The Tangent’s eighth album, A Spark in the Aether is out today, April 21st. In a recent audio interview with The Prog Report, Tangent frontman, Andy Tillison, talked about one of the new songs “Codpieces and Capes”, a tongue-in-cheek look back at Prog circa the 1970’s.
Here, Tillison tells the story behind the 12-minute trip down memory lane, which includes nods to Jethro Tull, Yes and even current Prog masters like Neal Morse.
“A lot of people in the media just think straightaway of the guy the with the codpiece and the flute, that’s Ian Anderson, and capes is of course Rick Wakeman and his keyboards rig. I absolutely am a complete Prog rock nut, I love the music. Of course, there’s lots of things that make you embarrassed about it, like people wearing capes and codpieces and driving around in three trucks with their names on the top, all these bonkers things they did when they were really rich and were kind of medieval princes in Europe. It was a weird time, very young men with a lot of money. You have to disengage yourself from how much you love it to be able to look and say there was some of it that was really shit. Finding the good stuff is the secret, of course.”
Tillison says the song calls out the legendary groups of the ’70s for not recognizing many of the groups that carry the torch for Prog today.
“It’s a bit nostalgic looking back at the music that formed our early lives. There’s another part in the song where I’m actually looking at the fact that those guys don’t very often come and stand alongside us…the old heroes…they don’t really support us or give us gigs. I’ve been operating The Tangent to a reasonable level of success over the past 12 years and not once has any musician from the ’70s said ‘Hey, I like what you’re doing man’ or got in touch and said ‘This is really good.’ Not a word from any of them, and I think that’s a little bit sad. When it comes down to it, we’re their legacy. Not just The Tangent, obviously. I’m talking about all the bands who are playing now. Flower Kings, Big Big Train, Magenta, the whole bloody lot of them. We’re their legacy, we’re what they’ve left. There’s a bitterness and a sweetness, but it’s like a love song. It’s about all the good things that happen in a love relationship and all the bad things. So my love song about Progressive Rock, it’s got good and bad. That’s what a love song is.”
The Tangent’s ‘A Spark in the Aether’ CD can be purchased here:
http://www.insideoutmusicshop.com/the-tangent-a-spark-in-the-aether-pre-order.html
and digital download is available here for purchase:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/a-spark-in-the-aether/id979727522
Tracklisting:
A Spark In The Aether 4:20
Codpieces And Capes 12:34
Clearing The Attic 9:35
Aftereugene 5:47
The Celluloid Road 21:37
A Spark In The Aether (Part 2) 8:16
San Francisco (Radio Edit) 4:59
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