IN SHELTERED WINDS

Even though Peter Nicholls (of IQ fame) is here in the frontseat. This is NOT a record to write home about. Actually i think its a pretty weak album...ok..there are some nice songs...but the overall view..is quite...ahem....ordinary. So why am i wasting my time? Why am i wasting your time?? Well, i love listening to every album that comes my way. And now you know.....if this is really you. File under: Ordinary Rock/Pop. Completists only !!!!

NIADEM'S GHOST probably fits better on someone's alternative music website but because I am such a Peter Nicholls fan, I had to give it a plug. For those out there like me who love the voice of Mr. Nicholls would adore this recording. NIADEM'S GHOST was a short lived project that Peter spearheaded after leaving IQ for a wee while. This music although has many sounds does fit somewhere in the vein of Numan, Japan and Psychedelic Furs with the real twist being the voice of Peter Nicholls. It is importanat to note that this is not IQ, although at times their sound mostly due to his voice does remind you of IQ. Overall I like this CD a lot for some strange reason and amongst all of the prog recordings I have, I still make room for a little NIADEM'S GHOST.

There's something went wrong with Peter in that time. Put aside Prog issue - this is not Prog, this is Pop/Rock in U2/REM/put another name-vein - I mean his wonderful voice...hardly bearable here and reminding me of German copycats CHANDELEIR. Not recommended even if you're IQ fan - personally I found here only few songs worth checking (again not in a Prog sense) and they were bonuses. Weird addition to my mostly Prog collection - poorly recorded and produced average Pop-Rock with rather bad example of Peter Nicholls' vocals. OK, let this thing lie in my archives.

I bought this album years ago after reading James Unger's (loserboy) thoughts on it, even though he rated it at only 2 stars.The attraction was that the vocalist here is IQ's Peter Nicholls. Peter had left IQ after their second album "The Wake" and formed this band which is more commercial sounding but in my opinion really good.They remind me a little of THE CHURCH from around this same period.They released this album in 1986 and an EP called "Thirst" the following year but they couldn't get signed to a record deal so they folded the tent.Too bad in a way because the 3 song EP which is included here as bonus tracks is excellent. Let's face it though it seems Peter and IQ were just mean't to be together and I for one am glad he's still their singer even to this day with their latest album "Frequency". All the lyrics on this album were written by Peter Nicholls.

"Child Bride" is my favourite tune, I really like the jangly guitar style and tone here. Vocals at 1 1/2 minutes. "Little Giants" has this relentless bass that I like but overall i'm not a big fan of this one. "The Rage" is better. Man this reminds me of IQ but i'm sure it's just the vocals. I like the guitar after 1 1/2 minutes and again later at 3 minutes. "Wild Weather In Shallow Waters" is darker with theatrical vocals from Peter. It picks up 1 1/2 minutes in. Nice. An intense track. "High Wide And Handsome" kicks into a higher gear 1 1/2 minutes in as contrasts continue. "The Twilight World Of Mr Peach" is such a catchy tune that makes my head bob a lot.

"Strange Parade" is the proggiest and longest tune at 7 1/2 minutes.The tempo and mood changes several times. The next three songs are bonus tracks from the EP "Thirst". "Never Again" sounds so good to start with the bass, drums and guitar. The vocals join in quickly. Good song. "Slashback" is also very good with the guitar and rhythm impressing me a lot. Especially after 4 1/2 minutes to the end when the vocals have stopped. "Endless Times" sounds great to start as it builds then settles in. Vocals come in and they're reserved. This is good, especially the guitar style and prominant bass.

Well i'm the first one on this site to give this 3 stars, the rest have given 1 or 2 stars.That probably is all you need to know (haha). If I wasn't such a fan of Peter and THE CHURCH from around this time, I too might have given this 2 stars. I actually enjoy this album quite a bit, in fact take out tracks 2 and 6 and i'd give this 4 stars. But then I like the PSYCHEDELIC FURS as well. Just saying.

I can't still understand how the singer of one of best prog acts ever, like IQ, after serving that masterpiece called 'The Wake' was able to leave the band, and assemble this strange project, after that, arranging this so light and poppy collection of songs, with a total lack of any musical ambition on them. At least, Peter Gabriel waited for two years, to prepare and refine his first solitary masterpiece...

Perhaps that punk background of the british scene in those times had a lot of influence on this, as some of the musicians on it came from there...The description of this band says that 'The music is a bit more light-weight than IQ but still better than the music that IQ made while Peter was gone', but I feel (as a long-time musician and arranger) that any random cut of that continuously reviled (but lovely) IQ age is easily hundreds of times better, by any minimum objective musical analysis, that this whole collection of competely discardable outtakes, in any serious prog band repertoire.

In fact, the tandem Orford-Holmes always was, apart from the singer they used, a competent and professional musical asociation, on the contrary of this. I feel this material is not able to pass any quality filter of any serious, even amateur band. I don't even know how they dared to finally edit a LP, with that material...

I always considered Peter a great lyricist and fine singer, especially after his return on 'Ever', and if I had with such career, I wouldn't want to be remembered by this completely erroneous collection of absurdities...

Niadem's Ghost was a Peter Nicholls-fronted project that had its brief flurry of activity back in the mid-1980s, during the period that Nicholls was out of IQ and Paul Menel was fronting that band. Between that connection and the fact that their sole album was rereleased on Giant Electric Pea (with the later Thirst EP tacked onto the end as bonus tracks), you might expect something that sounds a lot like IQ, and whilst Peter brings his distinctive vocal style and his bent for mysterious lyrics to bear here to lend a ton of atmosphere to the material, the musical underpinnings here is quite different.

The closest comparison I'd make, in fact, would be to the Chameleons, a group who'd defined a style of their own in the early 1980s that was a little dreamier than typical for post-punk, a little more nuanced than your average goth outfit, and with just the right amount of wistful melancholy in their sound to be truly compelling. (Their debut album, Script of the Bridge, had a title and cover art that'd suit a neo-prog outfit far better than an indie/post-punk/goth-adjacent group of the era, at that.)

That stylistic shift might be a surprise to some, but Nicholls' pre-IQ group The Same Curtain had in fact opened for the Chameleons at a gig in Manchester back in 1982 - that would have been right when the Chameleons were first generating a bit of buzz, and square in the middle of the band's heartland at that. Between that and a common tendency towards oblique lyrics, one can see how Nicholls would have found things in common with the Chameleons' vision.

Though this album is more prog-adjacent than pure neo-prog as a result, there's just enough intriguing touches added here and there to make it an atmospheric and compelling record; it's not quite as out there as the material Nicholls made in the 1980s with IQ, but it's not playing it safe to the same extent at the albums IQ made without Nicholls around this time. Some IQ purists might find that it ends up falling between two stools as a result, but I think it's ripe for reappraisal.