CDs like this are why I keep listening to progressive rock.
Despite the genre’s tendency towards bombast and excess, every so
often something comes along that utterly blows me away with its
complexity, musicality, and sheer genius. I can count the CDs on
one hand; Spock’s Beard’s
Snow, Marillion’s
Clutching At Straws, Alan Parsons’
Try Anything Once — and now you can add the latest CD from
British prog-rock icons IQ to the mix. Simply put,
Dark Matter is brilliant.
Dark Matter is, at least in my humble opinion, a concept CD
about the dark places of the human mind and soul; what Carl Jung
called the Shadow. Heavy and heady stuff, perhaps, but it’s
executed flawlessly by the quintet of Paul Cook (drums), Michael
Holmes (guitar), John Jowitt (bass), Peter Nicholls (vocals), and
Martin Orford (keyboards). Holmes’ production and Rob Aubrey’s
engineering is chill-inducing, a magnificent counterpoint of light
touch and scattered effects (the vocal processing when Nicholls
sings “Hide where you can / we will shoot you where you stand” on
“Harvest Of Souls” makes me shudder).
Unlike a lot of prog bands, the emphasis in IQ is on guitar and
percussion; the progressive portion of their sound is more a matter
of complex melodies, lyrics, time signatures, and harmonies rather
than drowning everything in a thick, choking, glutinous layer of
Hammond organ. In that, Michael Holmes’ guitar playing is
astonishing — this is my first exposure to IQ, and his artistry
alone has made me want more. Whether it’s the blistering solo that
closes “Harvest of Souls/Nocturne” or the heartbreaking acoustic
work on “Red Dust Shadow,” it’s simply great. Orford’s keyboards
are more likely to be a simple melodic piano (“Harvest Of
Souls/Frame And Form”) or muted synthesizer underpinning (“Born
Brilliant,” which incidentally has some of the most sardonic and
ironic lyrics I’ve ever heard — hey, look kids, it’s a prog band
with a sense of humour!) than the typical overblown prog
arrangements. Paul Cook can lay down a serious beat (“Born
Brilliant,” again). This is progressive rock outside the box, and
it’s damn fine.
I can’t recommend this CD enough. IQ’s
Dark Matter should be in your CD collection, and one of the
veterans of British progressive rock should finally get their
due.
