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

Prog-rock super groups are usually excellent. The Tangent is one of the best yet, as the release The Music That Died Alone proves without leaving any room for doubt. Once again, the brilliant guitarist/vocalist Roine Stolt is part of a band that will make waves and receive rave reviews from every corner of the globe. The Flower Kings, well represented in this lineup, feature Stolt's band mates Jonas Reingold and Zoltan Csorsz as well. In addition, holding court with the flower king is Sam Baine and Andy Tillson (Parallel/90 Degrees), David Jackson (formerly of Van Der Graaf Generator) and Guy Manning.

This mighty band offers the listener 16 unyielding tracks of progressive-rock sprinkled with the occasional jazz-fusion. If you have always had a soft spot for Yes and ELP you will love this album. Fifty percent of the band is TFK, thus you have the Yes influences. On the flipside is the other fifty percent that sounds like ELP both instrumentally and vocally. Not a bad combination if I should say so myself. Although you will detect the influences straight away, there is the necessary inventiveness apparent in every track to compel you to play this album several times in succession before casting it aside for another CD. It worked that way for me. The way they utilize their vocalists is the key to keeping things fresh and appealing from beginning to end.

The album consists of three different suites, ?In Darkest Dreams,? ?The Canterbury Sequence? and ?The Music That Died Alone.? Each section offers varying degrees of passionate guitar playing and keyboard driven excellence. This is not music that will ever die much less be alone, it offers too much substance and musical integrity to suffer that kind of fate. This album is so good that I cannot literally describe it all in words. There is an unexplainable intangible element of music that you assimilate only through the ears and senses, that should say it all coming from my little corner of the universe. I promise you, this will be one of the very best prog-rock albums you will hear this year?enough said, now get it.

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)

Going Off On One (DVD) (2007)

Genre: Progressive Rock

Origin VA

Added: September 22nd 2003
Reviewer: Keith "Muzikman" Hannaleck
Score:
Artist website: www.thetangent.org
Hits: 2416
Language: english