THINGS TO COME

Seventh Wave was formed by Ken Elliott and Kieran O'Connor who were former colleagues in the psychadelic/progressive rock act Second Hand. They decided to patch up their differences after a period of working on seperate projects (Ken Elliott made TV and commercial jingles). Differences that had initially led to the demise of Second Hand. They named their new project Seventh Wave. The idea was to make an album with only percussion/drums and keyboards/synth. No bass or guitars and only a few vocals.

The music on the album is rather original sounding as a result of that approach. The sound is keyboard/synth dominated and there are only a few, out of the 14 tracks on the album, that feature vocals. While Seventh Wave are often referred to as a progressive rock act, the music on "Things To Come" isn´t overtly complex and often it´s a bit superficial. It´s pretty obvious that Ken Elliott had worked with writing jingles in the preceeding couple of years because some of these tracks sound like something that could have been used in a TV or radio commercial. The atmosphere on the album is at times strangely jolly and it´s hard to get a hold of what Seventh Wave are trying to convey to the listener. The tracks just aren´t that exciting to listen to as actual songs. Vintage keyboard and synth freaks might find this interesting though. If only for the sounds.

The musicianship are on a high level. It´s obvious that Ken Elliott knows a lot about playing keyboards/synths and his inventive playing is what ultimately saves this album. The sound production is a bit odd to my ears. The keyboards/synths are way up high in the mix while the drums and especially the vocals almost drown at times. To my ears it´s not a very successful sound production.

"Death May Be Your Santa Claus (1971)" by Second Hand is a bit of a gem and therefore expectations to Seventh Wave and "Things To Come" were pretty high on my part. But this new incarnation of the band doesn´t come off to a good start if you ask me. "Things To Come" is a one of a kind album and that´s of course always a positive, but ultimately that doesn´t mean it´s a great listen. For that the songwriting is too shallow and the weak sound production doesn´t make it easy to love either. A 2 - 2.5 star (45%) rating is warranted.

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