ZEE: IDENTITY

Progressive rock reached a peak during the 70's, where experimentation was part of what people listened to over and over in previous and emerging bands. Those bands made a living out of it; and the introduction of the synthetizer, disco music, and of course, punk music forced many bands to modify their style and experiment in a different and modern way. The end of the 70's and the early 80's saw the rise of the new wave. A style which concentrated most of their sound on the ones produced by the synthetiser and supporting that sound with softer voices, electric drums and, less important guitars. Progressive had "died" long ago as mainstream music; new wave was the way to survive.

I lived my childhood in the 80's, so I was very used to the mainstream sounds; I enjoyed listening to Depeche Mode, Level 42, Kajagoogoo, U2, Duran Duran, OMD, etc. Yet, amidst those bands I discovered Pink Floyd, Yes, Camel, Moody Blues ... of course, with their 80's productions. Thanks to it I became interested in their music which was, in a certain way, a bit different to the others; little by little, I started to discover at a very young age what Progressive music was.

I don't blame Richard Wright for attempting this experiment with former Fashion's singer and guitarist Dee Harris. It was a way to survive in that period. The album per se, is not bad at all. On the contrary (thanks to what I mention above), I really enjoyed the album from beginning to end, it reminded me of so many bands like Talking Heads, King Crimson, Japan and Camel, all of them progressive, all of them with similar productions in the 80's.

Ok, ok ... it is not a progressive album, but it is a wonderful new wave album created by a classic progressive musician (Richard Wright) and a post-punk, new romantic one (Dee Harris), that's what I call experimentation.