Tangent, The - The Music That Died Alone

Year of Release: 2003
Label: InsideOut
Catalog Number: IOMCD 136 / SPV 085-65992
Format: CD
Total Time: 44:41:00

This September Inside Out have plenty of releases on offer, and among these ones, The Tangent is one of the most interesting.

As previously read in many places, this record put together three generations of prog musicians: David Jackson represents the first wave of progressive rock; in fact he played sax and horns with Van Der Graaf Generator during the Seventies, the others are Roine Stolt from The Flower Kings and Andy Tillison from Parallel or 90 Degrees.

The album, the title of which refers to the present situation of prog music, contains three suites plus a lone piece; it lasts more than forty five minutes and shows us an old taste prog style. It's surely an homage to the prog scene of the past. And probably because of this, Jackson appears on this album, something that I don't like too much. Too complicated! Without any doubt, it's the magic of his sax that gives this a poetic touch, but which also lets the music go away from classic prog rock. For the rest, it contains the usual technical research and the virtuosity by the soloists, but without any great innovations.

Among the three suites, I have to speak of "The Canterbury Sequence," a gift to the Canterburian movement. This piece is divided between the sound of Soft Machine and Hatfield and The North, but there are also elements of Caravan. The others are in a classic way with some fusion added.

A must for prog fans, but only for the most romantic ones.

Released also in North America by the now defunct InsideOut Music America (IOMACD 2067)

Tracklisting:
In Darkest Dreams: Prelude - Time For You (2:26) - Night Terrors (3:26) - The Midnight Watershed (3:03) - In Dark Dreams (4:01) - The Half-Light Watershed (1:16) - On Returning (0:47) - A Sax In The Dark (1:13) - Night Terrors Reprise (3:37) / The Canterbury Sequence: Cantermemorabilia (3:19) - Chaos At The Greasy Spoon (3:01) - Captain Manning's Mandolin (1:39) - Up-Hill From Here (7:08) / The Music That Died Alone: A Serenade (1:36) - Playing On? (1:50) - Pre-History (2:36) - Reprise (3:43)

Musicians:
Andy Tillison - keyboards, vocals
Sam Baine - piano
Roine Stolt - electric guitar, vocals
Jonas Reingold - bass
Zoltan Csörsz - drums
David Jackson - saxophone, flute
Guy Manning - acoustic guitars, mandolin, vocals

Discography:
The Music That Died Alone (2003)
The World We Drive Through (2004)
Pyramids And Stars (2005)
A Place In The Queue (2006)
Going Off On One (2007)
Not As Good As The Book (2008)
Down And Out In Paris And London (2009)
Comm (2011)
Le Sacre Du Travail (2013)
A Spark In The Aether (2015)

Going Off On One (DVD) (2007)
Going Off On Two (CD/DVD) (2010))

Genre: Progressive Rock

Origin VA

Added: October 5th 2003
Reviewer: Davide Guidone
Score:
Artist website: www.thetangent.org
Hits: 3291
Language: english