה של האלבום - המהדורה המיוחדת מגיעה עם אלבום בונוס (שישה קטעים נוספים) ובאריזת דיגיפאק מהודרת. מעבר לעובדה שמדובר באלבום ארוך מאוד שנותן תמורה כמותית מלאה לכסף, יש בו עקביות פנימית וכנות לירית שהופכים אותו למוצר משכנע ומהנה. כל זאת נאמר בהסתייגות מלאה: 'מקום בתור' רחוק מלהמציא את הגלגל, הוא רגרסיבי במהותו ולא מסוגל לגבור על אבותיו הרוחניים מלונדון של השנים 1970-1976, הוא ניאו-פרוגי בכל רמ"ח איבריו והוא נוסטלגי להחריד - אבל הוא מומלץ לכל מי שבאמת אוהב רוק מתקדם או מעוניין להתוודע אל קסמו. תענוג צרוף לכל אנגלופיל, פרוגופיל או אודיופיל. הציון: 8.5/10