{"id":42628,"date":"2012-05-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/dark-matter-2\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:20:11","slug":"dark-matter-2","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/dark-matter-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

For me, discovering IQ was a little like going on a blind date. The mutual friend who set us up was Big Big Train<\/a>, my favorite progressive rock group of the moment, and IQ\u2019s one-time label-mate, back in the mid-90s. That association extended to IQ keyboardist Martin Orford producing BBT\u2019s first album (1994\u2019s Goodbye To The Age Of Steam<\/i>), and seventeen years later guesting on their most recent EP (2011\u2019s Far Skies Deep Time<\/i>). <\/p>\n

Given that connection, and the fact that Orford left IQ in 2008, I chose to start back a ways in their catalog, with 2004\u2019s Dark Matter<\/i>. The album features Paul Cook on drums, Michael Holmes on guitars, John Jowitt on bass, Peter Nicholls on vocals, and Orford on all things keyed.<\/p>\n

The album opens with the energetic 11-minute mini-epic \u201cSacred Sound,\u201d featuring especially nice work by Orford, who opens things up with a moody little synth vignette that shifts into driving organ line that brings the rhythm section in underneath and propels the whole song forward. The basic theme established here is built upon, shifted away from and returned to several times over the course of the track in true prog fashion. There\u2019s a nice little duet between Holmes and Orford around six minutes as well where they play off of one another smartly.<\/p>\n

Nicholls, it must be said, is a bit of an acquired taste as a vocalist. His voice is clean and powerful, but\u2026 let me put it this way. While IQ\u2014unlike, say, Styx\u2014is most definitely a prog band, if I had to pick one vocalist whose style Peter Nicholls comes closest to emulating, it would be Dennis DeYoung. He\u2019s got that theatricality to his phrasing, not as over-the-top as DeYoung in his delivery, perhaps, but a definite Broadway flair. The thing is, it\u2019s actually sort of fascinating hearing genuine progressive rock with that style of vocals out front. <\/p>\n

The next three tracks clock in around the five- to six-minute range and offer a fair bit of variety. \u201cRed Dust Shadow\u201d opens with a somber acoustic set piece before escalating into power ballad territory for the second half. Not a favorite, but flawlessly played. \u201cYou Never Will\u201d is an angry number that opens with some rather Floydian clock noise before Jowitt\u2019s bass and Orford\u2019s organ lead a quick build, setting the rest of the song on \u201cchurn.\u201d \u201cBorn Brilliant\u201d could easily have been sub-titled \u201cA Primer in Self-Loathing\u201d with Nicholls speak-singing through gritted teeth lines like \u201cI\u2019m selfish and insensitive \/ I\u2019m rotten to the core \/ Pretentious and derivative \/ You\u2019ve seen it all before.\u201d The third and subsequent verses build the tension with Orford\u2019s synths bubbling and whirling around a tight bass-drum figure, with Holmes hanging on the fringes until he steps forward to ride a superb, keening solo to the fade.<\/p>\n

Closer \u201cHarvest Of Souls\u201d is a full-blown 24-minute prog epic with all that implies. Acoustic, scene-setting opening section; major tone shift around 4:15 with big keyboards; second major shift at 6:20 to an energetic guitar-bass-drums workout, etc., etc. All in all, it flows well and has some genuinely stirring passages (the 11:00-12:10 jam in particular) that keep the imagination firing to the end.<\/p>\n

Once past my initial discomfort with Nicholls\u2019 \u201cBroadway prog\u201d approach to the vocals, I found plenty to enjoy on Dark Matter<\/i>.\u00a0 Orford, Holmes, Jowitt and Cook are all terrific players who each get their chances to shine here, giving the album a true ensemble feel. If I had to hand out an MVP award, though, it would go to Orford, whose playing is equally compelling and on-target whether he\u2019s on piano, synth or Hammond.<\/p>\n

Thanks for the introduction, BBT. We should do this again some time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":26960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7130],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-42628","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-iq","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42628","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42628"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}