Giant Electric Pea - [Release Date: 28 March 2025]

It’s a new IQ album – what’s not to like?

At the forefront of the progressive rock cognoscenti’s ‘Finest Prog Bands’ list since their debut ‘Tales From The Lush Attic’ in 1983 (when they were contemporaries of the so-called “Neo Prog” scene along with Marillion, Twelfth Night, Pendragon, etc.), IQ have an enviable body of work through twelve studio albums – always brilliant, occasionally exceptional, always too far apart…

And so we arrive at album number thirteen, ‘Dominion’, six years on from 2019’s ‘Resistance’ and with a band much benefitting from a stable line-up since 2014’s epic ‘Road Of Bones’ album and still producing progressive rock of the highest calibre.

‘Dominion’s five tracks demonstrate the band’s ability to thrill every time they take to the studio with peerless songwriting, remarkable musicianship and a coherent, contemporary and articulate libretto that places them in a world of their own, all delivered with their usual panache.

The five tracks are pretty much divided into two camps – the shorts and the longs, with three clocking in at under ten minutes and two mighty epics at a bladder-testing thirteen and twenty two minutes.

The three shorter tracks would be outstanding cuts on any prog band’s album they’re so good, but, good as they are, it feels as though they’re the support act for the main event.

‘One Of Us’ is an acoustic work-out featuring Howe-esque picking from Mike Holmes and a terrific vocal from Peter Nicholls, ‘No Dominion’ is classic IQ (it couldn’t be anybody else) featuring a recurring ear-worm of a keyboard motif courtesy of Neil Durant (surely one the most under-the-radar keyboard players around) and ‘Never Land’ with its spacey keys intro seguéing into a pulsing riff with excellent bass work from Tim Esau overlaid with Nicholl’s envelope-pushing vocal – probably his finest vocal performance on the album.

The twenty two minutes of opening track ‘The Unknown Door’ opens with a Vangelis-like clarion call played over Neville Chamberlain’s famous wartime broadcast and develops via pounding riffs and intertwining keys, all propelled by explosive drumming from Paul Cook, into an acoustic middle section, which is, in turn, kicked into next week with more duelling keys and guitar before finishing off with an uplifting coda.

But, best till last, ‘Far From Here’ – at a mere thirteen minutes – opens as tinkling ivories prelude a tense intro into a classic IQ workout with great riffs calmed with delicate intricacies all overlaid with Nicholl’s other-worldly vocals, to produce a progressive rock masterpiece to match even their own finest work.

I just don’t know how they do it. The bands that can put an album like this together are very few.

In summary, outstanding, ground breaking, emotional and superbly recorded.

But most of all, it’s a new IQ album – what’s not to like?

An absolute blast. *****

Review by Alan Jones

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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DOCTOR BLACK Drag Me Down (indie)
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LEONI JANE KENNEDY Closer (indie)
SMALL TOWN POLITICS Red Lights (indie)

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09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Singer Songwriter)

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