A SPARK IN THE AETHER - THE MUSIC THAT DIED ALONE, VOLUME TWO

When I first got into Prog, THE TANGENT was one of the early bands I discovered, and I can still picture myself sitting in the Mall parking lot after picking up my haul of cds from HMV and dwelling on the covers and liner notes of THE TANGENT'S first two studio albums. Good memories, especially with their music over the years. One of Andy Tillison's great strengths is his lyrics and we get plenty of that here although i'm surprised at my dislike for some of them. Just my opinion. This latest album is Part Two of "The Music That Died Alone" which is pretty obvious with the cover art here. We get a World class drummer and bassist in Morgan Agren and Jonas Reingold respectively, and Theo Travis is fantastic as usual on his sax and flute.

"A Spark In The Aether" is an energetic tune with plenty of synths dominating. Andy comes in vocally before 1 1/2 minutes. Not the best start. "Codpieces And Capes" seems to dwell on the golden era of Prog but Neal Morse is mentioned for his Christian beliefs. This does remind me somewhat of SPOCK'S BEARD overall. It opens with a line about how pretentious many bands were in the seventies as keyboards and drums lead the way. The vocals are multi-tracked and i'm not big on that repeated section. The synths seem to swirl constantly at times. I do really like the drumming 7 minutes in as well as the crazy guitar solo. Also check out the jazzy passage 8 1/2 minutes in with flute. "Clearing The Attic" is one of my favourites on here along with "Aftereugene". The first is wistful and catchy with vocals. Nice instrumental section 3 1/2 minutes in and especially 6 1/2 minutes in as it continues. The vocals aren't back until before 8 minutes.

"Aftereugene" might be a reference to PINK FLOYD's "Careful With That Axe Eugene" as we do get some FLOYD-like atmosphere along with acoustic guitar, bass and flute early on. This actually reminds me of "Lizard" by KING CRIMSON as we get an improvized feel here. Also check out the dissonant sax before 4 minutes. So good. Two great tracks in my opinion, I just wished I like the rest of the album as much. "The Celluloid Road" is the over 21 minute epic that is like taking a road trip from coast to coast across the USA using TV shows and Movies as our guide. So yeah take the lyrics with a grain of salt unless you've been there. I'm not a fan of a few sections on here, especially the one beginning 9 1/2 minutes in. "A Spark In The Aether(Part Two)" opens with piano that lasts for quite a while. It starts to build before 2 minutes and I like the drumming here. Some relaxed guitar as well then the organ comes to the fore after 5 minutes. Lots of synths follow then we finally get vocals before 6 1/2 minutes as we get that same sound from the opening number.

Shockingly(to me) I can't pull the trigger on 4 stars which is the first for me when it comes to THE TANGENT. So much to like here though and plus i've seen nothing but praise for this album around the "Net".