Listen to The Tangent’s haunting new track Slow Rust

The Tangent
The Tangent

The Tangent have released an edited stream of their new track Slow Rust.

The section titled The Actual Story has been taken from the band’s upcoming album The Slow Rust Of Forgotten Machinery which will arrive on July 21 and follows Two Rope Swings from the record.

Vocalist and keyboardist Andy Tillison says: “Slow Rust is a long involved piece that looks at the whole massive set of implications of the various refugee crises around the world today.

“The piece tries to take on many of the points of view from different groups like the press, politicians, industry, education and all of US – but just for this section of the song we turned the camera on the people actually in the middle of this story, desperate people doing desperate things in a world that has little time to help them.

The Actual Story is a small section of this massive piece – a subsection of it. Marie Eve de Gaultier’s voice becomes the leading instrument here in a rare Tangent acoustic section and is one of the highlights of the album as a whole.”

Tillison adds: “It’s part of one of the band’s most complex ever songs both in musical construction and lyrical development. The piece is challenging, dynamic and ‘of its time.’”

Joining Tillison and de Gaultier on the new record are Luke Machin on guitar, Jonas Reingold on bass and Theo Travis on sax and flutes. There are also guest appearances from author, playwright and Chumbawamba founder Boff Whalley on vocals, and DJ/producer Matt Farrow.

The Tangent will head out on tour later this year with Karmakanic for shows across Europe and the US, including a set at this year’s Summer’s End Festival in the UK.

Find the album artwork, tracklist and tour dates below.

The Tangent The Slow Rust Of Forgotten Machinery tracklist

  1. Two Rope Swings
  2. Doctor Livingstone (I Presume)
  3. Slow Rust
  4. The Sad Story Of Lead And Astatine
  5. A Few Steps Down The Wrong Road
  6. Basildonxit

The Tangent 2017 tour dates

Aug 26: Reichenbach Bierkeller, Germany
Sep 01: Veruno 2 days of Prog + 1 Festival, Italy
Sep 09: Zoetermeer The Boerderij, Netherlands
Oct 08: Chepstow Summer’s End Festival, UK
Oct 21: Chicago Progtoberfest, IL
Oct 22: Milwaukee Shank Hall, WI
Oct 24: Westland Token Lounge, MI
Oct 26: Dunellen Roxy & Dukes, NJ
Oct 27: Arlington The Regent Theatre, MA

The Tangent talk The Slow Rust of Forgotten Machinery tracks

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.