The Tangent Official Thread - 13th Album, "To Follow Polaris" May 10th

[RoeDent]

My copy only arrived about an hour ago, so I'll be giving it a first spin this evening.

[KevShmev]

Wait, this band has released 10 studio albums now?? Holy smokes, where have I been?

Then again, after loving the first album, the next couple went downhill (despite having some good stuff), and I lost interest after that.

[Fritzinger]

Happy release day! Proxy is now available, though until today, I've heard most of the album being one of Andy's Mega-fan pre-orderers. Gotta say, they knocked this one out of the park again! Instantly love this album, though I will be spinning for days and weeks to come!

-Marc.

There are so many albums being released right now I haven't had the time (and money!) to get the new Tangent (between Muse, Knopfler, Gungfly, Grönemeyer).

Is it awesome? Is it jazzy? And Canterbury? And groovy?

[RoeDent]

I think I'm really going to like this album. I listened in full last night and I stuck on The Adulthood Lie again while out shopping earlier. I love the fact that this band, while remaining resolutely "prog", continue to bring in other different influences to make each album unique.

[Mladen]

Here's a general question from someone who's never listened to this band.

I'm looking for a new prog band to get into and wonder what The Tangent has to offer - I'm curious about what's special about them, what makes them different from other modern prog acts and if there are any bands that they're similar to.

[The Letter M]

Wait, this band has released 10 studio albums now?? Holy smokes, where have I been?

Then again, after loving the first album, the next couple went downhill (despite having some good stuff), and I lost interest after that.

Yeah, Andy Tillison has been as prolific as ever, with at Tangent releases nearly every year since 2003 (be it studio, live, or limited exclusives), as well as various solo albums in between all of that. I don't blame you for not liking what came after their debut, but you should definitely give A Place In The Queue a chance (the album, AND the song), as well as COMM and the new album.

Happy release day! Proxy is now available, though until today, I've heard most of the album being one of Andy's Mega-fan pre-orderers. Gotta say, they knocked this one out of the park again! Instantly love this album, though I will be spinning for days and weeks to come!

-Marc.

There are so many albums being released right now I haven't had the time (and money!) to get the new Tangent (between Muse, Knopfler, Gungfly, Grönemeyer).

Is it awesome? Is it jazzy? And Canterbury? And groovy?

It is indeed very awesome and quite jazzy/Canterbury-y, but with a lot of other influences in there as well, with some dance and electronic bits here and there, as well as the typical prog musings (including a VERY ELP-influenced part in the title track). It's quite a bop!

I think I'm really going to like this album. I listened in full last night and I stuck on The Adulthood Lie again while out shopping earlier. I love the fact that this band, while remaining resolutely "prog", continue to bring in other different influences to make each album unique.

Agreed, there's a lot to digest on here that treads old and new ground, but continues to be prog in Andy's own ways. It's so distinctly Tangent-y, but still fresh and different enough from the last few albums. I also love the new life they breathed in to "Supper's Off", while mostly similar to the demo version Andy released several years ago, has some upgrades with the whole band playing on it now, especially Jonas's bass playing!

Here's a general question from someone who's never listened to this band.

I'm looking for a new prog band to get into and wonder what The Tangent has to offer - I'm curious about what's special about them, what makes them different from other modern prog acts and if there are any bands that they're similar to.

The Tangent is, well, very jazz/Canterbury influenced, along with a lot of 70's prog influences like VdGG and ELP, maybe a bit of King Crimson and Yes, but after the first couple of albums, the band really take shape into the sound they would become known for. Lyrically speaking, there's a lot of songs that seem only relevant to the modern age, and sometimes they can be corny and cheesy (but it's prog!), while also covering large ranges of topics from politics and history and anything in between. It's definitely NOT about dungeons and dragons and mystical arts and other fantastical prog-like lyrics. Andy writes very relate-able and grounded lyrics, sometimes very sarcastic and cynical in outlook, but those add to the uniqueness of the band! If you also love sprawling epics, they throw in at least one per album, of at least 16 minutes in length, and they're always a highlight for me upon every release, but the shorter tracks pack a lot of punch too!

Andy and The Tangent have cemented a place in my Top 10 bands of all time, and I've been a huge fan and supporter since before Not As Good As The Book came out in 2008. Andy never seems to disappoint with his releases, they fill in a gap in Modern English Prog that doesn't have anyone else like them, and their uniqueness in the prog landscape really keeps me coming back. They're unlike everything else I listen to in terms of modern prog. If you want bands like them, you'd have to view their individual influences, because they're really greater than the sum of their parts.

-Marc.

[KevShmev]

Wait, this band has released 10 studio albums now?? Holy smokes, where have I been?

Then again, after loving the first album, the next couple went downhill (despite having some good stuff), and I lost interest after that.

Yeah, Andy Tillison has been as prolific as ever, with at Tangent releases nearly every year since 2003 (be it studio, live, or limited exclusives), as well as various solo albums in between all of that. I don't blame you for not liking what came after their debut, but you should definitely give A Place In The Queue a chance (the album, AND the song), as well as COMM and the new album.

A Place in the Queue is the last one I bought; nothing from it really stuck, which is why I stopped buying their stuff. The title track from the second album is the only song I remember liking.  And looking at my iTunes, a friend gave me the mp3s of COMM a while back, but I don't think I've ever listened to it. 

I am still a big fan of the first album. I love all four songs, especially The Canterbury Sequence.

[RoeDent]

One thing I noticed is that the movement titles for Proxy are on the back cover, but not in the lyric booklet.

[The Letter M]

One thing I noticed is that the movement titles for Proxy are on the back cover, but not in the lyric booklet.

That's very interesting. I wonder if it was to save space for the actual lyrics? What about the movement titles for "The Adulthood Lie"?

-Marc.

[RoeDent]

One thing I noticed is that the movement titles for Proxy are on the back cover, but not in the lyric booklet.

That's very interesting. I wonder if it was to save space for the actual lyrics? What about the movement titles for "The Adulthood Lie"?

-Marc.

They are included. It does make it easier to break that song down into its parts.

[MinistroRaven]

 

[MinistroRaven]

https://lotsofmuzic.weebly.com/home/the-tangent-are-back-with-their-latest-effort-proxy-and-heres-the-album-review-by-rich-lockrem

[The Letter M]

A couple weeks ago, Andy revealed that he would be releasing some old works on Bandcamp, including various Tangent rarities and Parallel Or 90 Degrees albums, as well as older stuff like Gold Frankincense & Disk-Drive.

https://andytangent.bandcamp.com/

I've purchased the four albums (of the 9 currently available) that I didn't already own, which are the GFDD and PO90 ones. I haven't had time to spin them yet, but I am excited to finally own them, even if it's just digitally! If anyone never got some of these rarer Tangent titles and you don't care if you have them physically or not, here is a great way to support Andy directly and getting these albums in many digital formats! Please support him as he is currently working on new material and it would be a great way to help him get it out!

-Marc.

[darkshade]

Haven't listened to this band in a while, I've missed out on the last few albums, though I did check out the first tune from Proxy on Spotify and it sounded good. I actually did go back to the first 2 albums recently during a little Flower Kings binge but those albums have more of the TFK vibe than later Tangent albums.

[RoeDent]

I absolutely love the passage from 11:21 on the opening title track of Proxy. The harmonica adds a nice extra touch during the long instrumental passage on that chord sequence. Shame the harmonica player isn't credited in the liner notes.

[Fritzinger]

Okay I still haven't heard it yet, and now I couldn't take it anymore. I just ordered it on Amazon Prime on vinyl, for 18 bucks Should be here by tomorrow. Very excited!!!

[Fritzinger]

I am almost through with the first listen. The melodies of the title track and Misplaced Optimism don't quite apply to me, but I always needed some time with new Tangent music.

I love the instrumental and especially The Adulthood Lie though! The latter is not your classical, fragmented 16min song, but it flows as a whole. And I love those EDM influences. This is where prog could go in the future.

[The Letter M]

I am almost through with the first listen. The melodies of the title track and Misplaced Optimism don't quite apply to me, but I always needed some time with new Tangent music.

I love the instrumental and especially The Adulthood Lie though! The latter is not your classical, fragmented 16min song, but it flows as a whole. And I love those ECM influences. This is where prog could go in the future.

Glad you're enjoying it! Are you spinning the vinyl or the CD or both, because the vinyl leaves off the closing track "Supper's Off", which was previously a demo on L'Étagère Du Travail (the companion album to Le Sacre Du Travail). It's been revamped and recorded properly with the full band, and it sounds great, with all the cynicism and sarcasm that Andy is known for!

Honestly, their last 4 albums have been really good, and I think having Jonas on all of them really helped. Andy and Jonas are really the core of the band for me, and while I liked COMM and DAOIPAL, I did miss Jonas on those albums.

-Marc.

[Phoenix87x]

So the only two tangent albums I am missing are A place in the Queue and Not as good as the book

Anyone know why they are so hard to find? Sure I can listen to them on Spotify, but wanted to get a digital copy just to have.

Also, are they decent?

[The Letter M]

So the only two tangent albums I am missing are A place in the Queue and Not as good as the book

Anyone know why they are so hard to find? Sure I can listen to them on Spotify, but wanted to get a digital copy just to have.

Also, are they decent?

Not sure why they are rare or hard to find, but you can find them used on Amazon for under $30 each for the physical discs, though you might find that a bit pricey. Personally speaking, APITQ is one of their best albums, especially the Special 2-Disc Edition set. The epics are two of their best, and the other songs are all quality as well. The follow-up to that, NAGATB, is in the upper-middle tier for me. I don't spin it as much as their first three albums, but it's a decent follow-up to Queue.

If you love their first two albums, definitely seek out their third and fourth. If you join the Tangent Facebook group, you can probably ask there if anyone knows off-hand where to find these albums digitally. Andy himself might even comment and help you out as he interacts with his fans fairly frequently.

-Marc.

[The Letter M]

It's been a bit quiet here in this thread, but Andy has recently updated progress on the next Tangent album, number 11 for those keeping track, and has even posted the tentative title of Auto Reconnaissance.

He has recently finished writing the album, and plans on getting the band back from Proxy to record it! This is HUGE considering the band have never been the same on any two consecutive records, so this will be the first time!

I cannot wait to pre-pre-order this one and back what will surely be another Tangent masterpiece. The last few albums have all been great and so I have high hopes for this next one!

-Marc.

[Fritzinger]

Well Marc, seems like your wait is almost over:

The Tangent, the progressive rock group led by Andy Tillison are pleased to announce the release of their 11th studio album ‘Auto Reconnaissance’ on the 21st August 2020. The follow-up to 2018’s ‘Proxy’, sees them continuing the band philosophy of celebrating the golden age of prog, whilst bringing it to the present and exploring new paths for the music to take in the future. On ‘Auto Reconnaissance’, they bend that philosophy to their will, taking in prog rock foot stomping, sublime Jazz, humour, narrative, a modern R&B love song, funk/soul and a 28 minute long emotional epic about the band's home country of England.
Andy comments: "I utterly refuse to accept that Progressive Rock Music is some kind of museum piece. It is actually a living and breathing movement that has a past, a present and above all, a future. It once had an album-chart-topping golden age, but the genre was never about that. It has subtly and virally kept itself alive for decades where many new musical genres have risen to glory and faded away."
For this release, Andy is once again joined by long-time collaborators Jonas Reingold, Luke Machin (who co-produced the album with Andy), Theo Travis, and Steve Roberts. Together they bring to life an album that has been influenced by the likes of ELP, The Isley Brothers, Steely Dan, Aphex Twin, National Health, Rose Royce, Squarepusher and Return To Forever amongst others.
‘Auto Reconnaissance’ will be available as Limited CD Digipak (incl. bonus track), Gatefold 2LP + CD + LP booklet & as Digital Album, all featuring the artwork of Ed Untisky, whose visuals have not been seen on a Tangent album since 2014’s ‘A Spark In The Aether’. The full track-listing can be found below:
1. Life On Hold
2. Jinxed In Jersey
3. Under Your Spell
4. The Tower Of Babel
5. Lie Back & Think Of England
6. The Midas Touch
7. Proxima (Bonus Track)

I'm looking forward to this. The last two Tangent albums haven't exactly been my favourites of theirs, but I'm always openminded towards a guy that has created so much great music.

Also, Ed Unitsky (as usual) has made sure that this album is packed into a hideous cover artwork. Part of why I love vinyl is the big artwork size, but I'm not sure I want to look at this cover anymore than I have to. Of course this is all a matter of taste, but I don't understand why this guy gets hired over and over again by prog bands.

[RoeDent]

Looks like we're getting the longest single Tangent song (unless you count Le Sacre du Travail as one song) on this album, the 28-minute epic mentioned in the blurb beating A Place In The Queue by c. 3 minutes.

Guessing you're not a fan of Roger Dean either, Fritzinger. Unitsky's magnificent work channels that of the great master.

[Fritzinger]

On the contrary, I love Roger Dean!

[The Letter M]

Thanks to BurningShed, we've got the track lengths:
1 Life On Hold 00:05:34
2 Jinxed In Jersey 00:15:59
3 Under Your Spell 00:05:51
4 The Tower Of Babel 00:04:36
5 Lie Back & Think Of England 00:28:24
6 The Midas Touch 00:05:54
7 Proxima (Bonus Track) 00:12:30

Pre-orders on BurningShed have also begun, including an orange vinyl, all here - https://burningshed.com/tag/The+Tangent?utm_source=Newsletter+25+06+2020&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter+25+06+2020

-Marc.

[MinistroRaven]

FIRST SINGLE:

The Tangent, the progressive rock group led by Andy Tillison, are pleased to announce the release of their 11th studio album ‘Auto Reconnaissance’ on August 21st, 2020. The follow-up to 2018’s ‘Proxy’, sees them taking the band philosophy of celebrating the golden age of prog, whilst bringing it to the present and exploring new paths for the music to take in the future. On ‘Auto Reconnaissance’, they bend that philosophy to their will, taking in prog rock foot Stomping, sublime Jazz, humour, narrative, a modern R&B love song, funk/soul and a 28 minute long emotional epic about the band's home country of England.

Today they launch the first track, titled ‘Life On Hold’, and you can listen now here: https://youtu.be/go1O7PI6oTI

Andy comments: “‘Life On Hold is  the cheerful up-tempo Prog Rock foot-stomper we chose to kick off our album. It sits alongside pieces we’ve done in the past like ‘GPS Culture’ and ‘Spark In The Aether’, ‘Crisis In Midlife’ etc and it’s a flavour we do like to return to now and then. This one is influenced by things like that first Asia album, stuff like Kansas and Boston, and the kind of thing that Transatlantic might bang out at you. It’s part of our genetic makeup, but of course only one part. Although there’s a fair amount of accessible tunes on the new album, there’s some seriously deep water around too.  And no, ‘Life On Hold’ has nothing to do with Lockdowns. It mentions Jean Paul Sartre, which is not normal in foot-stompers. Get it ON!! Bang, and the dirt is gone!”

[The Letter M]

Been a little while since this thread saw the light of day, but we are a WEEK AWAY from the band's 11th album! Been waiting on this one for MONTHS now, having done the usual pre-pre-order from Andy directly. Saw a recent post from Andy that he was expecting the albums to arrive sometime this week to get postmarked out from his place, so I'm hoping mine gets to me within the next week or two (though with the state of shipments and packages over the last few weeks, I'm not overly optimistic I'll get my album before the end of the month).

Either way, I hope Andy gives fans who pre-ordered with him a chance to listen to the album digitally with a download code! Feels like I just ordered the album last week - summer flew by REAL fast.

-Marc.

[kirksnosehair]

I wasn't even aware of this until just now when I saw this thread.  I'll be spinning this one first thing tomorrow morning at the gym since it will be available on Amazon Music.  They don't appear to be selling CDs via Amazon.  Only vinyl 

[The Letter M]

I wasn't even aware of this until just now when I saw this thread.  I'll be spinning this one first thing tomorrow morning at the gym since it will be available on Amazon Music.  They don't appear to be selling CDs via Amazon.  Only vinyl 

That's weird, that the CDs aren't on Amazon. You might be able to get the CD from the band's own store, but I haven't checked in awhile. Happy to hear you've finally heard about this, though from that, can I take it that you don't actively follow Andy and Tangent news? I've known about it since March/April, and even pre-pre-ordered from Andy back in mid-April (which feels like SO long ago). The preview tracks that I've been able to listen to have been great, and the videos they have released in the last month or so have been entertaining, but I've been keeping myself from listening to all that too much. I'd rather wait until I can hear the whole album together.

The reviews so far seem to be VERY positive, so I'm excited for this one. Any year there is new Tangent, they inevitably end up in my top album choices of that year, and I suspect this will do the same, despite so much good music coming out in 2020 (and still more to come).

-Marc.

[Nel]

Yeah, there's been a space for the cd option on Amazon for months now, it's just always said "not available". Thanks to the pandemic, Amazon's how I've been getting cds, so that's disheartening.

[RoeDent]

It seems to be available on Amazon UK.

[The Letter M]

I've downloaded my MegaFans Pre-Pre-Order WAV files late last night (around 3:00am), and after sleepily converting them into MP3 for my phone before going to bed, I woke up and spun the album, and WOW, what another smashing album by Andy and the gang. About as good, if not better than Proxy, and I think having the same line-up for a 2nd album in a row really helped with that.

I'll definitely have to get a few more listens in this weekend, but I've been enjoying it so far!

-Marc.

[kirksnosehair]

I wasn't even aware of this until just now when I saw this thread.  I'll be spinning this one first thing tomorrow morning at the gym since it will be available on Amazon Music.  They don't appear to be selling CDs via Amazon.  Only vinyl 

That's weird, that the CDs aren't on Amazon. You might be able to get the CD from the band's own store, but I haven't checked in awhile. Happy to hear you've finally heard about this, though from that, can I take it that you don't actively follow Andy and Tangent news?

-Marc.

In the last year or so I've been focused on writing and producing my group's next album so I haven't dedicated a lot of time to finding new music, but anytime The Tangent release something new I always check it out. 

[The Letter M]

I wasn't even aware of this until just now when I saw this thread.  I'll be spinning this one first thing tomorrow morning at the gym since it will be available on Amazon Music.  They don't appear to be selling CDs via Amazon.  Only vinyl 

That's weird, that the CDs aren't on Amazon. You might be able to get the CD from the band's own store, but I haven't checked in awhile. Happy to hear you've finally heard about this, though from that, can I take it that you don't actively follow Andy and Tangent news?

-Marc.

In the last year or so I've been focused on writing and producing my group's next album so I haven't dedicated a lot of time to finding new music, but anytime The Tangent release something new I always check it out.

Ahh gotcha, well I hope work is proceeding well on your next album! If you get a chance to check this album out, please let us know your thoughts!

Personally, I've been a part of the Tangent Facebook group for about a decade now, and it's run by Andy himself, so I've been on top of all the band news and pre-pre-orders since their fifth album, and have helped fund his works where I can, which is why you may see my name in the album booklets where Andy has listed people who had helped fund the production of those albums (which I think is almost all of them since DAOIPAL, except COMM). I'm what they call a "Mega Fan" 

-Marc.

[darkshade]

Man, am I behind. They have been pumping out albums. I know The Tangent's first 6 albums pretty well, but I fell off when Le Sacre du Travail came out, which I may have only listened to twice. So much music to explore.