THE MUSIC THAT DIED ALONE

The Tangent is THE bomb. An excellent, beautiful, complex and inspiring piece. There are so many nods, thanks you's and acknowledgements to all the different genre's of Progressive music. Some of the sequences so closely resembled the originators that I pulled over the truck to listen more intently. I wish they would have recorded each piece without the break between tracks. Another is in the works. Maybe using some other notables to guest.

Given all the effusive praise for this album, I decided to give it my absolutely undivided attention, keeping a particularly open mind. At the risk of being a "party pooper," I was somewhat underwhelmed. / The album is divided into three "suites." The first one - In Darkest Dreams - is not only the only truly "successful" one (at least musically), but the only one I would actually classify as "prog-rock." And although it is certainly creative and well executed, and has both inner logic and clear direction - and although "Midnight Watershed" is one of the best prog jams I've heard in quite some time - the suite has three flaws. First, although it is unqualifiedly prog-rock, most of it has a strange "commercial rock" quality, especially vis-a-vis the production. Second, the lyrics are at best utilitarian, and at worst remarkably immature. Third, and almost "fatal," are the vocals: indeed, I had a very hard time getting past them (whether Stolt or Tillison, I don't know; it might be both). The second suite - The Canterbury Sequence - is quite good, but I would not classify it as prog-rock: most of it is almost straight-ahead light jazz. That said, it is very listenable, especially the really neat extended 13/8 jam in "Chaos at the Greasy Spoon." The last section of the Canterbury suite - "Up Hill From Here" - starts out as prog-rock with a retro-60s flavor, then has a short Floydian section, and then a straight-ahead rock section. It's so "radio friendly," I'm surprised it's not a hit. The final suite - The Music That Died Alone - starts with a short "Emersonian" piano intro, and then more jazz-influenced compositions, and is the weakest of the three suites. / At the additional risk of being a "wanker," I'm actually being somewhat generous giving it three stars, especially given the almost total failure of both the lyrics and the vocals. Still, the music is quite good - even when it's not prog-rock, but something far more akin to jazz - and the album is creative and listenable. Better lyrics and a (far) more compelling voice would not only have truly earned it the third star, but might even have garnered a fourth.

Now this is a fantastic album full of highly energetic, well crafted songs with some superb musicianship. The TANGENT are a kind of "supergroup" with Roine Stolt, Zoltan Csorsz and Jonas Reingold (LOWER KINGS) , David Jackson (VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR) and Andy Tillison (PARALLEL OR 90 DEGREES). Of course with 3 members of the FLOWER KINGS hearing allusions to their music and KAIPA's is unavoidable. However with Tillison's song writing and the cast of other musicians The TANGENT take this music into a different zone. This mighty band offers the listener 16 unyielding tracks of progressive-rock sprinkled with the occasional jazz-fusion. Lyrics are sung by Stolt and Tillison and both have great voices. The album consists of three different suites, "In Darkest Dreams," "The Canterbury Sequence" and "The Music That Died Alone".Each section offers passionate guitar playing and thoughtful keyboard performances. Jackson's sax and flute contributions fit to enahcne the music even that much more making this album very hard not to love. Overall a great album full of deep progressive passages.

Well it's a mix of progressive music from Canterbury, a bit of a "RIO" genre and some experimental tunes as well,without a precise direction...Roine Stolte, already with the Swedish band "Flower Kings", plays with his usual fusion/experimental touch, even though I should have appreciated a different style, closer for example to Frank Zappa. I don't get crazy for the vocals of Roine and Andy Tillison too, but the output is anyway good.I can't stand listening to Roine Stolte after 5 minutes (the same defect you can discover sometimes within the production of Flower Kings or inside some tunes by Kaipa!), because sometimes He's a bit "chilly" during his guitar excursions, as long as He becomes quite boring..but never mind, his style is unique and often interesting during his performance;and this latter makes you forgive all the defects I have remarked to you above!!

Make your own choice!!

One of the BEST prog albums in 2003!!!

Three Generations of Progressive Music: Roine Stolt (The Flower Kings), David Jackson (Van der Graaf Generator) and Andy Tillison (Parallel or 90 Degrees) - One Remarkable Album. That's actually what got printed at the album cover.

"Originally conceived as the first solo album by Andy Tillison, this album became a more collaborative venture as time went on. The enthusiasm of the musicians turned this combination of three generations of progressive virtuosity into a cohesive whole .. " [sleeve notes]. Who in this earth would not be interested to purchase this CD? I did not want to miss it, for sure! And in fact, I was really satisfied with the music the geniuses offer in this album.

Here is my personal view about this album .

In Darkest Dreams

It comprises eight parts that has been sectioned by the CD into track 1 - 8. I was amazed by the opening organ work at track 1 "Prelude - Time for You". It's very dynamic, sound-wise, and it flows into an uplifting style in relatively fast tempo. It sets the overall tone of the whole epic, even the whole album, I would say. I was very happy with the opening track even at the first spin of the CD. Jonas Reingold! - uuughhh . I like your style man.!!!! You really made my day! "Night Terrors" brings the music into a jazzy nuance with the Flower Kings-like music in relatively medium tempo. "The Midnight Watershed" sets the music in a very dynamic mood with stunning guitar solo and . again . Mr. Reingold .!! Uuughh . you make me smile with your powerful bassline man .!!! Yeah ... It then flows to a very nice jazzy piano - followed by fantastic organ solo and keyboard/synthesizer solo. This third track is damn excellent! These guys are really masters in stirring up my emotions! Really great!

The fourth track "In Dark Dreams" is a quieter music passage in completely jazzy nuance with powerful low register note of vocal line. It's a TFK-like music combined with Po90 (oh, how come I have not reviewed any album of Po90 yet? - For sure, I will do later . it's an excellent band!). This fourth track is composed nicely as a break in the epic as it's a mellow track - hey, there is a classical music influence as well in this track!! Look at the flute passage! "The Half-light Watershed - On Returning - A Sax In The Dark" extends the previous track into a spacey and ambient music - quieter - reminds me of Ozric Tentacles. It is followed with an acoustic guitar / mandolin outfit. Melody- wise this track is an extension from previous track as when the voice line enters it sings similar tagline melody. I personally don't like sax, but the solo sax performed here, augmented with heavy bassline is really great. The epic is then nicely concluded by "Night Terrors (reprise)" that basically shares the melody of second track with improvised sax. It's a very enjoyable epic that in the traditional 70s epic I might associate it with Yes' "Close To The Edge" [structurally, of course; because music-wise the two are totally different vein].

The Canterbury Sequence

What a wonderful outfit this one! Hey man .. If you like things like HATFILED AND THE NORTH, NATIONAL HEALTH, etc .. I bet you would love this badly man!! Oh my God . I do really enjoy this track even from its "wonderful" opening where jazzy flutes (Tull- like) accompany the jazzy vocal line. I don't have other word that is better describe this track "Cantermorabillia" is SUPERB!!! It flows to Hatfield's song "Chaos at the Greasy Spoon" with a top notch composition! All instruments played very skillfully in this tribute track. The flute, guitar, bass, keyboard / organ, drums are all wonderfully played! It flows nicely to "Captain Manning's Mandolin" in increasing mood that satisfies my mind's listening pleasure ..

Up-hill From Here

It's probably the track heavily influenced by Po90 style; performed energetically in fast tempo. Very uplifting and unique sax sound (VdGG style?), stunning guitar and dynamic drumming . Excellent.

The Music That Died Alone

Opened with an excellent piano touch in "A Serenade" backed with spacey / ambient keyboard. Very good piano solo. It continues with a slow jazzy tune "Playing On ." with a flavor of avant-garde music, excellent flute and sax works. It continues with "Prehistory" in an excellent jazz vein. It is concluded with "Reprise".

CD Production

On top of music, this album is packaged very nice. The artwork for its cover, the disc and sleeve was done by Ed Unitsky. It's really top notch!!! This album is dominated by blue colors while the second is more on green but with similar design. Great design and it's really a collector's item; it's very nice to be put in your prog collection. It's really a prog design, I would say. I think, Ed Unitsky is the millenium's Roger Dean. The CD package has influenced me a lot on the kind of music that I expect the band would perform. And, yeah .. the band performs as my expectation when I listen the album in its entirety. [It reminds me decades ago when I first saw Gentle Giant's "Octopus" cover by Roger Dean. If the cover is that wonderful in details, the music must be very great!].

The other thing is on sonic quality- it's an excellent sound quality with great mixing technology. I always play the CD LOUDLY for my ultimate enjoyment of the music.

My Overall Recommendation

Highly recommended! This album deserves five stars rating - immaculate composition! Keep on Progging .!!!"

Progressively yours,

GW - Indonesia.

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.

The release of this album by another supergroup with the involvement of Roine Stolt was a nice surprise, both for the fellows just expecting one more TFK-CD and for ones who were fearing this. Since there are as well musicians like Andy Tillison (PARALLEL OR 90 DEGREES), David Jackson (ex-VDGG) and singer/songwriter Guy Manning involved the TFK-influence is not as obvious as with KARMAKANIC and KAIPA. Originally this was a solo project of Tillison who liked to do an album with 70's style music. The contact to Stolt, who had the idea to include brass came up more or less by chance and that's how it finally worked out like this. And the result is brilliant I would say. Although there is actually nothing innovative or exciting on here, it became an album which is a perfect entertainment without almost any moment of boredom.

In Darkest Dreams is offering in eight parts a very nice blend of progrock and jazz- fusion with some rocking and grooving sections, as well as some relaxed and laid-back ones with great play of Hammond, guitar and sax. The rhythm section provided by Reingold/Csörsz is excellent as always. The Canterbury Sequence is a very well-done reminiscence to that special sub- category with soaring Hammond, guitar, woodwinds, vocals and even mandolin in Part 3. Up-Hill From Here then is an extreme leap to a more modern sound with synths and powerful drums, a very rocking one. The title track offers jazzy or classical piano combined with percussion, sax, guitar and vocals and reminds at some moments quite a lot to TFK-sound.

As a summary this is a great enjoying album for anyone who is more into Retro, not only TFK-fans but as well those of good Fusion and Canterbury sound should love it. 4 stars!

One word: Wow. Unbelievable album. The Tangent are unbelievable. This 4-song album is a forerunner for album of 2003. With a 20 minute-plus song, plus an 8, a 7, and a 12, this album packs a punch. Stolt and Tillison work very well together, and Csorsz is a fantastic drummer. Also, Reingold is one of my favorite bassists in modern music. Together, this album is definitely worth your while.

In Darkest Dreams: Wonderful epic. Tillison's keyboards are great, and the overall orchestration is awesome. The second I first put it on, I thought "Oh yeah". It's just pure awesome. Very cool, and very well done.

The Canterbury Sequence: Different feel than the previous song. Even more cool, if that was actually possible. They even go as far as to play a Hatfield and the North song, Chaos at the Greasy Spoon. Canterbury is great.

Up-Hill From Here: The saxophones are unbelievable. Somehow, Tillison knows what to incorporate in a song to make them incredibly cool. Yet, at the same time, they are all prog, too. Very catchy, awesome prog. This song is just like the rest.

The Music That Died Alone: Some strange piano to open up, followed by more uptempo outstanding Tangent music. I'm running out of things to say about this album; everything is purely incredible.

Hmm. I want to be able to write more about this album, but it's not possible. It's extremely lucky that this changed from a Tillison solo project into a collaborative project. If you appreciate pure prog music, than I recommend this. 4/5 stars.

The Music That Died Alone is the first album of The Tangent, a project started by Parallel or 90 Degrees vocalist Andy Tillison. The Music That Died Alone is an ambitious album dedicated to the resurgance of interest in symphonic progressive rock. Tillison brings togethor an all star cast of cast of musicians to fill the slots. Not only do Roine Stolt, Jonas Reingold, and Zoltan Csorsz of The Flower Kings backup Tillison, but legendary sax player David Jackson of Van der Graaf Generator has a piece of the action as well. The Tangent combines a variety of influences to make one of the most unique modern symphonic prog albums.

The apparent styles of these musicians are easily noticeable. Andy Tillison's pychodelic influence is clear as the main composer of the album. This is contrasted by Roine Stolt's bluesy and bright style. And what's more is David Jackson's retro but dark style hinting at shades of Van der Graaf Generator. Still unmentioned is the Canterbury influence all of these musicians are fond of. The Music That Died Alone is almost a library of symphonic progressive rock styles.

Andy Tillison is the key to the project. His vocals and Moog skills are prominent throughout the album. Tillison starts out on the click organ on the opening track "In Darkest Dreams" which brings the listener back through time to the height of symphonic prog. Tillison's composing features excellent depth managing to combine symphonic, pychodelic, and Canterbury influences togethor in a logical fashion. Tillison's vocal abilities are distinctively prominent when compared to that of Roine Stolt and Guy Manning. Tillison put his heart and soul into this album and it shows.

Roine Stolt takes a step away from the mastermind role he has in The Flower Kings. This is an album where Stolt just plays, and what a job he does. Stolt's distinguished bluesy styles really comes out. His solos are some of the finest work of his career. His vocal work though not the most prominent adds a necessary contrast to Tillison. Tillison found the perfect guitarist in Stolt to play on this album.

Jonas Reingold also takes a backseat. The fusion jazz fills that Reingold has used to identify himself in The Flower Kings are not as ubiquitous here. Reingold sits back and grooves a little more with his familiar rythymn section counterpart Zoltan Csorsz. Reingold's excellent technique also comes through in select places, but never enough to wear a listener out.

Zoltan Csorsz much like Reingold plays a smaller role here. It's puzzling to hear Csorsz sit back and hold down the rythymn without the ubiquitous fills used throughout his career with The Flower Kings. Never the less, Csosrz also delivers an excellent performance. The swing style on this album is a much different style that shows Csorsz's versitility.

Sam Baine is the keyboard counterpart of Andy Tillison, and also a member of Parallel or 90 Degrees. Baine's synths add a modern flare to this album amongst a bunch of retro musicians. Baine has excellent technique to match her wide array of synth sounds. On the opening piece, "In Darkest Dreams" Baine's contrasting synth sound and Tillison's reto organ show the colliding but complimenting world of influences in this band.

Guy Manning adds an essential jazzy rythymnic element to this band. (yes another different influence). Manning's chordal creativity and rythymnic background sound great adding lush chord changes behind Roine Stolt's bluesy lead work.

David Jackson returns to symphonic prog on this album, with his hat too!!! Jackson does some amazing saxophone work, but sounds a little out of his element when he plays other woodwind instruments. His solo on "In Darkest Dreams" is one of his highlights on this album. Jackson's arpeggiated solo riffs are examples of the extreme sax solo skills in prog at their best.

The production is perfect. It changes with the particular influence of a particular track. This album is not only a tribute to symphonic prog styles, but symphonic prog tones as well. Every instrument is in perfect balance along with unqiue and creative micing techniques to create the illusion of a record live concert hall. Andy Tillison and the bunch have made an essential album for fans of many styles of progressive music.

The Tangent are a prog supper group created from members of The Flower Kings and Parallel or 90 Degrees, plus Guy Manning and David Jackson (Van der Graaf Generator), and they are one of those rare supper groups that made a really good album, and this is it, their debut The Music That Died Alone.

This is an album that conveys several styles in its near 50 minutes, and does each of them very well. The opening track, In Darkest Dreams, and the albums closer and title track, The Music That Died Alone, are brilliant examples of how Symphonic prog in the vein of The Flower Kings should be done. The main genre that influenced The Canterbury Sequence should be obvious, but I can definitely hear a large Caravan influence in this song that works very well. Lastly, Up-Hill From Hear is a very jazzy number and seems to be a fusion of Jazz Rock and straight ahead rock. It goes without saying that it is rather difficult to pull of so many different styles in the same album whilst maintaining the feel that your still listening to a cohesive piece of work rather than a compilation, but I believe The Tangent has pulled this off stunningly well.

It should be noted that this was originally intended to be a side project for Andy Tillison, of Parallel or 90 Degrees, and its him that adds most of the vocals and keyboard work that we find on here. His keyboard work is impressive to say the list, he has no problem with being really expressive on the keys but doesn't lack much in the technical "stunts" section as well. His voice adds the front to this band but its here that he falls down slightly, only being competent and sadly unremarkable, though this will be highlighted more in later albums, however he can still hit the high and low notes here and is far from unlistenable.

One thing that I find to be quite common in Symphonic bands is that when a saxophone player is introduced to the mix he will get a passage or two but not always does it feel that the saxophonist is actually really contributing much to the song. The same can be said, though less often, with flutes as well. However, here I find that David Jackson's use of saxophone and flute is an integral part of the music like it should be and I couldn't really imagine what this would sound like without him.

Jonas Reingold continues to impress me with his bass playing. He seems to be able to deliver challenging bass lines that hold a strong groove almost at will. In the case of Up-Hill From Here his bass work drives the song on relentlessly, whilst still holding a creative flare, whilst the rest of the band rock out around him. What really impresses about his bass lines is that they are so expressive and work as part of the whole to bring out emotion rather than just propping up the rhythm here.

We all know Roin Stolt, an impressive guitarist with a strong jazz influence to his style but seems to have two sides to his personality, the man that can create some really impressive music or get lost in his own meandering solo's and riffs till the song loses interest. Thankfully, it's the former personality he brought with him to the writing and recording of this album and the result is something that can rival his best work in The Flower Kings. Powerful, expressive solos punctuate the songs between his heart felt riffs that really help to bring this album alive.

Zoltan Czorz is not a soloist type drummer, but he does know how to work with the band around him and doesn't lack for technical ability either. He sounds crisp and clear without ever threatening to overpower the sound of the other instruments, just what you want. Sam Baine and Guy Manning are the respective counterparts to Andy Tillison and Roin Stolt on their instruments. I would have liked it if these two had taken a more forward role in this album, especially Baine as she really gets overshadowed by Tillison. However, there's no sign that they have had negative effects on this album. In fact Manning adds some nice guitar parts to the album, I'd just wish there was a few more of them.

Overall this is a damn good album. Everyone plays there part extremely well creating what is a very impressive, and overall creative album. I would never say that this album is innovative, on the contrary, it takes a lot of queues from the 70's greats like Yes, Caravan and others, but what it does it does well, and better than most. In fact, there is only one fault on the entire album and that's on In Darkest Dreams. Halfway through the music seems to fade out to a stop before starting of like a new song. This is a big fault for me as it breaks up the cohesiveness of the epic and makes it sound more like two separate songs slapped together to make one, not good. For that, I give the album 4 stars.

THE MUSIC THAT DIED ALONE opens fluently, with Andy Tillison's Hammond organ instantly evoking memories of Dave Stewart and Keith Emerson, although it doesn't sound TOO derivative. As the main melody of 'In Darkest Dreams' gets under way, listeners may worry how soon the lead vocalist, Roine Stolt, will be getting on their nerves ('Down in the seething mazz... your one last chanze'). Fortunately, Stolt never gets the chance to emote too openly (maybe his lines were written for him by Tillison?) and the chorus is so catchy the listener soon finds himself happily singing along. In fact, on the entire album the performances of all three Flower Kings are superb. Zoltan Csorz (on drums) and Jonas Reingold (on bass) sound better than ever, maybe because they get such fiery music to play. Stolt's guitar solos are inspired as well. On 'In Darkest Dreams' he gets several opportunities to shine, as do Sam Baine on piano, and Tillison on synth (with the same wild sound Rick Wakeman used so effectively on 'Sir Gawain and the Black Knight'). Guy Manning provides acoustic relief in a delicate 'Dance with the Moonlit Knight' style interlude.

'The Canterbury Sequence' is cute, although Tillison would learn to imitate HATFIELD AND THE NORTH more convincingly on later Tangent albums. Both 'Up Hill from Here' and 'The Music that Died Alone' have lead vocals by Tillison himself. To my relief, these tunes are not too wordy, and I see no reasons to complain about the singing. 'Up Hill from Here' is a highly exciting, sax-driven uptempo number, with a wonderfully climactic lead guitar solo in the style of Dave Gilmour.

The album's title tune is an almost unbearably sad elegy on the demise of classic progressive rock, with moving contributions on sax and flute by David Jackson. Only a few days ago I happened to be talking to an aspiring rock musician who complained she had quit the London music scene in disgust, because just as Tillison says her manager wanted her to 'sell [her] dreams to the mainstream's sway' and 'mould [her] lives to a typecast for today'. Virtually all bands you see on TV are completely manufactured. Still, websites such as this one offer all the proof you need that prog is definitely not some forgotten genre we have to sneak a listen to 'in our darkened homes'! Perhaps Tillison wrote his elegy in the early 1990s, when truly imaginative prog was very hard to come by?

Rating: three and a half stars.

As usual, I am very wary of such "projects" or supergroup as usually, they are completely disappointing and generally do not bring anything new. And of course not being a fan of Flower Kings, I was even doubly wary. But having not found at my library system the French Tangerine and not found the album I was looking after with German one (the one that is dreaming ;-), I fell upon this "thing". Having found doodley, I settled for squat and rented this disc, hoping it would somehow filled the void. Well zilch did not fill the empty space and I found myself fast forwarding plenty of passages on the second listen.

Don't get me wrong, this is a very "professional" album made by excellent musos, but the feeling that they are doing yet another umpteenth album is so present that the album reeks boredom even before you pressed play. Yes there are some good passages (notably the inaptly titled Canterbury-sumthin': sounds not much like anything remotely Kentish. Yet another cool moment is the fourth movement in the opening suite In Dark Dreams, but it is directly followed by an excruciatingly badly sung track, the reprise of Night Terror. And this is exactly the type of track that makes silence golden, and a welcome rest after the ordeal. BTW, David Jaxon's contributions are correct but nothing transcendental as he would be in VdGG.

So what exactly does this "thing" do? Well it gives plenty of rather good but directionless music that never even saw the broken grounds so long before them. The virgin territories explored in the 70's are not wide avenues with rich shopping areas on each side with large apartment buildings full of penthouses and plenty of parking spaces. Of course it is rather hard to be innovative nowadays, so I am sure that none of these professionals will even claim that they tried anything in that direction. So they just made yet another prog album, one of the many hundreds or so, cluttering the shelves of non-discerning and non- demanding progheads. Of course if you have not heard thousand albums like this old dog, this has a chance to please you, and who am to tell you to stay away from such stuff? But there are plenty more to discover in ProgArchives' vaults...

Wow! Wonderful album! Quite a good surprise. It reminds me of the time I found The Flower Kings. This is no surprise since 3 members of The Flower Kings play here, including their leader Roine Stolt and the omnious Jonas Reingold. Stolt even sings some parts which may reinforce the FK connection, but really the sound is different. The music is great symphonic rock with some strong jazz influences, showing how talented mastermind Andy Tillson is. The sound recording is excellent and the musicians do deliever a tight performance, including some of the best guitar solos Stolt has ever done. I still think their two next CDs are better, but as a starting point, The Music That Died Alone is certainly more than a promise. It is an excellent piece of prog music that is highly recommended!

Classic prog never sounded so good. This debut by the Tangent is a towering homage to the greats of the '70's but is nonetheless performed with enough contemporary flair and energy to make it distinctly unique. Musically diverse and dynamic, MTDAlone is PACKED with instrumental and songwriting excellence. Tillison's keyboards are among the best in the business (and not just because they don't sound like a church organ), while the rest of the band is absolutely outstanding.

Many similarities have been made to the Flower Kings, which I think is entirely appropriate; however, with the Tangent listeners don't have the baggage of pointless fillers, jam-sessions, saccharine pomp, and trite lyrics they do with TFK. Roine is kept on a leash here, crooning only occasionally and even then with lyrics not written by him (hurray!); his and Reingold's guitars are ON FIRE throughout though. Manning's vocals are new to me, and a very accomplished. He has a smooth timbre and nicely accented voice; mature and sensitive. Lyrics are in generally good, but come across as rhetoric for much of the album.

Songwriting is typically fast-paced with great melodies and proggish hooks. The band changes gears often and is quite accomplished in many styles/tempos.

A must listen for fans of classic progressive rock, or for those who have sworn it off.

Songwriting: 4 Instrumental Performances: 4 Lyrics/Vocals: 3 Style/Emotion/Replay: 4

This originally started out as an Andy Tillison solo album but it turned into much more than that.This really is the joining together of the core of two bands, PARALLEL OR 90 DEGREES and THE FLOWER KINGS. Three members from each band plus David Jackson from VDGG. If you know Tillison you know that he is a huge VDGG fan, and his old band PARALLEL OR 90 DEGREES even did a whole album of Hammill cover tunes called "No More Travelling Chess". So he must have been thrilled that Jackson came on board. Even though Stolt is part of the band at this point, it has to be made clear that THE TANGENT is Andy Tillison's band. He wrote all the songs and as i write this review their latest "Not As Good As The Book" is perhaps making even bigger waves then this album did when it came out.

"In Darkest Dreams" is a 20 minute song divided into 8 parts. Interesting that Roine, Andy and Guy all sing lead vocals at some point during this epic track. It opens with "Prelude-Time For You" a tremendous uptempo instrumental where organ, drums, guitar and sax stand out. It blends into "Night Terrors" where as Roine starts to sing as it settles down. Some nice bass line from Reingold after a minute. Both sax and guitar offer up some melancholic solos. "The Midnight Watershed" opens bombastically before a tasteful solo from Roine as bass throbs. Love this section. Sam comes in with some piano melodies after a minute which is followed up with some powerful organ from Tillison. The whole time the bass is very prominant. "In Dark Times" features mellow vocals from Andy to begin with.The song becomes more passionate before 2 minutes,and then calms back down with sax. "The Half-Light Watershed" is kind of spacey before a short mandolin piece from Manning that blends into "On Returning". Guy sings lead here as sax and drums stand out. "A Sax In The Dark" features quite a bit of bottom end as sax comes in, organ follows. "The Night Terrors Reprise" has Roine back on lead vocals.This is such an uplifting ending to an amazing track. When i was writing these notes today as i listened to this, the sun came out. This is the first sunshine we've had for three days. It was such perfect timing.

"The Canterbury Sequence" is next,and it's divided into three parts. "Cantermemorabilia" has some cool lyrics like : "I seem to spend my whole life shouting, perhaps i should be cool, put on some Caravan or Hatfields, like i used to do at school". A very jazzy number and there's even some vocal melodies. Love the Canterbury flavour 3 minutes in. Great tune. "Chaos At The Greasy Spoon" is a HATFIELD AND THE NORTH cover. This is a fantastic instrumental with some great organ work early followed by piano and flute trading solos. Roine lets loose on his guitar and continues that later on "Captain Manning's Mandolin". "Up Hill From Here" is another incredible tune with Andy on vocals. This is an uptempo, catchy tune that makes me smile. Guitar and organ shine. "The Music That Died Alone" is divided into four parts. "A Serenade" opens with some beautiful piano melodies. Just before 1 1/2 minutes i'm reminded of CHROMA KEY and Kevin Moore everytime. "Playing On..." features Andy on vocals. Sax and flute are amazing. The tempo picks up and the mood brightens 3 minutes in. "Pre-History" is a guitar / piano led song with a ripping guitar solo before 2 minutes. "Reprise" is jazzy with the bass, drums and sax standing out. Vocals after a minute. The last words we hear are "...the music that died alone".

I really can't find any faults with this album. It's a joy to listen to, and at just under 45 minutes it's just the right length.

The Music that Died Alone is the debut album from The Tangent. A band that started out as a project formed by former frontman and keyboardist in Parallel or 90 Degrees Andy Tillison but after the success of this album The Tangent has growned into a real band.

On The Music That Died Alone Andy Tillison is helped by some pretty prominant gentlemen. Roine Stolt ( The Flower Kings) plays guitar and sings on In Darkest Dreams, Jonas Reingold ( The Flower Kings) plays bass, Zoltan Czorsz ( The Flower Kings) plays drums), Sax and flute legend from Van der Graaf Generator David Jackson also contributes to the album while Andy Tillison´s old collegues from Parallel or 90 Degrees Sam Baine ( Piano and synths) and Guy Manning ( guitars, vocals and keyboards) also contribute. With a cast like that this album just couldn´t fail to deliver and didn´t.

I´ve had this album since it came out. At the time it was released I was heavily into The Flower Kings and as I saw that Roine Stolt was involved on The Music That Died Alone I had to have the album. I was initially disappointed about the inaccessible nature of the music. I say inaccessible not because this is not melodic or memorable music but because it took me a long time to diggest the pretty long tracks. It always confused me with all the subtitles and I never seemed to get a grip of the album. Well things change for better or worse and in this case fortunately for the better. Within the last half year I have begun to give this album more and more spins and grown increasingly happier about it. Today I wouldn´t live without it.

The album starts with the 20 minute song In Darkest Dreams. It´s subdivided into smaller songs but there is a cohesiveness to the whole affair which means that this seems like one long song. It´s a great song with Roine Stolt and Andy Tillison sharing the vocal duties. David Jackson is heard from the start. His playing is very dominant at times. Really great work. There are also lots of great synth and organ work throughout the song and plenty of solo work for all lead instruments.

The Canterbury Sequence is a great ode to the Canterbury scene sound. To those of us who love that sound it´s great to hear that others love it too. It´s a light jazz/ rock which like In Darkest Dreams is subdivided into smaller bits. Again David Jackson plays some great parts.

Up Hill From Here is another great symphonic rock song. The Tangent has a really pleasant sound not unlike the one played by The Flower Kings even though they don´t sound that much alike. It´s just the soft and complex constructions of the songs which makes me compare the two bands.

The title track ends the album in great style. Like In Darkest Dreams this track is subdivided into smaller tracks which makes a whole. Again there are many great parts with lots of nice sounds. Andy Tillison´s vocals was one of the things that took my many yeards to appreciate but it was a song like this one that made me realise that he is in fact a very good singer. He has the singing/ talking style that Roine Stolt also often uses.

The musicianship is fantastic on this album and if you should not like the music at least aknowledge the great musicianship.

The production is excellent. Everything is right in the mix.

This is a great prog rock album and even though this is not very modern and the influences are clearly the great seventies prog rock heroes this is just excellent music. I´ll rate The Music That Died Alone 4 very well deserved stars. The Tangent lacks a bit in the originality department which I hope will show itself on their later albums, but if it doesn´t this is still excellent music and a welcome addition to my prog rock collection ( well it´s been there for several years as I told you earlier).

The music didn't die. it just went to sleep.

There's been a lot of music that has been described as ''by fans, for fans'', but this supergroup formed by Parallel or 90 Degrees frontman Andy Tillison, guitarist/multi instrumentalist Guy Manning, and keyboard playing Sam Baine - and Mr. Flower Kings himself, Roine Stolt, really has to take the cake for best executed. The Tangent originally started off as a one shot deal when Tillison decided he wanted to do something very progressive and away from his original band. As is known about Tillison through later songs (and a novel no doubt), he had tried to get a record deal in the late 70s with prog music but was turned away since no one wanted to invest into a prog band at that time - their time was up. So it wasn't until the early '00s that Tillison, Manning and Baine would finally make their dream band, and with a couple of prog heroes no doubt. David Jackson of Tillison's idol Van Der Graff Generator lends his sax to this debut offering with half of Parallel or 90 Degress and half of The Flower Kings. making up the rest of the band.

So what exactly are we dealing with then in terms of style? Well, being that the band was formed by a keyboard player who was in love with bands like Yes and openly fauns over them in his liner notes, interviews and novel, we have a keyboard heavy record supported by a strong and experienced guitar player who has been around since the 70s - one Roine Stolt of Kaipa and The Flower Kings. Oddly enough there's also a very prominent bass, which at time takes driving force making for a very 'pounding' record at times. There are only four compositions on the record, each constructed out of several shorter songs that make a whole (other than the third track). The subject matter for these pieces are generally cynical and could be seen spoken through gritted teeth as the title of the album was suggest. The title track especially, dealing with the way the music industry put prog music under the ax, ''in our darkened homes we'll chance a listen to the music that died alone''. This record really feels like ot should have been made in the 70s, but it still maintains a contemporary feel thanks to the modern production and the reminiscing feel it has to it.

There's really no low points to the album and nothing that stands out particularly above the rest since the album really is consistently even. All the songs work well together and don't fight for your attention, even the 20 minute behemoth In Darkest Dreams doesn't overpower the shortest song on the album, the 7-minute (somewhat melancholic) rocker Up-Hill From Here. The Canterbury Sequence feels a lot more modern than a lot of the old Canterbury felt, thus making for a great new spin on the subgenre (although more paying tribute to instead of trying to be part of the genre) which includes a cover of Hatfield and the North's Chaos At The Greasy Spoon stuck right in the middle of the song. The formally mentioned title track, The Music That Died Alone is the second longest song on the album clocking in at 12-minutes, this one featuring some mean piano work from Tillison as well as some emotive melodies that can really chill the spine.

Tillison and Stolt work excellently together on this effort, each being seen as a different face of prog rock. Many people see Tillison as very dark and cynical like King Crimson while others see Stolt as very bright and in the clouds like Yes. They play off each other like a yin yang here to provide a swirl of tones that is often forgotten in modern prog. For those who are wondering who takes the vocal helm out of the two singers - it's both really. Tillison provides the dominant amount of vocals even if Stolt is the first voice you hear on the record.

Prog music by prog appreciators for prog appreciators, this is a record that is very refreshing when trying to ingest all the ways prog has gone since the 70s. This one has a very symphonic feel to it with obvious Canterbury influences, and is recommended for fans of either of those two genres and to anyone who accepts that good prog music didn't end when the music (prog) played dead at the end of the 70s. 4 darkest dreams out of 5! An excellent addition to any prog library and highly recommended. Luckily this didn't end as a one-album project - The Tangent would be back for more.

A very interesting beast indeed.

I worked my way backwards through The Tangent's discography, so this release looks funny to me. Well, not looks funny, but you should catch my drift. With the inclusion of Roine Stolt on both this and The World That We Drive Through, the sound is a bit different, a bit less adventurous. Not that Roine detracts from the album--far from it. The man is probably the most solid vocalist The Tangent has seen yet (which may scare some of you away, but don't let it). If you find yourself listening to the music on this album but don't find it quite that inspiring, don't give up. The Tangent changes, and changes a lot.

This release holds sixteen tracks, but really only four songs. When I put this CD onto my computer, I ripped it as the four tracks, on account of being a bit too nerdy about my prog. Nevertheless, that is how I will tackle the songs here: as the four major pieces, not as the sixteen individual chunks.

In Darkest Dreams was the first taste of The Tangent, and it is not disappointing. Andy Tillison has this wonderful vision for corraling a dozen different sounds at once, which while exciting, is also a bit thick and difficult to dig into sometimes. As far as music goes, this is wonderful fun. However, on repeated listens, I don't think this one stacks up very well against some of the later epics by the band, such as In Earnest or Four Egos, One War (the latter of which, incidentally, may be older than this album, as a side note). So as far as music goes, this is enjoyable prog. As far as a song goes, we get into trouble. For the most part, the song is a bit disjointed, a fact which is not really helped along by the individual tracking the band released it as. David Jackson's saxophone here, though, is splendid.

The Canterbury Sequence starts out very promising. A good bit of throwback retro-prog (oxymoron, anyone?), it features gentle vocals and soft sounds without being dull and slow. This song doesn't really go anywhere, either, though, like the one before it, it makes for some quality and enjoyable music. Not a bad track, but slightly unmemorable, and it doesn't carry the fun all the way through.

Up-Hill from Here arrives next. From what I said above, it might sound like I'm not all that impressed by this album. I am. And this song is a lot of the reason why. This song here explodes with energy, the kind of energy that will just smother their latest couple releases in good old/new fashioned prog fun. Some might be bothered by the vocals on this song, as they are mostly not Roine but someone else (I'm thinking Andy or Guy, because I'm pretty sure whoever this is keeps showing up on The Tangent's records). This voice is not so strong, but is enjoyable anyways--and highly reminiscent of Roger Waters. Since this track is streamable a bit north of this review, I suggest you check it out.

The Music That Died Alone is the final song, but of all the songs, this one is the most unmemorable (is there a better way to put that?). Again, it's not bad. I love listening to it. It's great fun. But as far as a song goes, it's rather lacking in cohesive strength, so that the length of the song merely introduces a bunch of new ideas rather than gives the existing ones more oomph, if you will.

In all, my review might sound a touch negative. Trust me, this is a wonderful album. But in light of what The Tangent will become a few years after this one, The Music That Died Alone seems like a slightly loose and rambling bit. I just feel I can't rate it any higher, even though I enjoy it a lot. Perhaps I would like it better if I were looking for a retro album, as this features a fair bit of nostalgia to it.

I'm having trouble wrapping this up well. It seems my review is kind of like an early Tangent epic, then. Hm.

Ok, time for an agonizing question here that goes for more albums but certainly for this one: where does an excellent album end and a masterpiece begin qualitywise ? Hard to say and in this case it's just about impossible to decide which to go for.

So far I already reviewed all The Tangent's albums and all of them are at least excellent and made the band one of my favorites of all time really. Funny enough I checked out this debut as last in line but this one is actually better than the rest and the reason why is simple: this album has no weak points, let alone songs. Three quarters of absolutely magnificent jazzy and energetic music with as ultimate highlight the streamsong here on PA: Up Hill from here.

I'd say check it out one day and if you don't like it: don't buy this album because this track shines and rocks and thrills big time. Music simply doesn't get much better than this as far as I'm concerned. And the other (multi-layered) songs aren't much less in fact. Two more or less symphonic prog epics with jazz influence and one more in Canterbury style as the title already suggests. I'm sorry for Andy Tilison but I really loved The Tangent best when The Flower Kings members (Stolt, Reingold and Csörsz) were still around. They guarantee sheer quality in musicianship and composition as well as production.

So there you go, quite some reasons to go for the max here. I often round down the albums that score round about 4,5 stars but this scores just a bit higher and it also fits in one of my criterions for the full 5: when it's an all over great album without fillers or weak moments. So 5 stars it is.

With a lineup mashing together members from The Flower Kings, Parallel or 90 Degrees, and Van der Graaf Generator, the Tangent's debut album to me is a whole that's less than the sum of its parts: it's a nostalgia-prog trip through various musical styles that appealed to me (including an attempt at a Canterbury pastiche), but it feels overproduced and overpolished. On the opening sequence, In Darkest Dreams, the Flower Kings presence threatens to overwhelm proceedings entirely, which may be part of the issue since on balance I tend to find the Flower King sound to be a bit too saccharine for my tastes.

In my opinion, The Music That Died Alone is one of the very best prog albums released since 2000.

On one hand, that's not much of a surprise given the personnel; the Tangent qualifies as a "supergroup" lead by keyboardist and lead vocalist Andy Tillison. Or maybe it's a Tillison solo album (as it was originally intended) with a supergroup-level backing band - - he's listed as the sole songwriter on the entire album except for "Chaos at the Greasy Spoon," a Hatfield and the North cover (written by Dave Stewart) included here as the three-minute middle movement of "The Canterbury Sequence." But either way, the cards seem to have been stacked in favor of The Music That Died Alone.

However, Tillison doesn't exactly play it safe. I know that weirdness and the defiance of expectations can often be assets in progressive rock, but The Music That Died Alone runs takes two risks worth noting. First, Tillison and company wear their influences on their sleeves - - or maybe it's safer to say that they've tattooed them all over their arms. The Music That Died Alone is somehow able to be original while simultaneously and flamboyantly calling attention to their heroes. Despite the inclusion of David Jackson of Van Der Graaf Generator, the Tangent is a second-generation progressive-rock band, and is just as "neo-prog" as Marillion. 

One of the most blatant examples of hero-worship is the integration of VdGG / King Crimson sax/flute vamps (e.g., at the beginning of the "Prehistory" section of "The Music That Died Alone" and as a recurring motif in "In Darkest Dreams," first occurring at about 2:00). There's also the fact that Tillison and guitarist Roine Stolt sing in a style reminiscent of VdGG vocalist Peter Hammill, right down to imitating Hammill's habit of occasionally speaking, rather than singing, the last lines of certain passages. Inviting Jackson to join the group itself may have been the clearest sign of Tillison's admiration for VdGG.

Similarly, including the Stewart composition in "The Canterbury Sequence" indicates not only an ambition to embrace a variety of prog styles, but perhaps even a belief that 1990s proggers ought to have a few 1970s names if they're going to rightly express such an ambition. As Tillison says in the "Cantermemorabilia" section of the track, "we missed the party back in 1971." Just the name of this movement, the name of the suite, the mention of "put(ting) on some Caravan or Hatfields" is almost farcical - - but just almost. 

In addition to the Crimsonian and VdGG-flavored heavy prog and the Canterbury homage, The Music That Died Alone also pays tribute to symphonic prog à la Genesis and Yes, especially on the longer-form pieces "In Darkest Dreams" and "The Music That Died Alone," both of which are subdivided into named and Roman-enumerated movements.

Although Tillison is obviously a fan of Genesis, the Yes references seem more obvious to me. Take "In Darkest Dreams" as an example. The keyboard solo beginning at 7:34 is an expert merger of the soloing styles of Tony Kaye and Rick Wakeman, beginning with a "Roundabout"-like organ solo which morphs almost exactly like on "The Calling" into more Kaye-like riffing. At 8:11 Tillison launches into a glorious half-minute of Tormato-era Wakeman noodling. The structure of this piece is also reminiscent of "Close to the Edge," with its middle movements (starting with "In Dark Dreams") mirroring the "I Get Up, I Get Down" section of the Yes classic.

Including nods to the 1970s prog canon might sound like a safe move, but I consider the profusion of insider references as a risk. There's a line somewhere between simply being influenced by "the classics" and creating a pastiche album like Utopia did with Deface the Music. As good as the Utopia project may be, it can't escape comparison to the original. Somehow The Music That Died Alone skirts the line. But it's risky territory.

The other potentially ill-advised move was actually emphasizing the pop sensibilities on two of the album's four tracks - - something likely to offend many prog fans unless done very carefully. But it here it works. "Up Hill from Here" is more than seven minutes long, but it's hard to ignore its pop-song attributes. It begins with a decidedly un-progressive, sequenced keyboard part and is built around a sing-along refrain. The lyrics are vacant - - there's no alien, hobbit, or phantasm in sight. In fact, the first verse is comprised of 21 one-syllable words and one two-syllable word. "Up Hill from Here" is the most accessible song here, but the catchiest part of the album first appears four minutes into the album, during the "Night Terrors" movement of "In Darkest Dreams" in the form of a sing-along chorus ("this sleep is not what it seems..."). The poppiest moment comes when the chorus is repeated at 17:21 ("Night Terrors (Reprise)"): the sequence of very catchy hook → sax solo → vocal breakdown(!) would be the envy of any would-be pop hitmaker. 

As of this writing, there are only twenty prog-rock albums which I feel deserve five stars. The Music That Died Alone is one of them. For what it's worth, I strongly recommend it to any fan of the genre, but especially fans of the "1970s canon."

2002 saw the collision of many talents from the progressive rock scene, in the formation of what was supposed to be a one-off project, a form of a supergroup consisting of half the members of Parallel or 90 Degrees and half of The Flower Kings with a few more special guests. Happily, The Tangent turned out to be one of prog's most frequent venturers and a really exciting band.

This first album is really a collection of all that The Tangent would go on and explore more in depth on future releases. The various backgrounds of all the seven members that appear here provides for an eclectic and original collection of great memorable tunes. The prog afficionado can appreciate band leader Andy Tillison on keys and vocals, Roine Stolt on guitars and vocals, David Jackson on sax and flute, Jonas Reingold on bass, Zoltan Czorsz on drums, Sam Baine on piano and synth, and Guy Manning on acoustic guitar and backing vocals.

As for the music, the musicianship and writing really deserve high praise, as the album feels very concentrated in its direction, and also very well executed. The music is expressive and nostalgic, something that will become a signature for The Tangent.

Opening track 'In Darkest Dreams' is an 8-movement epic and one of the band's all-time highlights. Going through different tempos, beautiful guitar work, very well placed sax parts and a little synth-fest by Tillison, this is an amazing 21st century epic tale of self-reflection.

'The Canterbury Sequence' is Andy Tillison's love poem to the Canterbury scene, a very catchy and quite jazzy track that contains a cover of Hatfield and the North's 'Chaos at the Greasy Spoon' from their second album. Witty and playful lyrics in the first part, groovy madness in the second and a mandolin-infused third part all make this a very good number.

'Up Hill From Here' is an upbeat song with fantastic instrumental section, more lighthearted in nature but very joyous.

'The Music That Died Alone', an epic in four movements and a muscle track from the band where as in the opening one, everyone gets to be in the spotlight, with lovely piano melodies, sax and flute interplay, and crushing bass.

This is a tremendously good debut, quite pleasing and just the beginning of a great prog story!