Artist: Tangent, The
Label: Inside Out Records
Release: 2006
Rating: 3/5
“A Place In The Queue” is no longer a side studio project of Roinne Stolt’s (Flower Kings)! You’ll miss Roinne’s trademark guitar on the record, but that’s its only minus. And even that fades, because the new The Tangent bring so many delights that this review can’t come close to covering them all. The Tangent have finally become a proper band! The days of the casual project, with members getting together because they had nothing better to do, are over. No joke, The Tangent are now a real professional outfit. This is their third album. Is it good enough to win us over? The Tangent keep going with their “Canterbury meets Yes crossover”. Among the young revivalists, they’re probably even the best at it.
The Tangent barely left any room on the disc, with the album clocking in at a whopping 79 minutes and featuring two symphonic epics that run well past 20 minutes each. Few modern prog bands dare to do that today. That was the thing legendary bands did in the seventies. Listening to The Tangent, the comparisons to the big epics made by Yes, Van Den Graaf Generator and Camel keep coming up on their own, and with those trademark flute sounds I can throw Jethro Tull in there too. The Tangent’s music combines an incredible wealth, I’d even say a kingdom, of symphonic prog. So: fantastic melodies, tasty sax and flute stabs, duels of long moog and hammond solo explosions, atmospheric piano and constant twists in the lively rhythm section. The mood shifts are grandiose, and in the longer, stretched-out “jams” you can easily feel how much the band enjoys every note it fires off. Nobody tells them what or how to play, everything unfolds spontaneously and entirely on their own terms.
The vocal lines, thanks to their deliberate dissonance, sometimes veer toward Van Der Graaf Generator, but compared to the debut, Tillison has taken a big step forward in his sense of singing. You can tell the English-speaking colleagues in the band have schooled him nicely in “taking” English verses through song. The production of his vocals is also far more convincing, and the voice no longer sounds so thin and monotonous, but rides the waves at a now acceptable level.
Through all of this, I have to single out the funky three-minute banger The Sun In My Eyes. Yes! The Tangent know how to make a “funky hit single”. Too bad the seventies aren’t still with us. This is a track that would have topped the charts. My jaw literally dropped open on its own, with a wide-open “AAAAA????”, when after miles of soloing I suddenly ran into Barry White-style “disco” string arrangements crossed with a “funky beat”. “What the fuck”…. a crossbreed from hell… but definitely a great way to spice up the record!
“A Place In The Queue” is a concept album. The concept doesn’t say anything new; it symbolizes a person standing in a long line, constantly seeking the approval of the majority and fitting in with it by imitating the trendiest fads we’ve been force-fed since birth! The concept isn’t striking a diamond mine, but it’s yet another typical, deadly serious warning coming from the ranks of enlightened rock musicians. Even though it doesn’t uncover anything new for The Tangent, the album is a kind of triumvirate. The guys have finally cut loose. They’ve laid solid foundations and simply do their own thing! I won’t be modest. The album is a grandiose progressive mix. Everyone’s contribution to it is outstanding, and as I said, The Tangent truly enjoy being what they are! This record is genuinely entertaining and keeps the listener busy the whole time, and we can definitely expect more steps up from The Tangent.
This is an album that should have come out 30 years ago, so that it could have been called a “great rock album”. Everything on it already sounds like it! Sure, The Tangent are revivalists, but thank God they are! Better for kids today to listen to young bands like The Tangent than to Gorillaz!
Lineup
Andy Tillison – organ, piano, moog, guitar, vocals
Sam Baine – piano, synthesiser, backing vocals
Krister Jonsson – electric guitar (except track 4)
Theo Travis – saxophone, flute, clarinet, backing vocals
Guy Manning – acoustic guitar, mandolin, backing vocals
Jonas Reingold – bass guitar
Jaime Salazar – drums
Special guest:
Dan Watts (Po90) / electric guitars (4)
Production
Andy Tillison, Jonas Reingold & Theo Travis
Tracklist
1. In Earnest (20:03)
2. Lost In London (8:08)
3. DIY Surgery (2:16)
4. GPS Culture (10:07)
5. Follow Your Leaders ( 9:21)
6. The Sun In My Eyes (3:44)
7. A Place In The Queue (25:19)
Total running time:78:58
THE SPECIAL EDITION BONUS CD CONTAINS:
Part One – Other songs recorded at the same time as the main CD
1. Promises Were Made (7:26)
2. The First Day At School DEMO* (5:30)
3. Forsaken Cathedrals (4:54)
Part Two – Alternative Version
4. The Sun In My Eyes – Extended Mix (9:12)
Part Three – Instrumental Ambience
5. Grooving On Mars (LIVE at Karlsruhe Germany 2005) (6:16)
6. Kartoffelsalat Im Unterseeboot (13:37)
