THE DISTURBANCE FIELDS

The 7 year long wait for the release of a new epic by Edison's Children was perhaps the most long awaited and anticipated album for the fans of the Neo-prog / Epic Prog outfit who have taken the time to know this band enough to become "infected" by them. The Marillion / Transatlantic side project of Pete Trewavas teaming up with the son of the First Man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong's offspring "Rick Armstrong" and of course our famed man in the black hat, Eric Blackwood to return with their new epic "The Disturbance Fields" with Henry Rogers (Mostly Autumn / Touchstone) and Lisa Wetton (wife of the late John Wetton) would sound like an absolute "dream team" of wild and imaginative possibilities. Finally it has arrived and this time in a Double-LP 180g Vinyl edition complete with gatefold and a 16 page booklet that reminded me of the day I first bought Pink Floyd "The Wall" at Sam Goody's and was lost for nearly a year in the rants and ravings of Roger Waters.

The 16 page booklet that comes with the Gatefold LP (20 page booklet with the CD) provide vivid and disturbingly beautiful images (and lyrics) by the great album cover artist Wendy Darling (a stage name bestowed to her by the legendary Marillion lead vocalist Steve Hogarth himself). "The Disturbance Fields" was re-mastered for Vinyl (and again for CD) by Andy VanDette who mastered Rush's entire back catalog, Tool, many of Porcupine Tree's albums, and has been involved with the mastering of everything from Paul McCartney to Nirvana to Metallica to Smashing Pumpkins. Andy VanDette is who the "reigning king of all re-mastering, Steve Wilson" goes to, to have his own music re-mastered. Off the bat as much as I loved the CD, the new "Super hi-fi" Double-LP in 180g Vinyl takes the sonic intensity (especially the bass) to another completely exceptional level.

After such a long wait and a "Longing" for the new album (as one of their best compositions is known as), we tend to become so excited that nothing will ever actually live up to the expectations. Edison's Children has not only met those exceeding expectations but have creating something so truly remarkable that I am in absolute awe of "The Disturbance Fields" and I know I am not alone in this as Prog Magazine bestowed one of the best reviews that I have ever seen the publication give any band from any genre of Progressive Rock. Lazland's recent review on prog archives was exciting to read as finally I see someone else who also truly understands Edison's Children the way I and the rest of "the Children of Edison" do.

I think perhaps the reason this band continues to play under the radar is because they are not here to show off Prog technique regardless of melody. If you're here for endless noodling in 13/16 time, don't bother, this just isn't for you. Nor if you're here for the more pop sounds of Prog like 80's Rush will these songs grab you the first time you listen to this album, perhaps not even the second time. By the 4th listen however you will be utterly "infected", unable to get these somewhat complex but extraordinarily memorable hooks and melody's out of your head.

The son of the 1st Man on the Moon, Rick Armstrong could be with perhaps any band in the world if he really wanted to. He chose Edison's Children because he felt that the actual "writing" of Edison's Children was as good as anything he had ever heard in his life so I share my sentiments for this band with the son of the most respected man perhaps that ever walked this planet (or any other). This band also has fought against the return of the "record company machine" and wished to remain on their own not giving into the temptation to join one of the big 3 prog labels just to get the recognition they have always deserved. I believe this has hurt them as much of the festival and awards circuit is geared towards those who have done so.

For those of us however who have are willing to invest the time to get just a little bit used to the songs by listening more than one or two quick run through's while working on their laptops may suddenly find the sneaky mischievous melodies begin to take hold and suddenly come alive. Edison's Children could be the band that you've been waiting for since Porcupine Tree was no longer Porcupine Tree, or since Pink Floyd was no longer Pink Floyd. For me this has certainly bridged that gap and in some ways I find this even more profoundly interesting as the concepts aren't constant ramblings about British political issues. Every concept album goes in a bizarre strange journey that leaves you somewhere else; somewhere perhaps "between here and there".

Eric Blackwood's vocals I think gets lost on most who listen for the first time to Edison's Children. There is an absolute passion in his voice where you feel the angst as he and his world are being ripped apart. What is it about his vocal that some find so intense that we either are driven to it or driven from it?

I don't think enough of the audience realize that this isn't "vocal angst without a reason" and there is nothing contrived about his delivery. Of all the amazing musicians I have ever personally had the honor to meet, no one has had the life this man has. Eric Blackwood is the truest among survivors and luckily I know a lot about what Eric has experienced through my brief acquaintances with members of Marillion and their crew who seem to love him quite madly and opened up to me over the decades about some of what he's been through.

The events in this album unfold as he himself goes through his own personal history in riding out a tornado that totaled his car while he was at the wheel; a nor'easter which left his plane too battered by turbulence to land, flying out of control for hours and hours in a most stormy of skies free falling while the ground got closer and closer, nearly crashing to earth several times while a fatality sat there flailing about to the horror of everyone around them. With the entire plane (and pilot) quite certain they were going to perish the nearly doomed flight finally broke through the storm and managed to come somewhat safely to back to earth after 4 1/2 hours of non-stop terror. Several dozens passengers were taken to the local mental institution and Blackwood re-captures the nightmarish event over and over in these lyrics and throughout other Edison's Children albums. It is something you can tell still very much haunts him today.

With another near death experience at sea where he and his brother were lost without power in 8 meter waves, Blackwood seemed to somehow survive all that mother nature could throw at him coming through it all with nary a scratch. That was until he began working as a Hollywood on-set Special FX technician. A massive storm developed while shooting a scene for the actor better known as "Tony Soprano" that led to mother nature finally doing what she had tried to do for so long and could never quite complete. Eric Blackwood's arm was nearly severed from his shoulder from the inside out. Several surgeries that attempted to re-attach all the parts back together to his neck proved unsuccessful and left him in permanent pain and unable to regain any consistent function. A bite from a spider (or tick? I heard it was a spider but stories differ depending on who you talk to) then left Eric suffering from a permanently debilitating battle with Lyme disease that has seen him tethered to an IV for a full year of his life and in and out of a wheelchair for the last 7 years. All of these events have left a permanent mark in his vocal that has many a story to tell. That angst or passionate darkness in his delivery isn't in any way "contrived" as a reviewer once stated. It's the mark of someone who has somehow managed to endure and continues to struggle to do so every day of his life. Listen to the vocal again with all this in mind, and you may truly appreciate a man who is singing his heart out from what little is left of himself.

The album begins quite peacefully with some gulls and children playing along the beach, "oblivious to the apocalyptic storm about to descend upon them" (EC liner notes). An old captain retells his life with a simple guitar and vocal melody before an Alan Parson's Project like symphonic melody begins playing. With that Henry Rogers introduces the first piece of music "A Random Occurrence" with some intense and powerful drums that kick this album into gear and with a melody that seems reminiscent of Eric Woolfson and would be quite appropriate on any Alan Parsons release. The song builds and builds with more and more instrumentation before hitting a peak only to build even more from there and reach yet another peak. You know right from here you're in for something special and you best hold on tight because this is going to be quite a ride. (Edison's Children incidentally played with Alan Parsons at NASA's 50th anniversary for Rick's dad... Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong landing on the moon in July of 2019. You can tell much of this is influenced by Alan Parsons and no doubt it must have been special for the two groups to come together for such a historic concert).

Whereas Edison's Children was obviously heavily influenced by Pink Floyd in their previous music, there is a strong sense of Maynard Keenan in many songs on this album... especially the dark and brooding Asphyxiation which comes next and features a dark and nearly evil bass and drum intimacy (Henry Rogers) much like A Perfect Circle's "The Package" before exploding in a mass of Rick Armstrong's and Pete Trewavas' guitar driven madness. Blackwood's whispering from the abyssal depth's into Trewavas' ear as he tries to break the surface and get that desperate gasp of air, trying all the while to break his spirit and will to live and give up his body and soul to the demon of the deep sea. This is new ground for Edison's Children and one of many times they will go someplace quite different on this LP yet maintain that thing that makes this band so distinct and unique.

The Approaching Front then prepares you with a steady bass driven hook over Rick Armstrong's power guitar work. Another song that starts off quite simply before growing like a storm at sea into what seems like a wall of 7 or 8 guitars playing against the bass driven hook with Pete Trewavas "screaming from the mountaintops" to do whatever necessary to save your lives before the Native American based "Indigenous" hits you in the face with such a massive wall of raw guitars that I dare say that Opeth would be impressed. A dark presence of perhaps an Inuit or Native American Indian chief prophecies the end of the world. "When the darkness falls, Your blood will fill the grass" reminds one of the dark entity that Dave Matthews conjures up in "Don't Drink The Water". While I'm not a DMB fan, I can appreciate the intensity that he brought up in that song and I haven't quite heard anything come close until Indigenous itself conjured up that raw intense power in a way that may easily supersede anything that has come before.

There are a few tranquil and quite beautiful moments in this album as well as A Cold Gray Morning... the first song that Pete and Eric ever wrote together has the vibe of an old 70's ballad but in the best of ways... (less Barry Manilow more Harry Nilsson meets Bread). There is a vibe here between Pete and Eric and you feel the wonderful sense of friendship that exists between the two that has led to this incredible collaboration of over a decade. Into The Dead Calm meanwhile is a chilling intimate piece of Pete Trewavas fingerpicking (similar perhaps to Marillion's Going Under) over some very soft strings as Eric Blackwood's intense vocal melody finally explains to us what this captain of the sea has lost to Mother Nature and why he's willing to lose himself now in these "last waking moments" of his life. You can hear a bit of Blackwood and what he's experienced as the lights dim and you hear this story unfold and our "Captain" looks back at a life of both beauty and darkness and is finally ready to face his demons head on.

While these are intensely beautifully dark pieces of music, there are two singles on this album that come in at just the right time to revive it all and bring us to a place of sheer excitement. The Rolling Stones like "The Surge" which again is nothing like Edison's Children has ever done before featuring a great vocal by Pete Trewavas who has gotten much better himself as a lead man, is as instantly infectious as anything since Edison's Children's Top 30 FM hit "A Million Miles Away (I Wish I Had A Time Machine)". The song features a great groove with the bizarre rhythm section of Lisa Wetton on drums and Rick Armstrong on bass to help give this song a rather unique sound and swing. The strongest AOR song however may be the nearly arena rock sounding "The Tempest" which Rick Armstrong has hailed as the prog song he expects will be heard "round the world" (* EC Liner notes). I certainly hope so as this band deserves to be up there with any of the top bands in prog today including their own parent band Marillion.

A revival of the Alan Parsons like "A Random Disturbance" now with an electrifying guitar joining the orchestration to take it to yet another peak before the 11 minute long "The Confluence" which takes the recurring theme of A Random Occurrence/Disturbance and puts it over a Genesis "In the Cage" off beat intensity with ebbs and flows like the bands of a hurricane; raw and overpowering and then breaking into a silence just long enough to bring us a false sense of peace before the terror begins again.

The "whirlpool of the album" where all the songs jumble together before breaking into a beautiful melodic 4 harmony guitar "Resurgence" lead that builds and builds until it quite literally explodes; it is just magnificent as 4 guitars play off each other so perfectly and it all comes together in an unforgettable moment of release. Blackwood and Trewavas and Armstrong write some of the greatest back and forth melodic guitar passages I have ever heard and sound as if Rothery and Gilmour were going up against each other trading guitar passages back and forth. Lisa Wetton and Rick Armstrong return as the rhythm section here to give this final guitar driven instrumental a different feel than Henry Rogers' "Portnoy like" drum sequences.

Finally the album leaves us with that familiar tone we've heard before ... the dark menacing bass notes echoing over and over again. As the captain and his fishing vessel have capsized under a 35 meter-100 foot wave, we now realize that that re-occurring bass echo throughout "The Disturbance Fields" has been the rescue team's failed attempt to use sonar to find the ship any possible survivors. The final words of the captain are laid over this piece appropriately entitled "Epitaph" with some amazing sonic FX by Trewavas and we actually hear the metal creaking of the ship as it descends deeper and succumbs to the pressure. The abyssal demon of Asphyxiation has indeed won the battle and taken the soul of our captain and his crew.

The Disturbance Fields is as close to perfect of an album as I've ever heard myself and I am in awe of it. I put this up to any classic that has come before it by anyone. If you don't agree just give it 3 or 4 more listens (and actually "listen". Shut off the laptop, stop searching the web, turn down the lights and light a candle and just listen). I have a feeling that after understanding the passion and history that went into this album and the reasons for the vivid darkness behind Eric Blackwood's vocal performance who is attempting to let us into his somewhat nightmarish and yet amazing life (which makes his voice all the more uniquely beautiful), Edison's Children becomes all the more accessible and opens you up to something completely genuine. Allowing the melodies to truly infect your brain the music and the intensity will emerge to you the way it was meant to, slowly and quite permanently. I hope you too will become infected by Trewavas, Blackwood and Armstrong and become one of the very passionate members of this group of a few thousand of us who stand defiantly proud (as if we know some secret that only a few people in this world know about) as those who are the "Children of Edison".