GALAHAD ELECTRIC COMPANY: WHEN THE BATTLE IS OVER

Back in the Nineties there were a couple of Galahad side projects, with the Galahad Acoustic Quintet staying fairly close to the original band except moving in a more folky direction and even including some reimagined Galahad numbers. However, the Galahad Electric Company album, 'De-Constructing Ghosts', saw members of the band plus various remixers making a new album using 'Following Ghosts' as a starting point. Although the Acoustic Quintet has yet to make a reappearance, 2020 saw a new album from Galahad Electric Company. However, instead of giving tracks out for people to play with, what we have this time is an album from singer Stu Nicholson and keyboard player Dean Baker, comprising real songs in a mix of electronica and progressive rock.

In many ways this album has been a very long time coming, in that Dean and Stu have performed as a duo in the past and have a strong friendship and working relationship. When Dean joined the band, he was the third keyboard player in as many albums, yet he has now been there for more than 20 years and has been a huge part in the move away from the neo-prog tag they were given in their early career. Given that this has mostly involved the band becoming much heavier in many areas, it is somewhat strange to hear this release, which is moving in areas far away from riffing guitars. There are times when it seems quite strange to hear Stu's vocals over the top of electronic keyboards, and then there are others when one can imagine the full band taking on the song and crafting it into something quite different, such as "The Inquisition (intermezzo)" which starts off quite experimental before moving into quite a different area.

I must confess that the first time I played this album it just did not feel right to me, as although Stu is singing as well as ever, I was not used to his vocals being over the top of a style of music I rarely listen to. I mean, "Letting Go" feels like a single from the Eighties from the likes of Yazoo, not quite in the same musical area as the 42-minute-long "Seas of Change". But the more I kept playing it, the more I got inside it and enjoyed it for what it was. This is not a Galahad album, yet there are similarities here and there, and hopefully there will be plenty of people intrigued to hear what this is like. Stu has told me there is another album coming soon, and I for one am looking forward to that one as well.

GALAHAD is an English group founded in 1985 and one of the archetypes of groups not recognized for their value. This is their 13th album including their side projects GALAHAD ELECTRIC COMPANY and GALAHAD ACOUSTIC QUINTET. Boosted in 2002 with John WETTON, for "Empires Never Last", starring Karl GROOM who oriented them towards a more prog metal sound. This year, 2 reissues of old albums, plus this reactivation of the GEC and an album focused on synths and other programming, so far from the hard prog sound and angry guitars. Album composed during the pandemic you will have understood it in just 2 months.

''Restoration (intro)'' for a new age, bucolic intro, ah this fly that circles around me and these voices of astronauts, this owl, in short it starts in the middle of nature. "When the Battle Is Over" for the flagship track on an ambient and hovering electro atmosphere that radically changes from the GALAHAD sound, here it's synth and minimal rhythm. ''Be Careful...'' continues on this metallic atmosphere at the level of the icy sounds like new wave à la Gary NUMAN and sounds à la TANGERINE DREAM of the 80's. "All That Binds Us" rests a little, the voice is warmer here and recalls the calm moments of the GALAHAD that we know! The chorus is catchy and remains monotonous, it lacks the guitars and the flights of nervous and fat synths which made the reputation of the group.

"The Inquisition (intermezzo) '' closes this side with the most successful title in my opinion, voices and sound effects like the intro and especially this stereophonic synth which fills your ears then this piano and these voices of Stu, celestial or d beyond the grave giving the rhythm to a marvelous crescendo. A suite without regrouping of the two musicians, paradoxical, well orchestrated.

"Letting Go" begins the 2nd side on a dance tune with new wave and new age synths, PET SHOP BOYS, cold and rhythmic title however; "Mysterioso" goes on in a somewhat ambient line, more elaborate, bringing joy just with the voice of his master's cat, notes of VANGELIS come to mind. "1976" continues on the same line, a bit of Jean Michel JARRE, soaring and ambient minimalist, which gives a redundant air for memories of the warm and almost murderous summer. "My Orcha'd in Lindèn Lea" takes a 150-year-old poem by Barness for a cold, monolithic and ethereal nursery rhyme, phased vocals; "Open Water'' closes the album with the ballad that stands out, piano, keyboards on classical instruments and Stu's normal voice with finesse for a rather folk title.

An album with a suite of 5 tracks, 5 more disparate ones, electric and eclectic titles, a bit of dance, folk, gospel and opera, a lot of krautrock, a title from a poem by William Barnes , from electro dance to ambient and icy cold wave, that's what you're going to have to prepare yourself for by listening to this side project by two of the band's founding members.