By John Sturm
The Tangent have been around since 2002 and have had so many band members that it boggles the mind! This is not uncommon in the prog scene as most bands can’t afford to make music their day jobs, so members jump in and out and often sideways to other bands at a regular frequency! The man at the centre of it all, the heartbeat of The Tangent, is keyboardist Andy Tillison who with a stellar group of musicians (featuring Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison) has created an album of such depth and vision that it’s a bit much to take in on one sitting.
Song lengths that reach 22, 19 and 12 minutes and are titled as movements Le Sacre Du Travail is a story about 7 billion people that all have the same name; “You”. The Tangent wanted to put the listener into the picture, having decided that if they were going to present this story, it had to be something that absorbed everyone on a familiar level.
So far, so prog right?
But this is more than just your average prog album. It’s Tillison’s ode to classical music. It features all the prog staples or keyboards and organs and flutes but it structurally it owes much more to Deep Purple’s Concerto for Orchestra and Group in its breadth. Divided up to span a day it starts with ‘1st Movement: Coming Up On The Hour (Overture)’ which features narration, violins and a distinctly jazzy feel to it. It’s on ‘2nd Movement: Morning Journey & Arrival’ that we get the first glimpse of the scope of this album. Snare drums, pianos, cornets (I hope!), strings and vocals lead you into 22 minutes of pure progressive bliss.
The hallmarks of classical music are all over this album. By that I mean the way if describing a situation without words. Think of the Four Seasons suite by Vivaldi. Then listen to ‘4th Movement: A Voyage Through Rush Hour’. Both of these pieces are so musically clear that you can close your eyes and visualise exactly what the composer was thinking of.
There really is not enough room here to fully describe the journey you go on when listening to this album. There’s a real sense that this is a labour of love for Tillison. 10 years, numerous line up changes has clearly led him to this place. Yes, prog “traditionalists” might turn their noses up at this album (although I’ve no idea why) but this is the pinnacle of 10 years hard graft. This is an album that embodies the word progressive. This is an album that should hold pride of place in your prog collection. It’s a sprawling, daring, dense and passionate record. Even if Steve Wright never plays it.
