After ten years of writing these things, I have found that I get emotionally tied up in some of my favorite bands\/review subjects. And since Spock\u2019s Beard is mailing it in now, Great Big Sea has stumbled, and Alan Parsons isn\u2019t recording, it\u2019s been a rough year or two for yours truly.<\/p>\n
Well, thank heavens for IQ. Despite their low recording rate they continue, as far as I\u2019m concerned, to be some of the best things going in progressive rock.\u00a0 What IQ has that some progressive bands lack is the immediacy of a musical hook; the brief musical phrase that pulls you in, demands your attention, insists that you pay attention, damn it. IQ is not musical pudding or ear candy; they are complex and arcane. Since listening to them requires work, they will never have wide-spread acceptance or fame \u2013 and frankly, I\u2019m fine with that. Because their quirky, insistent ways continues to produce magnificent CDs like their latest, Frequency.<\/i><\/p>\n
From the moment the thundering opening to \u201cFrequency\u201d blew through my speakers, I was hooked.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be the first one to admit Peter Nicholls vocals are unusual, but they\u2019re also brilliant; in substance he reminds me of Geddy Lee, though there\u2019s no superficial similarity. Mike Holmes continues to be one of the most underrated guitarists in rock music, and new keyboardist Martin Wentworth slips right into the mix without a ripple with a perfect fat prog-synth sound.\u00a0 For me, however, it\u2019s Andy Edwards\u2019 drumming that provides the heartbeat and backbone on Frequency<\/i>. He pulls off counterpoints and rhythms like Neil Peart, and I don\u2019t give that kind of praise lightly. The nine-minute \u201cRiker Skies\u201d is, as far as I\u2019m concerned, a way to show us just how damned good the interplay of Holmes, Edwards, and Wentworth is, and it\u2019s incredible. Add in gentle ballads like \u201cLife Support\u201d and \u201cOne Fatal Mistake\u201d, the \u2018watch us out-Marillion Marillion\u2019 \u201cThe Province\u201d, and what you have here is a big, tasty, amazing chunk of progressive rock music. By the time I got to the triumphant \u201cCloser\u201d, I felt like I was going to expire from the sheer coolness of it all.<\/p>\n
Prog rock isn\u2019t dead; if anything, it\u2019s stripped out some dead weight and become leaner, meaner, and badder. IQ\u2019s Frequency<\/i> is a perfect example of the genre. Do NOT miss it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":29918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7130],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41543","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-iq","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41543"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}