Tangent Music

Paul Overaa goes behind the scenes at Tangent Music and discovers a rather unusual Amiga connection...

New albums come and go in the music business as a matter of daily routine, but the chances are that one particular new release, an album entitled Everybody's Girlfriend, is going to become a bit of a show‑stopper in the Amiga music world. The album is being produced and promoted by Tangent Music Design whose three partners are none other than Edward Fermor, Richard Knox and David Pleasance. Now that last name should ring a bell — David Pleasance was, of course, Managing Director of Commodore Business Machines (UK) Ltd until Escom GMBpurchased the worldwide assets of the Commodore group and the UK operation had to close. What you probably will not know is that David is also a musician — a guitarist in fact, with a particular passion for Flamenco. He once owned a Flamenco dance company, has studied guitar in Spain, and has appeared in concert, cabaret and on television, supporting people such as John Farnham and Gallagher and Lyle.

A Trip To Tangent

A telephone call to Tangent revealed that the new album is not only Amiga‑inspired, but has been put together using Amiga sequencers and Amiga‑based direct‑to‑disk sampling. Intrigued by the Amiga music connection, I went down to their recording studios in Middlesex to see what was happening first hand. Tangent have recently kitted out a 32‑channel, 24‑track digital recording studio in Hayes, and when I arrived there was more that a fair smattering of hi‑tech equipment scattered around, including a Soundcraft DC2000 fully automated desk and two Tascam DA88 recorders which link to a direct‑to‑hard‑disk sampling system. Everything gets mastered to a Tascam DA30 MKII DAT, which can then be recorded to a Marantz DD82 DCC, a Sony TCK611S, and to Phillips recordable CD. On top of this, there was the usual assortment of outboard effects, sound modules and samplers, including a Roland JV1080, Roland S760, and a Korg Wavestation SR. With Genelec monitors in the control room, Spirit Absolute 2's in the studio, and so on, it was hardly surprising that things sounded good. During the tour around Tangent Music I was able to talk to David Pleasance about both Amiga matters in general and the new album...

"David, I know you are playing on this new album, but presumably you have other interests at Tangent Music as well?"

"Yes, my main priorities of course are in the business side of things. I'm responsible for the day‑to‑day running of the company, the sales and marketing of our products, and above all, ensuring that we make good music at a profit!"

"Whose idea was it to create an Amiga‑inspired album in the first place?"

"Mine actually. The initial planning of the project began about a year ago, although we didn't start recording until September of last year."

"How much of the work was done using Amigas?"

"Lots of it — all the sequencing has been carried out using Amigas running the Blue Ribbon Soundworks Bars & Pipes sequencer, and we have the Studio 16 package (Sunrize's 8‑track, 16‑bit digital recording system), running on an Amiga as well. Even our Philips recordable CD unit is linked to an Amiga 3000T."

"Do you find hard disk capacity a problem with your sampling applications?"

"No, but we are lucky here — our main A4000/040 studio Amiga has an internal 1.2 Gigabyte hard drive and a 740Mb SCSI unit."

"Was all the sequencing and recording done in your main studio?"

"No, we also have a small satellite studio, which includes an 200Mb hard drive Amiga 4000/030 running Bars & Pipes. Richard Knox uses this quite a bit, and many of the ideas for the new album actually started life here. This in itself should be of interest, because this latter type of set‑up is typical of that which can be found in the home studios of many Amiga‑based musicians."

"Being a Dr T's KCS sequencer fan myself, I suppose I'm a bit disappointed to see that your sequencing is totally Bars & Pipes‑orientated. Are there any special reasons for this?"

"We originally chose Bars & Pipes Professional because it offered more features than alternative Amiga sequencers. Of course, once someone starts working with a particular sequencer package they tend to stick with it, so having made that initial decision, I suppose it's not really surprising that we followed an exclusive Bars & Pipes sequencing pathway."

About The Album

"Is there any special significance to the title of the album?"

"Most definitely. Amiga is actually Spanish for girlfriend, and so we all thought that Everybody's Girlfriend was particularly appropriate for an Amiga‑inspired recording. After all, the album is essentially a celebration in music of ten years of the Amiga, with the 14 tracks being recorded using Amigas, and written and produced by people who both use and know about the Amiga."

"And the album tracks — any personal favourites?"

"Well, there's a pop song called 'Don't Let Me Fall' that is a firm favourite, along with a love song called 'Roses'. Also, being a solo guitar player I like music which tells a story, and the track 'Infinity' really does it for me!"

"Talking about the tracks themselves, I notice that the music and lyrics of all except four are attributed to a band called Passion."

"Yes, Passion are actually Richard Knox and Ed Fermor, my partners at Tangent, and both are established musicians. Richard, a singer/songwriter/ keyboard player, has played and recorded both in the UK and the States, and, as well as various TV appearances, has a number of film credits to his name. Ed also has lots of TV, video and tour work under his belt, and in 1993 he accompanied the renowned deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie on a world tour. In November of that year Ed played live on the Commodore stand at the FES show (incorporating World of Amiga), and that's actually where we first met."

The Future

"Changing the subject a bit, what do you see as the future of the Amiga now that machines are at last coming back into the shops?"

"The Amiga is going through a tough period at the moment as a direct result of the activity undertaken by PC manufacturers. (It's the only industry I know which eats its young!) However, if Escom invest in up‑spec'ing the A1200, include a CD‑ROM drive as a standard feature, and are more realistic with their pricing of the A4000 and so on, then they can still have a good business. I do not believe that the games machine market is going to be anywhere near as big as some industry pundits predict, and as such, Amiga Technologies should concentrate on giving their current user‑base reason to stay with the format."

"As far as sampling/music applications are concerned, what two things do you think Amiga Technologies could realistically do to promote the use of the Amiga amongst professional musicians?"

"Firstly, form strategic joint R&D projects with technology leaders in recording equipment, samplers and effects — for example, Tascam, Roland, Korg, Yamaha, Soundcraft and so on. Secondly, invest in having some industry‑standard software (such as Notator Logic) ported to the Amiga. Finally, while I do not believe it makes commercial sense to incur the additional cost of having MIDI on all Amigas, I think it would be well received if MIDI was a low‑cost optional extra, perhaps in module form."

A Collectors' Item

I was fortunate enough to leave Tangent with an advance copy of the new album, and while I found it to be rather a mixed bag in terms of content, I couldn't fault the recording quality. Richard Knox is the lead vocalist on half the tracks, the others being covered by Angie Brown, Mo Black, Simon Green and P J Philips. The album features a number of instrumentals, and I particularly liked a Flamenco track entitled 'Para Mi Amiga (Homage to Jay Miner)', which is both written and played by David Pleasance.

One thing is certain, Everybody's Girlfriend clearly shows exactly what can be done musically with a typical Amiga sequencer, and it provides a chance to hear something of the very real musical talents of David Pleasance. I should think the fact that the ex‑MD of Commodore is both executive producer on the Everybody's Girlfriend album and one of the musicians is going to be enough to make this offering a collectors' item amongst Amiga owners.