Tangent Strategy – Revenant (Album – EK Product)
Genre/Influences: Industrial, EBM, Power-Noise.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Tangent Stratery is the newest signing to EK Product. Based in the US, this Japanese solo-project was set up in 1996 by chd.y. After several productions “Revenant“ is an album that will maybe catch the attention of a wider audience.
Content: The album features 2 parts; brand-new songs and older cuts originally released on EP. The sound is hard to define yet always driven by Electro-Industrial elements. It takes off in a rather Dive style, but rapidly evolves incorporating other influences to the work. You’ll notice EBM bass lines, but still harder cuts coming closer to pure Power-Noise. Some of the older cuts also reveal a colder electro style, which might remind you of Mortal Constraint and The Klinik. On top of it all you’ll discover ghost-like vocals while a few cuts remain instrumental edits.
+ + + : The originality of this project is its atypical approach. It’s much more than simply Industrial music, but a true offspring between Industrial, EBM, Power-Noise, Dark-Electro and even vague Techno and Acid elements. This project is a sonic chameleon, which will however appeal for Industrial lovers. I like the album’s diversity and the spooky produced vocals. The album is a discovery and a true sonic trip in Industrial music. I personally like “Dead Reckoning (Reverse/Action)” for its harder, danceable approach with a kind of Acid sequence on top. In a more Dark-Electro way I recommend “Accept Death” and “Hark! For I Am The Portent Of Misery”; both songs having a strong 90s sound. Last, but not least I also want to mention “And The Lies”, which sounds to me like ‘Industrial Prodigy’.
– – – : The main strength of the album might be also be seen as its weakest spot: a mishmash of influences.
Conclusion: Tangent isn’t really innovating although creating an atypical, original Electro-Industrial sound.
Best songs: “Dead Reckoning (Reverse/Action)”, “Accept Death”, “Hark! For I Am The Portent Of Misery”, “And The Lies”, “Fountain Square”, “The Rising Sun And The Behemoth”.
Rate: 7½.
Artist: https://tangentstrategy.net / www.facebook.com/tangentstrategy
Label: www.ekproduct.com / www.facebook.com/EKProduct
About Tangent Strategy
Tangent Strategy is the solo project of chd.y. Discogs states that the project began in 1996 as an outlet for chd.y’s musical exploration, starting with guitars, bass and found percussion before moving into computer sequencing and sampling.
“Revenant” was released by EK Product on 26 November 2021 as a limited CD and digital download, and is the only Tangent Strategy release documented on Discogs. Bandcamp credits chd.y with voice, guitar, noise excavation and sound sculpture, and states that the songs were written and produced between 1998 and 2021, with the compiled recordings made between 2003 and 2021 in Washington State, USA, and Tokyo, Japan. The same page notes that tracks one to four come from lossy compressed sources and that “Serenade For Hana” is dedicated to Hana Kimura.
The seventeen tracks are “The Invocation”, “Engine”, “Un coeur de glace, un esprit d’hiver”, “Fountain Square”, “Dead Reckoning (reverse/action)”, “and the lies”, “The Doctrine of Overwhelming Force”, “The Execution of Zealots in the Marketplace Square”, “Angel of Black Desire”, “Meatgrinder”, “The Rising Sun and the Behemoth”, “Accept Death”, “Hark! for I am the portent of misery”, “Machigatta Guuzen”, “Floodgates Now Opened”, “MQ-9A” and “Serenade For Hana”.
This review is the first Side-Line coverage of the project, and no later Tangent Strategy release has been documented in the archive since.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
