Friday 5 July 2013

A Couple of Crackers

Here are two very impressive new albums.

The first is Andy Tillison's The Tangent, newie "Le Sacre Du Travail". This is simply Tillison's Topographic Oceans. Hugely ambitious and pushing everything to their limits like Yes's double album did back in the 70's. Tillison has always produced large, complex work. For me his "Afterlifecycle", made with Parallel or 90 Degrees is a modern epic prog classic. But nothing he has produced in the past matches this new album for its breadth of compositional dexterity. Like Yes's major work, Stravinsky is a big influence here, using big sound colours to generate a rich tonal tapestry. Luckily he is aided by musicians capable of handling the task of this major work, like Gavin Harrison, Theo Travis and Jakko Jakszyk.

The second release is the second by US duo, Days Between Stations. Not a well known band but this new album will change that. Again an ambitious, complex work like The Tangents album and with some great guest spots by Rick Wakeman, Colin Moulding, Tony Levin and the late Pete Banks. The music is beautifully played, instrumentally very strong and well produced with the help of Billy Sherwood who also handles vocals and drums.

 

 

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