Giant Electric Pea [Release date: 27.01.23]
Another release on the Giant Electric Pea label – they’re getting quite prolific…
For those not in the know, GEP is the label founded by IQ stalwarts Mike Holmes and Martin Orford in 1996 originally to release IQ material – but has kicked on since then to become a leading label in progressive rock releases.
And, low and behold, here we have ‘Radio Silence’, the second album by Rain, featuring ex-IQ drummer Andy Edwards and bass player John Jowitt – following up their well-received debut album from 2020, ‘Singularity’.
The IQ lads are joined by keyboard whizz Rob Groucutt and ex Hey Jester guitarist Mirron on an album that turns out to be a real miscellany of styles and not what I was expecting at all – it’s prog Jim, but not as we know it..
However, it’s this mix of genres that keeps the listener on their toes – there’s a surprise around every corner – where progressive rock meets the Funk Soul Brother and even, dare we say it, the jazzy overtones of big-hatted egoist Jamiroquai – but which coalesce to deliver a rather fine album.
Things get underway as they mean to go on with ’Bring It Back’ whose prog/funk dashes along like a runaway train. I thought it sounded like Rob Reed’s offshoot Kiama and, surprise surprise, Kiama’s drummer turns out to be Andy Edwards.
Throughout the album, the vocals sound very like Kiama’s Dylan Thompson.
‘Fear The Night’s gently strummed acoustic intro is kicked out of the way by a pounding electric riff which, in turn, gives way to some tasty jazzy acoustic and is finally resolved with a frenzied solo from Mirron.
Am I getting my point across here? The genre switches, the light and dark, the bewildering time signature changes – you literally don’t know which way any track is going to go.
And this continues throughout the rest of the album with tracks like ‘Hypnosis’ sounding like it was written under er, hypnosis, replete with an Eddie Van Halen-esque guitar break, the classic prog tropes of the title track and ‘Solid State’s staccato piano/guitar riff and repeated quotation from Rousseau – “man is born free but everywhere is in chains”.
The mesmerising madness is eventually concluded by closer ‘Winter Sun’ – a solo piano piece that sounds exactly like a piece called Winter Sun should sound like.
A lovely finish to an album of bewildering music – superbly played by consummate musicians, not least John Jowitt’s bass which is as brilliant as it always was in IQ – great to see he’s not lost his touch.
So many compliments one could pay to this exceptional album but probably best described as a cornucopia of the unexpected… ****
Review by Alan Jones
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