TALES FROM THE LUSH ATTIC

Formed by Mike Holmes and Martin Orford all the way back in 1981, IQ were amongst the first bands in the 80s to resurrect the styles of Genesis and Yes and progressive rock in general along with other early neo-prog pioneers Marillion, Pendragon, Twelfth Night, Pallas and others. Although this debut album by IQ starts out sounding like a mere Genesis clone with Gabriel era vocals and keyboard runs, it really picks up after few minutes and takes the listener on most unexpected journeys.

Genesis were masters of creating a new sound and then suddenly jettisoning it in favor of a new one. In the wake of their musical disposals first encountered on "Trespass" countless bands hungrily devoured the carcasses of their former sounds and incorporated them into their musical beings. After Gabriel left, the band changed their sound to a more neo-prog sound and eventually to a symphonic pop sound abandoning all the prog they so ambitiously created in the first place. Bands like IQ boldly resurrected these progressive traits first heard in the 70s and added a little zing to the whole mix.

TALES FROM THE LUSH ATTIC expands the Genesis inspired universe into farther reaches of that musical universe. Technically the second album after the cassette-only "Seven Stories Into Eight" it was nonetheless the first major release. Although Peter Nicholls echoes the Gabriel era of Genesis, at times he actually sounds like a bit like Rikk Emmett of Triumph at times showing a more diverse range in the octave department.

This album is a surprise actually. Coming to this late in the game after hearing the 21st century releases first, i have to say that i really love this debut. It shows great maturity in the composition department and the musicianship is on an excellent level matching that of any technical level of other 80s genres such as metal, jazz or classical. Martin Orford is particularly brilliant on the keyboards on this one and i even hear a little Philip Glass wizardry influence here and there. The rest of the band is nothing less than phenomenal in their ability to maintain a tight and steady progressive time signature frenzy as well.

A very promising start to a long lasting career with this one and even though there were a few speed bumps on the way, IQ has remained a steady and incrementally waxing force in the progressive rock arena for three decades at this point (2014). I find the music on this one brilliant but it is the blatant Gabriel vocal impersonation here that keeps me from rating this higher. It's just tooooo Peter most of the time. The best parts are the instrumental ones but even with vocals as they are and all i still really dig this scene.