The Tangent - Le Sacre Du Travail (review part one)

**Imperial** · 06-24-2013

As a supplement to the other thread on this new release - here's my review of this outstanding album.

To a huge number of people, me included, music is the constant, ever present, driving force that carries them through each and every day of their lives. To people like us, events and memories are given points of reference by particular tunes and melodies. Years are recalled through the songs and albums of that time. Sad times and happy times are soothed or amplified by the music that provided the backdrop to those moments. Music, quite literally, gets us through the days.

How appropriate, then, that The Tangent’s latest musical piece, Le Sacre Du Travail, is Andy Tillison’s vision of that most commonplace of rituals – The Working Day. Spurred on by his long held desire to celebrate the work of Igor Stravinsky, most notably The Rite of Spring, Andy Tillison has written his first Symphonic piece – described as an Electric Sinfonia . To help realise what is The Tangent’s first real concept album, Tillison has enlisted the help of a handful of progressive rock’s most celebrated luminaries – Gavin Harrison, Jonas Reingold, Theo Travis, Jakko M Jakszyk and David Longdon along with cameo performances by Guy Manning, Rikard Sjoblom, as narrator on the opening overture and Geoff Banks and Jon “Twang” Patrick as our regular morning DJs (we wish!). What we get, within the five sections that make up Le Sacre Du Travail, is a wonderfully constructed distillation of what it feels to endure “the daily grind”, its mind numbing effect on all of us, the environmental chaos caused by the need to move millions of us to and fro between bed and breadwinning and the banality of the associated media culture that massages our exhausted selves into thinking this ennui is the acceptable norm. As the lyrics will tell us – “we are ants”!

The uplifting element to all of this, however, is that the music on show here is potent, powerful, sympathetic and most of all, inspiring. From the opening radio alarm “beeps” to the closing “it all starts again” repeated opening bars of music we are treated to a musical and lyrical vision of a working day that magnifies the detail and amplifies the emotions so realistically that I defy anyone not to be able to identify themselves as players in this ritual. This piece doesn’t set out to decry our compliance with the system, or signpost a means to ending it. As Andy Tillison points out, this was a done deal from many long years gone. This is the way it is – this is all about us! The Tangent, as Andy Tillison is always at pains to stress, are a progressive rock band and be under no illusion to the contrary, Le Sacre Du Travail is a truly progressive rock album, meant to be listened to in one sitting from start to finish in the manner that those of us old enough can remember doing with the progressive albums of the 70s LP age. In keeping with that tradition, this album is beautifully presented with cover artwork by Martin Stephen and includes a sumptuous colour booklet with artwork by Brian Watson; a booklet that contains extensive notes, printed lyrics and even a short story! Classy and classical!

**Imperial** · 06-24-2013

(review part two)

The opening overture, Coming Up On the Hour, previews the themes and melodies of the work to come, complete with a scene setting narration by Beardfish’s Rikard Sjoblom. Alongside the flavours of Stravinsky I’m also reminded somewhat of the work of George Gershwin and the opening music from some of those great musicals from the forties and fifties. A great beginning, then, Andy Tillison starring with some crisp synthesizer in company of the dream-team rhythm section of Harrison and Reingold.

The main body of the piece begins with Morning Journey and Arrival. Again, rather like Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, which opens with a solo bassoon refrain, Tillison’s piece is introduced by a stunningly lovely woodwind melody as the night gives way to the coming dawn, “that subtle shift that provokes the birdsong, the unseen spark that awakes the corn”. The music and lyrics here suggest the beauty and innocence that nature gifts us each day, regardless of our age-worn indifference. This mood is further amplified by the world-weary vocal sigh, dragging in the monotony of just one more ordinary day. And off we go, as nothing more than ants, undertaking our daily journey to work and settling into our eight-hours of labour for “companies who call themselves our friends ……….. we’re all part of the whole”. What Andy Tillison and his band achieve, musically, through all of this is a tight and seamless mix between rock band and orchestrated passages where, I believe, the contributions of Theo Travis’ flute, clarinet and saxophone as well as the drumming of Gavin Harrison, are key to delivering the link between styles. They manage to provide an invisible join rather than a more obvious bridge between rock and classical, making this a hugely rewarding listen. This work may be based on a classical format but given the opportunities (and there are plenty), this band rocks, as is evidenced during the Bird Shit (yes, that’s really what they’re called) passages.

Third Movement, Afternoon Malaise, reprises the earlier woodwind theme before Harrison introduces his Bored Drummer, followed by a frenetic full-band segment, again carrying a suggestion of Stravinsky’s work. Flute and organ introduce a jazz-funk passage all about none other than ….YOU, as Tillison sings about what it’s like to be all of us in our office/factory world. Some great swirling Hammond sounds give way to Travis on the sax and a little disco groove between organ, synthesizer and the rest of the band – but no trumpet! Moving on to Steve Wright in the Afternoon, there is a more cynical feel as we are introduced to another of the media-led devices to make us feel better in our lives – the afternoon radio, “we’ve got some time that we don’t want to spend with you, we’re only here ‘cause there’s nothing else we can do”. The music during the main body of Afternoon Malaise has a jazz/disco/pop feel which rather suggests the styles most will hear on any given day on Radio 2 (mainstream music in the UK). The concluding section, however, breaks into something altogether more progressive and challenging as Tillison delivers his most potent lyric on the album. No Luggage Allowed spells out exactly what working life entails and why we go through it. It also points out the truth to life, “you can’t take it with you”. Lyrically, as ever with any of Tillison’s work, the music is brought to life. Words are chosen carefully and with purpose but they also have a flow that complements the music – everything has its place, rather like all of us.

“I shear the bolt, he turns the screw, we all have our part and there’s one for you. And we’re all alone, yet surrounded by peers, try to make our mark as we work off the years ……crawling, marching. And we keep our homes if we pay our tax, I ask myself, “just who struck that deal and just how far back?” And some work for fortunes and some work for a dime, and some work for pensions, and some just do their time. And some of them build empires and some bring them down. Some work for recognition, ain’t we all just the clowns? Cause you can’t take it with you, there’s no luggage allowed, no you can’t take it with you, no matter how rich or proud. Your kids will sell it off on Ebay, for God’s sake don’t waste their time, ‘cause you can’t take it with you, you can leave just a little bit behind”.

This, my friends, is 21st Century poetry, as valid to me as the words of Sir John Betjeman or Philip Larkin; it speaks of us in the here and now. Delivered in spine-tingling fashion, this is the “goose-bump” passage of this wonderful piece of work and hits the spot for me, musically and lyrically, in the same way as some of those classic prog tunes do still. Glorious stuff!

Movement four, A Voyage Through the Rush Hour, presents Andy Tillison with his “Oldfield” moment. Tillison plays all instruments here, as the shortest piece on the album creates the journey back from work to home, providing a chance to reflect on the previous images whilst whetting the appetite for the grand finale. This track gives us some indication of the differences between creating an orchestrated piece today as opposed to the days of Emerson and Lord. Andy Tillison carries his orchestra in a box – all samples, of course! He can create and direct exactly how he pleases without the logistical problem of getting all his players to play precisely as he intends – he does it himself! This is probably the biggest clue as to why this project works so successfully. That’s not to say that the composer has it easy – this stuff still has to be realised.

Finally, as we all collapse at home on our sofas we get the fifth movement, Evening TV. Our chance to do whatever we want and be whomever we want is, of course, taken away from us by another of the modern age’s addictions – television. Another opportunity for us all to be brainwashed and, naturally, we fall for it. Whether it's through exhaustion, inertia or just plain laziness we drink tea, watch endless TV and retire to bed. This is where The Tangent gets the chance to rock out and deliver some up-tempo prog. The music here is hugely uplifting, in total contrast to the subject matter as Tillison, almost sneeringly, tells us, “always thought that there was something more, more than this. Evening cups of tea and shows you just can’t miss. Never wonder, never wonder how, it’s all we seem to want right now”. Listening to this music is, actually, exactly what we should be doing when we get home - some of the slightly more smug amongst us already do just that! This is high velocity stuff with Tillison spitting out some great synthesizer lines as the rest of the band march alongside him. So the final message is a clear one, when the day is done the whole thing starts again. “Round and round it goes”.

The musicianship throughout this album is, as one might expect, first class. Theo Travis has arguably made his finest contribution to his playing for The Tangent, his role being the main crossover between the musical styles. Gavin Harrison is a drummer of great quality, his use of the cymbals particularly imaginative, to my ears. The partnership of Harrison and Reingold in the rhythm section underpins this album so efficiently and yet, on repeated listens the creativity just bursts through. Reingold’s choice of conventional bass is a masterstroke in maintaining sharpness in the music. Jakko Jakszyk is also well known to The Tangent followers, a player of taste and restraint, he never lets the side down and his vocals on this album are fabulous. So what about vocals? The addition of David Longdon, the current “voice of prog” to many of us Big Big Train bashers, has delivered something not quite as expected here. No soaring lead vocals on this album, rather an ear and talent for vocal arrangement. That this album delivers the best all round vocal performances on any The Tangent work is testament to his collaborative work with Tillison. Andy Tillison, of course, we know as a keyboard player of great skill. He turns out a spectacularly inspired performance on Le Sacre Du Travail, from blistering synthesizer through swirling Hammond to delicate piano, as well as his role as The Orchestra! This is his realisation of a truly ambitious dream – and it shows.

What The Tangent have created in Le Sacre Du Travail is a vision of what a modern classical symphony should be, with modern rock instruments augmented by the sounds of a traditional orchestra. This has been imagined, constructed and recorded with total belief and dedication. Andy Tillison has created his own virtual orchestra and rock band for the purpose of realising this project. Messer’s Travis, Harrison, Reingold, Jakszyk and Longdon have delivered wonderfully to reflect their obvious belief and support of Tillison’s masterpiece. It’s a stunning success. It should be used as the benchmark for other similar projects in the future. This is the crowning glory for The Tangent…until the next time, perhaps?

**progeezer** · 06-24-2013

Superb work & beautifully written. To clarify, I mean your review.

I'll buy any music that Andy's written, period.

**Clepthema** · 06-24-2013

Very nice! Auto-buy for me.

**progmeister** · 06-25-2013

I just ordered the import from Amazon UK cause I can't wait for the US release

**JKL2000** · 06-25-2013

So is it too late to get in on that whole pre-order campaign? I guess I waited too long, though as I remember, it was a bit too expensive for my liking at the time.

EDIT: Or did Andy decide to just sell the companion album separately? I see it's for sale on their site (though not released yet).