The Tangent
Proxy

Andy Tillison and his The Tangent returns with album number ten, an album they call Proxy. It follows some excellent albums that has come through the years, albums like The Music That Died Alone, COMM, Le Sacre du Travail, A Spark in the Aether and more are some excellent albums that I have listened and some I have written about over the years. Proxy certainly looks interesting with that single pawn on the white background, the restrained title, and all those things makes it look like something really exciting. But is it as thought-worthy and is it as exciting as it looks? Chances are good that it is exciting as their history shows that The Tangent knows how to makes strong music.

Quite original and quite progressive are two ways to describe the album Proxy. The production is quite excellent and the vocals are very familiar for those knowing the band’s music. Another familiar aspect are the long songs, only six of them with a playing time of about one hour is kind of like it usually is with these guys. But then they take their music in newer directions as well and it is looking at popular music from near and not so near in time, and other things like that – the album also feels a tad less conceptual than many of the previous albums I have written about. And like the previous albums it is a strong showing of musicianship and musical ideas, perhaps it is a bit long though.

I think that Proxy is a good album, it has originality and a fairly fresh sound as well as some great musicianship – it is an album that I should like. But I am not sure that I really do, I like it but I don’t enjoy listening to it like I have done with the earlier albums that I have listened to and written about. The songs are not flowing in the same way; they don’t really catch my attention. Some parts of the album I even find quite dull, while there are some great flashes of brilliance as well – it is an album that feels more like a disappointment than like something I want to add to my record shelf. This is probably the least impressive The Tangent album I have heard, it is certainly the least impressive I have written about.

Proxy shoots a little bit off the mark; it does many things right but also too many things less right. But perhaps it is only me, I still think that fans of the band should probably check it out to make up their own minds as there is room for ambivalence. But in the end I don’t really think that this new album is at the same level as the ones that came before it.

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