The Tangent have been around for 18 years now. They are a band that have taken the progressive genre to a different level. Now despite the line-up changes, Andy Tillison is still going strong. With ten studio albums, five live albums, and two compilation albums in the can, it appears that The Tangent have made my eyes open more with their music to see what I was missing.

That and their eleventh studio album, Auto Reconnaissance, released this year on the InsideOut label, shows a different sound in The Tangent’s music. And for Tillison, he refuses to back down by going towards in a new direction by seeing where the yellow brick road lies waiting for him. You can hear the jazz/R&B influences, bossa-nova, pop, Canterbury, political standards, humour, prog, symphonic, funk, and a movie inside your head. This is Andy bringing everything to the kitchen table by cooking a non-stop meal that is strangely strange but oddly normal for the customers to dine on.

‘Jinxed in Jersey’ is The Tangent’s answer to Egg’s ‘A Visit to Newport Hospital’ from The Polite Force. Andy goes into some narration format on the character’s time between New York and New Jersey. Listening to this track, you can hear not just the textures between the Canterbury and bebop jazz genre, Tillison’s keyboards and Travis’ sax, takes you into those meetings of the characters of the people in the two cities.

And then it goes into this hard rocking approach which is completely unexpected for a couple of seconds before delving into a strange twist of George Gershwin and some electronic trip-hop vibrations while Andy honours Adrian Belew’s lyrical structures of ‘Thela Hun Ginjeet’. You follow Tilison by visiting the streets of the Big Apple and the Upper New York Bay of Liberty State park.

‘Under Your Spell’ is Tillison’s piano ballad by going into this soul/R&B groove. Andy shows his softer side to go beyond the symphonic approach before Luke Machin cries out to the heavens on his guitar. Part jazz, part blues, and part psychedelic that gives some sort of details on how you could’ve won the race. Machin delves into the heart of Wes Montgomery as Travis dances down the streets of Paris by becoming Dexter Gordon.

Opening track ‘Life on Hold’ sees Tillison going into this dreamy pop orientation with an uptempo sound of 10cc’s Godley & Creme meets Yes’ Close to the Edge-era. It’s quite a crossover texture as Jonas Reingold and Luke trade some workout sessions before reaching to the heavens as alarming synthesisers reaches towards the hallways of a gothic cathedral.

Tillison gets down to business on the Hammond organ as Luke lays down the funk a-la ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ style! I can imagine that Tillison is honouring Gershwin’s masterpiece by adding that brand new day to start your morning off with a delicious cup of coffee.

The 28-minute suite of ‘Lie Back & Think of England’ is Andy’s letter to his hometown by remembering the past and the present of the good old days from Andy’s childhood. It starts off with a rough and challenging section as it lifts our spirits up while Tillison and Travis share a bit of hope. But then, all hell breaks loose.

The sounds of the politicians, riots, and the labor party’s brainwashing its viewers on TV, it goes into this Orwellian nightmare on what we’re living in right now as Tillison describes it as if we’re “like living in a drama”. And we are by going through these risky and challenging times. But the signs of hope show up once more as Theo and Jonas share some of those pumped up volumes thanks to Luke’s melodic and heavy textures. What I love about Andy in this suite, is that he gives the members some leeway and free-rein in their improvisations. I believe that Jonas is playing a Rickenbacker Bass and he’s showing Travis some support as Andy comes in by making a soft landing.

The unexpected time changes comes marching in with a Zappa-sque atmosphere with some crossovers of Deodato and Greenslade’s organ work before going into the glam rock stomps of early Alice Cooper. And then Tillison sings French in the piece which took me by surprise that shows that he can sing differently. Suddenly, the mellotron, moog, and the rhythm section are in the middle of a thunderstorm as it changes into a folky-flamenco crisp with sliding guitars.

The finale on the last 8-minutes of the suite, sounds like Andy has finally returned home before chaos returns once more with guitar riffs and moog’s going into a hay-wiring effect and delving into a wacky yet mind-blowing stop-and go section. Both ‘The Tower of Babel’ and ‘The Midas Touch’ sees The Tangent walking into the opened doors of the Aja-era of Steely Dan and Steve Miller Band’s Fly Like an Eagle with some Motown grooves as the 12-minute bonus track ‘Proxima’ sees the band going into the waters of ambient music for the first three minutes of the piece.

Between Tangerine Dream’s Phaedra and Aphrodite’s Child’s 666, it transforms into this cat-and-mouse chase as the synths cry out into this cold and snowy night. That is when Tillison goes back to his keyboards with a Fusion Bo Hansson-sque groove as he brings it full circle. Theo and drummer Steve Roberts lay out the plans to see where Andy would like for them to go next.

Auto Reconnaissance was quite a challenge for me. The Tangent’s music is more than just a prog sound, but going beyond those structures. Whether you like the band’s music or not, Auto Reconnaissance may take some time to get into. For me, it took me a while, but now after two listens, I was very impressed to be on that adventure with Andy Tillison’s story structures.

Zachary Nathanson

Echoes & Dust Website

The Tangent have been going through a purple patch of late. Pretty much every album since 2013’s Le Sacre du Travail has hit the spot so far as critics and fans are concerned, with the most recent couple of releases getting rave reviews. It seems the band’s creative driving force, Andy Tillison, has found his musical voice – and even his singing voice, which is not to everyone’s taste, has been better than ever. Perhaps it’s giving up the ciggies that’s done it.

Part of the band’s appeal, for me at least, is its musical eclecticism. As Forrest Gump almost said, The Tangent are like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re gonna get. It could be an Asia-style prog-pop anthem, a slice of Steely Dan cool jazz, a love song inspired by Rose Royce or a 28-minute discourse on the state of Englishness after Brexit.

What you will always get is superb musicianship from some of prog’s most respected artists, a sense of melody that creates insistent, sticky earworms, and lyrics that are sometimes personal, sometimes political, but always thought-provoking and seasoned with self-effacing humour. And what you WON’T get is dull, portentous symphonic epics based on a Tibetan Book of the Dead – although the occasional reference to Jean-Paul Sartre is not ruled out.

Auto Reconnaissance is all these and more as we are once again invited to enter Tillison’s eclectic and colourful world of myriad musical influences. But this turns out to be a slightly more sombre, reflective album – the title means “self-observation” and has nothing to do with cars or military drones. Its tone is set by the aforementioned 28-minute epic Lie Back and Think of England, a sometimes gentle and sorrowful look at the way we have treated each other after Brexit.

Tillison’s last Brexit song, A Few Steps Down the Wrong Road from 2017’s The Slow Rust of Forgotten Machinery, came out punching like Muhammad Ali trying to swat a swarm of wasps. But Lie Back… is, indeed, more laid-back, opening with wistful solo piano tinkles and mournful flute as Tillison sings “viewed from above our country keeps its beauty, white cliffs and moorland, hill and dale. And sometimes it shocks me how deeply it moves me”.

Of course, being The Tangent, some richly-played instrumental madness is not very far off – after all, this is also a song about how we degenerated into name-calling and bullying during the Brexit process, so you would expect things to get a bit busy and noisy. There are sections playfully entitled ‘Some Solos by Saxophonist, Guitarist and Keyboards Player’, ‘Frantic Synth Solos with Fast Drumming and Zappa Influenced Vibraphones’ and ‘Gradual Deterioration Into a Bass Solo’. You can’t say you weren’t warned.

In fact, there are thirteen sections in all, adding up to a long piece of music that takes some repeated listenings to get into. But throughout it all are moments that will make your prog heart leap, whether it’s lightning-fast keyboard runs on the Hammond organ setting, Theo Travis’s expressive and commanding sax or Luke Machin letting loose on a rip-roaring guitar solo. And this is, in its final sections, a track with a positive message for the future. “So forgive and forget,” sings Tillison, “Let’s put this behind us and have more in our sights than this war.”

Elsewhere, things are mostly more upbeat and mischievous. There’s the opener, Life on Hold, described by Tillison as an “uptempo prog-rock stomper”, influenced by the sort of thing Asia did on their debut album. Fading in with massed harmony vocals, rolling drums, funky organ chords and Jonas Reingold’s virtuoso bass, it is not, as you would think from the title, about lockdown – Tillison says the entire album was written before Covid-19 brought the planet to a halt – but (probably) about his own insatiable appetite for information, “absorbing info from the Internet and page”. Machin’s guitar work on this is particularly spectacular, at times channelling his inner Allan Holdsworth.

Digital communication also seems to be the subject of The Tower of Babel, but its heart lies in ’70s funk and disco, with Machin providing a chukka-chukka-chukka rhythm under a relentlessly upbeat melody with an insanely catchy chorus. Meanwhile, The Midas Touch channels Tillison’s favourite band, Earth, Wind & Fire, with a smooth, funky sound that also owes something to the Isley Brothers’ Summer Breeze, crossed with Happy by Pharrell Williams. Despite its minor key mood, it’s about how a ray of sunshine can totally transform a gloomy winter’s day – “Welcome back my winter sun,” Tillison sings, “you give your Midas Touch to everyone”.

Finally, there are two tracks so different it’s hard to believe they have come from the same composer. Jinxed in Jersey is a 16-minute lighthearted travelogue about Tillison getting lost in New Jersey while trying to walk to the Statue of Liberty. Half sung, half narrated, it’s set against a smooth, jazzy Steely Dan-style backing with sudden bursts of heavy rock and hip-hop, and includes a terrible attempt to imitate a friendly US cop, as the wanderer realises his internal GPS system has failed him completely. But, with TJ Hooker’s help, he eventually finds the Roman goddess Libertas, and realises he’s sneaked in behind her back.

From the ridiculous to the sublime… Under Your Spell is an unashamed love song, dedicated to Tillison’s partner Sally Colyer and inspired by the likes of Rose Royce’s Love Don’t Live Here Any More and 10CC’s I’m Not In Love. As he says in the accompanying interview, prog bands don’t usually do soul songs. But then again, soul bands don’t usually sing verses in 7/8 or have Luke Machin and Theo Travis playing gorgeous guitar and sax licks over the top. The result is a very touching and melodic number, with Tillison on good form vocally – I know his singing is not to everyone’s taste but he’s as good on this album as I’ve ever heard him. Then again, I don’t think Peter Hammill can sing, so what do I know.

So what we have here is a worthy follow-up to 2018’s acclaimed Proxy but one that, in some instances, requires a bit more digging into to appreciate the treasures within. It’s like a box of chocolates with more packaging. But the contents are still oh so sweet.

[And you can read Kevan’s interview with Andy Tillison HERE.]

TRACK LISTING
01. Life On Hold (5:31)
02. Jinxed In Jersey (15:57)
03. Under Your Spell (5:44)
04. The Tower Of Babel (4:35)
05. Lie Back And Think Of England (28:16)
06. The Midas Touch (5:55)
~ Bonus track:
07. Proxima (12:26)

Simply put, Andy is at his acerbic and witty best when it comes to the lyrics, especially on the travelogue-esque track 2, Jinxed In Jersey where he regales us with his journey around New York and it is a brillaint, amusing and tongue in cheek clash of cultures between the largesse of the good ol’ U.S of A and your basic, down to earth Yorkshireman.

The wonderful, laid back jazz-infused soundtrack to Andy’s spoken word is superbly judged and takes you back to the 70’s. To be fair, the whole album has that sepia tinged edge of halcyon days gone by but given that ‘turd polishing’ skill that only Andy Tillison can do.

You want funky, you’ve got it, the five and a half minutes of opening track Life On Hold is as good as anything released recently with even a passing resemblance to the decade that gave us disco and corduroy flares! It’s a song that makes you smile and we all need some of that at the moment.

Dare I say that Under Your Spell has the feel of a 70’s love song? Almost as if Andy is channelling his inner Barry White (now there’s an image!). Whether you agree with me or not, what it is is a wonderful, classy and velvet smooth piece of music and there’s no arguing with that, just listen to the way Luke’s solo just oozes empathy.

There’s a sea change and a move to the 80’s with the edgy keyboard note of Tower Of Babel and it’s direct and in-your-face chorus. Think Huey Lewis And The News get down with Talking Heads and you won’t be far from the mark.

Lie Back And Think Of England could well be seen as Andy’s Magnum Opus and, in my humble opinion, it is the best piece of music he has ever written. Twenty-eight minute progressive rock epics are everywhere nowadays but this never fails to engage the listener and keep them under its captivating spell. The highs and lows and dynamic crescendos are utterly brilliant, taking you on an engrossing musical journey through all that is good about prog rock and one where every word and every note have their place.

Back to the 70’s and the funky, disco edge of soundtracks like Shaft and Starsky and Hutch, the bedrock on which The Midas Touch could have been built. There’s wah-wah pedal and tinkling of ivories galore in a song awash with the feel of lazy, hazy summers. The album closes with the bonus track Proxima, a twelve minute instrumental that could have come straight from a Tangerine Dream record.

The Tangent are a British progressive rock institution and every new album is eagerly awaited by the fans and, while every fan will have their own opinion, ‘Auto Reconnaissance’ is my favourite album from the band yet. Andy is on top form, his song writing is as sharp and clever as ever and he has gathered around him a group of musicians who seriously have no peers. A superb release and one which cements The Tangent’s already exalted reputation.

Released 21st August 2020

Martin Hutchinson
Progradar

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