THINGS TO COME

Seventh Wave started out as the band 'Second Hand' who made psychedelic/prog albums with Ken Elliott on keyboards, Kieran O'Connor on drums and percussion, and an ever changing, unstable line-up of guitarists, bass guitarists and a complete lack of any commercial success. I guess 'Seventh Wave' and 'Second Hand (aka Chillum)' are one of the greatest 'rare' finds of progressive rock. They are highly original and their keyboardist/synthesiser player, Ken Elliott (wait, I told you that above) is extremely good, like Keith Emerson/Anthony Banks good (no one calls him Anthony do they?). Like GREAT man. His playing is so innovative and vivid and descriptive. You hear! Now you all go and cheer him on! That's it., big smile on your face, clapping, That's it! (by the way the little drummer boy, complete with sympathy inducing 'nerd-glasses' is also good)

Well anyway Ken and Kieran (who couldn't stand eachother) had alienated everyone else in the world and were left alone to work together. But maybe that's good because these two guys are ultra talented, or so their music seems to indicate. Can we base everything on the quality of music? I hope so because that's what I'm doing.

So this album, made up of fourteen tracks, has four vocal tracks and ten short instrumental tracks. It should be easy to understand the average track length, given fourteen songs run for only about 35 minutes.

Elliot's keyboard work is quaint and classical, but often delves into very original territory. Often his work tries to reflect the title of the song, for example, 'Intercity Water Rat' really sounds like a dirty little rat running through the sewers and the joyous 'festival' really has that festival atmosphere.

All the songs seague into one another, except maybe 'Fail to see' leading into 'premonition', because you have to flip over the vinyl (well you did 'til downloads came along!)

So side one begins with the keyboard-organ piece 'Sky scraper' and this leads into 'Metropolis' , a catchy song with an environmental meaning. Oh by the way Ken Elliott is the vocalist here. He's not a great vocalist, but he sings well on this album. This is followed by 'Intercity water rat' which is very imaginative indeed! This is followed by 'Escalator' which is a brief synth-organ piece and that leads into 'Old Dog Song'. This is a very catchy pop-rock song with some brilliant hooks and plenty of passionate singing. There's an eerie instrumental 'Smog, fog and sunset' that creates a tense atmosphere before leading into the Motownish 'Fail to see' which also has good vocals from Ken Elliott, and a great chorus.

Flip over and things get even better. 'Premonition' is a ghostly track with some eerie sounds, very hard to describe, a real tension builder. This leads into the joyous burst of 'Festival' with it's cheery atmosphere. It is actually a re-worked version of 'Celebration' from the 'Chillum' album. There is one more vocal tracks, 'Ever so lightly' which is extremely catchy and has a 'synth-medieval' feeling to it. I like the synth-bass on this one.

The remaining four tracks are the best part of the album, real fantasy epics with all sorts of original keyboard textures. My favourite track by this band is 'Communication Skyways' that begins this quartet of songs, and unbelievably, being an instrumental, it is one of their most catchy songs. also these last four actually have a dance beat to them, duh! that's why it's 'dance of the Eloi' not 'prog of the Eloi!'

Anyways a long, exhaustive review, this is a fine album. If there was anything else that sounded like it? I picked this up at a 2nd hand record store because it had a proggy cover. It's not really prog, more imaginative synth pieces and a few catchy pop-rock songs. But innovative nonetheless. 4.5 out of 5.0

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