Still going strong
IQ seem to have been around for most of my rock listening life. Founded 28 years ago in ’81 by guitarist Mike Holmes and Martin Orford. Not quite having a revolving door policy, but these 28 years have seen a number of personnel changes, more recently with Martin Orford leaving in 2007 to pursue a solo career. Drummer Paul Cook left in 2005 and has returned to the stool for this years live appearences. Theres much more to report but it would take up too much room.
Frequency is the first album (and their ninth) from IQ since 2004's Dark Matter. In general, IQ's sound is similar to 70s style progressive rock, The band's vocalist, Peter Nichols, has been compared to Peter Gabriel many times, but I would say on reflection that its not too comparable. At just over an hour in length, they just made the minimum standard for a progressive album, but other bands overblown, overlong running times make ‘Frequency’ feel like a single
Opener, and title track ‘Frequency’ is a mighty fine song. Like many of their progressive contemporaries, IQ do nothing by halves. Complete with offset time signatures, the underlying melody really gets under your skin, for me, making Frequency the stand out track on the album.
The album's production values are impeccable with gut-wrenching bass, crystal electric pianos, guitars that are soaring, driving, synthetic-legato ('Life Support'), with touching acoustic work throughout the disc. There’s an intelligence in phrasing and structure that is amiss in some similar acts. There are beautiful lightning Arp and Moog-sounding licks ('Province of the King') with many newer sounds by keyboardist Mark Westworth (of Darwins Radio) who is very competent in this role filling the shoes of Martin Orford. ‘Ryker Skies’ could well be one of the best pieces of music ever created by this band. A rich tapestry of keyboards and acoustic guitar accompany the vocals, before the dark electric guitar, pulsating bass and drums kick in, very nice indeed.
'The Province of the King' is the longest track on the album, and commences with lovely acoustic guitar and keyboard backdrop to Nicholl's vocals, this track has many moods, and is the most ‘epic’ on the album.
With the new guys on board, they’ve proved that there is still a lot of life left in IQ yet. Its not groundbreaking, theres nothing new on offer, but if youre an IQ fan I very much doubt that you will be disappointed. Im not sure it will bring in many new fans either, but it’s worth a go. A good way to start your IQ cd collection