Started as a one-off project in 2002, The Tangent was intended as an offshoot of Parallel or 90 Degrees musicians Andy Tillison and Guy Manning. Joined by prog legend The Flower Kings members and former Van Der Graaf Generator saxophonist David Jackson, it was obvious that this would make some waves in the prog rock community. More albums followed, but after a few years, Manning quit, leaving Tillison to continue will an all-star roster for many more album. On their last studio album two years ago, The Tangent were Andy Tillison, Jonas Reingold (The Flower Kings), Luke Machin (Maschine), Steve Roberts (Godsticks) and Theo Travis (Soft Machine). As these musicians have also many obligations outside of The Tangent, Andy Tillison agreed with his band that the thirteenth The Tangent album To Follow Polaris would be a solo album under the modified name The Tangent For One.

Andy Tillison made sure this should become a true solo album: he sings, plays keyboards, guitars, bass guitar, stick driven electronic drums and even an electronic wind controller to emulate flute and trumpet sounds. Some may be deterred by this less organic approach, but Andy Tillison, who has been releasing music since the early 1980s, has enough knowhow to pull this through.

To be fair, among the seven songs, there are just four regular tracks, beginning with the eleven minute long The North Sky, a perfect opener, beginning with programmed drum before turning into a catchy up-tempo progressive rock anthem. As is the custom with long tracks, there is also room in its middle section for some instrumental excursion into jazzier parts. The electro trumpets may sound cheesy to some, but to me they have a certain Super Mario Karts gameplay charm. The following two tracks A Like In The Darkness and The Fine Line, both clocking in at eight minutes, are mellower, take maybe more time to unravel their magic, but once they got their hook in you, you’ll be won over. Finally, there is also the epic track, in this case the twenty-one minute long The Anachronism, a fierce political track that shows that progressive rock can be about much more than just unicorns and fairytales. Again, the electronic wind controller adds that certain touch. This song reminds me a little of Peter Hammill’s Flight from 1980, which was also his first nearly solo long-track after his band material with Van Der Graaf Generator.

The remaining three tracks can be considered curiosities, but nevertheless add to the album’s worth. The Single is a re-interpretation of a song from The Time Capsule, the third Parallel Or 90 Degrees album from 1997. This new version sounds more dynamic than the original track. The North Sky (radio edit) is what it claims to be, distilling the poppier side of the opener into a radio friendly three and a half minutes. The album ends with the bonus track Tea At Betty’s Simulation, a loose-form instrumental jam at seventeen and a half minutes. The song starts in a bar jazz way, but its middle part nearly has prog metal intensity. It’s a fun piece, if less focused than the preceding material.

The Tangent has always been the brainchild of Andy Tillison, and therefore The Tangent For One actually works much better than anticipated. The sound may be less organic than on the full band albums, but the songwriting on To Follow Polaris is as great as ever. I am already looking forward to the next The Tangent album, which should be a band album, and considering the band’s busyness, we shouldn’t have to wait for too long.

7 songs

75:37 minutes

***** ****

Genre: progressive rock

Label: Inside Out Music

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