Band: IQ
Band Website: www.iq-hq.co.uk
Label: InsideOut Records
Label Website: www.insideout.de
Release Date: 2009
What
can you say about IQ? This is one of the bands that helped kick-start the 80’s prog revival and they’re sounding as vital and relevant
as ever. Their new release, Frequency, their tenth studio release (if you count Seven Stories into Ninety-Eight) and what a fantastic
CD this is! For this recording the band is made up of: Peter Nicholls (vocals, lyrics), John Jowitt (bass), Mike Holmes (guitar) and
new members
The CD starts off with the sound
of a radio signal…voices over radio frequencies and then bang, we’re into IQ’s trademarked thumbing bass and drums pounding out an
infectious bottom end rhythm with Mellotron styled strings and searing guitar building the tension. After two minutes the vocals tell
the story of the title track “Frequency” [8:29]. The opening is simply magical and it’s a musical motif they use to good effect in
my favorite track “Ryker Skies” [9:45]. IQ have become masters at crafting long compositions that slide effortlessly from one feel
to the next. There are very few jarring moments as each composition takes you on a varied musical journey with music providing the
soundtrack. And they’ve never sounded so together, so grand and so epic in sound as in “The Province” [13:42]. Tension and release,
expectation and resolution, every track is a hit here. Track two, “Life Support” [6:27] features Nicholls’ plaintive vocals over thick
rolling complex rhythms that change constantly and then every once in a while they return to the song’s main dramatic theme. What’s
perhaps most amazing about IQ is that they’ve managed to retain all that’s best about their signature sound and add too it even though
they’re working with a new keyboardist and drummer. The change in personnel has in no way adversely affected their music. Those lovely
Mellotron styled strings and choirs are everywhere on Frequency and in just the right spots. In fact Westworth’s keyboard style seems
a perfect match for IQ’s brand of prog. And the same can be said for Edwards drumming style.
I’ve been a fan
of IQ since I saw them perform at
