Dark Matter

Brett Garsed definitely falls into the Fusion category, this album twists and turns between Jazz and Rock and you can hear how Brett has been influenced by players such as Jeff Beck and Alan Holdsworth and yet in the opening track which is also the title track ‘Dark Matter‘ there are sections that get really heavy too with great drumming from Virgil Donati. This opening track is like a Brett Garsed showreel showing off his virtuosity and versatility.

Early in his career, Randy Newman used to regularly puzzle over his lack of commercial success, seemingly unaware that his trademark combination of New Orleans piano and wildly unreliable narrators was hardly a sure path to the Hit Parade. Decades later, Newman has found a side door to fame and wealth as a composer of film scores and likeable theme tunes for Pixar features. As a consequence, the man who created dark masterpieces like 12 Songs, Sail Away, and Good Old Boys is too busy to make the same sort of albums he released when he was a mere cult figure. 2017's Dark Matter comes nine years after 2008's Harps and Angels (which in turn arrived nine years after 1999's Bad Love), but for fans of Newman's work, the consolation prize for his non-prolific nature is that his albums have been free of filler, and Dark Matter ranks with his best work of the '70s and '80s…

Early in his career, Randy Newman used to regularly puzzle over his lack of commercial success, seemingly unaware that his trademark combination of New Orleans piano and wildly unreliable narrators was hardly a sure path to the Hit Parade. Decades later, Newman has found a side door to fame and wealth as a composer of film scores and likeable theme tunes for Pixar features. As a consequence, the man who created dark masterpieces like 12 Songs, Sail Away, and Good Old Boys is too busy to make the same sort of albums he released when he was a mere cult figure. 2017's Dark Matter comes nine years after 2008's Harps and Angels (which in turn arrived nine years after 1999's Bad Love), but for fans of Newman's work, the consolation prize for his non-prolific nature is that his albums have been free of filler, and Dark Matter ranks with his best work of the '70s and '80s…

Even IQ's most dedicated fans don't expect the group to top its third-period crowning achievement, Subterranea, but does Dark Matter ever get close! This album makes The Seventh House (IQ's previous album, released three years earlier) appear very, very average. The melodies are catchier and more moving, the writing stronger, the arrangements more varied. The album's strength mostly resides in the 24-minute closing epic, "Harvest of Souls," surely IQ's best epic song, arguably their best song, period. After the oblique meanders of the cluttered "The Narrow Margin" (from Subterranea, that album's weaker point), "Harvest of Souls" offers a much clearer structure, a generous number of memorable themes, and a dark political subtext referring to American politics post-9/11.

Dark Matter (completed in 2003) is a large-scale composition for voices, ensemble and electronics that features great contrasts of color, of different kinds of polyphony, of serenity versus violent music bordering on chaos, of slowly evolving music versus fast sound snippets. The form of the work is rather open and does not fall into a particular category.

Even IQ's most dedicated fans don't expect the group to top its third-period crowning achievement, Subterranea, but does Dark Matter ever get close! This album makes The Seventh House (IQ's previous album, released three years earlier) appear very, very average. The melodies are catchier and more moving, the writing stronger, the arrangements more varied. The album's strength mostly resides in the 24-minute closing epic, "Harvest of Souls," surely IQ's best epic song, arguably their best song, period. After the oblique meanders of the cluttered "The Narrow Margin" (from Subterranea, that album's weaker point), "Harvest of Souls" offers a much clearer structure, a generous number of memorable themes, and a dark political subtext referring to American politics post-9/11.

Even IQ's most dedicated fans don't expect the group to top its third-period crowning achievement, Subterranea, but does Dark Matter ever get close! This album makes The Seventh House (IQ's previous album, released three years earlier) appear very, very average. The melodies are catchier and more moving, the writing stronger, the arrangements more varied. The album's strength mostly resides in the 24-minute closing epic, "Harvest of Souls," surely IQ's best epic song, arguably their best song, period. After the oblique meanders of the cluttered "The Narrow Margin" (from Subterranea, that album's weaker point), "Harvest of Souls" offers a much clearer structure, a generous number of memorable themes, and a dark political subtext referring to American politics post-9/11.