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| View Larger Image | Dark Matter | Audio CDby IQ
| List Price: | $16.98 | | | Available: | Usually ships in 9 to 12 days |
| | Binding: | Audio CD | | Studio: | Inside Out U.S. | | Release Date: | June 29, 2004 | | Sales Rank: | 61,733st |
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TRACK LISTING |
Disc: 1
- Track 1: Sacred Sound
- Track 2: Red Dust Shadow
- Track 3: You Never Will
- Track 4: .Born Brilliant
- Track 5: Harvest Of Souls
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Album Description
Dark Matter is the new studio album from England’s legendary IQ. With a career that spans nearly 25 years, IQ remains one of the biggest names in the world of Progressive Rock. Dark Matter marks a new beginning for IQ as this album will be their first US domestic release in nearly 20 years and it is their first for Inside Out Music America. As would be expected from the title, this is a dark, brooding album, bristling with attitude and aggression reminiscent of the band’s early days but Dark Matter also contains moments of great melodic beauty. It is pure progressive rock in all its glory with soaring guitar melodies backed up with the classic sounds of Mellotrons, Moog and Hammond organ and offset by Peter Nicholls’ ever impenetrable lyrics. The classic IQ line-up of Nicholls, Martin Orford, Mike Holmes, John Jowitt and Paul Cook remains very much intact and they are all in great form on Dark Matter. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 46 reviews)
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Not very high by IRate  2 Stars
December 21, 2008
2 1/2
Being a band in this genre named IQ, you would expect some intelligently structured, unlifted material, but the bland pop-prog manages to convey an epic mediocrity and copycat nature above all else.
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Intelligence Quotinet Scores Highly by Colin Logue (Melbourne, Australia)  4 Stars
October 06, 2008
My previous exposure to IQ was the woefully commercial 'Are You Sitting Comfortably', which had few highlights, so I approached this album with serious caution.
First impression was favourable which was enhanced by the fact that original vocalist (a fact I became aware of in hindsight) Peter Nicholls had returned to the fold and actually carries the odd weak moment. Having listened once it was immediately spinning again and in the subsequent week was a constant on the car CD and at home. It grows with copious listens and my appreciation for the many reviewers praising this release is immense. It would have been so easy to overlook other product from IQ after such a bad introduction but this was well worth the investment.
Yes I can hear Marillion. Yes I can hear Genesis, but it's all fresh and retro at the same time (if that's not a contradiction in terms). Now that is progressive, from Genesis to IQ calling at all stations but stamping their own identity.
The opening and closing epics are the pick of the five tracks and the bulk of this release. Harvest of Souls harks back to days when one donned the headphones and became totally obsorbed in the listening process to the exclusion of all else, what a rare treat. Born Brilliant is one of the shorter tracks which lyrically would not have been out of place on a 10cc album. The weakest moment comes with Red Dust Shadow but even that is listenable and I've yet to skip around it. Jowitt and Cook's playing is amazing throughout and the keyboard work on Sacred Sound is just beautiful.
This has to be one of the better, if not best, latter day prog releases which is why I gave it 4 stars but in retrospect maybe 4.5 would have been nearer the mark.
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Embarrassingly un-original! by Jim Richmond  3 Stars
April 17, 2008
Wow, what a shame to listen to something like this. I mean, if you're young and/or not familiar with progressive rock in it's prime (i.e. the 1970's), then you might not realize how uncreative and unoriginal this is. You are probably dazzled and amazed, as many of the reviewers here obviously show.
As a big fan of classic bands like Genesis and later bands such as Marillion, as well as being a musician, I can spot musical talent and musical ripoffs. Sometimes the influence of previous music is inevitible, but the band will put it's own spin on it. Then there are others (posers) that are obviously going out of their way to try to sound exactly like predecessors. IQ follows in this latter and loathsome category.
Listening to Dark Matter is listening to a band follow of pattern of total unoriginality and lack of anything creative or new. It's as though they sat down and said: "Okay, look, we're going to start off sounding like Peter Gabriel era Genesis, then we're going to switch to Marillion with Peter Hogarth, then we're going to sound like Steve Hackett solo...".
The singer especially goes out of his way to sound like Peter Hogarth or Peter Gabriel, down to the breathing approaches and phrasing. The end result should leave one saying "What does he really sound like, if he sang as himself??" He also over-sings everything; adding way to much emphasis, as if to sound dramatic or deep. It really just plain sounds stupid.
Sorry to be blunt and speak the truth, but there's nothing here but a bunch of prog. rock posers and fakes. The music is decent and updated, so not bad in that sense. But listen to a lie? You are being played for as a fool, and that's not cool.
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Awsome Progessive by Peter Smith  5 Stars
February 10, 2008
I.Q. is an amazing band in a class by itself. If you are into progressive music you have to get this album, it will take your music library to a new level.
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Excellent mix by Jonathan Foulkes (Atlanta, GA) 5 Stars
October 20, 2007
As a long time Genesis fan I was thrilled when I discovered IQ a few years ago. And I have to say that Dark Matter is their best work.
The compositions are all satisfying, but the real icing on the cake is the mix and production values, all of which are top notch.
This album deserves a re-release in DVD-Audio or SACD so we can hear every last shred of depth in the mix.
One of the attractions of good prog is the orchestrations, and this album is a great example of how to do it right. The layering Orford uses on keyboards along with the rest of the band is astounding.
The CD is very good, but on a high-end system, it's clear that more can be had from a high-rez version, and this music deserves it.
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| The Seventh House
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With a career that spans nearly 25 years, IQ remain one of the biggest names in the world of Progressive Rock. Getting their start in Southhampton, England back in 1981, IQ was often compared to two other great Prog bands from the UK: Marillion and Genesis. For years the band struggled to create their own identity and they did so by outlasting the glory days of Fish’s Marillion and Gabriel’s Genesis. Here again is IQ with their classic line-up of Peter Nicholls, Martin Orford, Mike Holmes,...
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With a career that spans nearly 25 years, IQ remain one of the biggest names in the world of Progressive Rock. Getting their start in Southhampton, England back in 1981, IQ was often compared to two other great Prog bands from the UK: Marillion and Genesis. For years the band struggled to create their own identity and they did so by outlasting the glory days of Fish’s Marillion and Gabriel’s Genesis. Here again is IQ with their classic line-up of Peter Nicholls, Martin Orford, Mike Holmes,...
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| The Wake
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Originally released in 1985 The Wake is the second album from the English progressive rock legends, IQ. The Wake was recorded in March/April 1985 in London and released that same year. This album features the IQ classics songs, Headlong, Widow’s Peak, The Magic Roundabout, and The Wake. Most of these songs are still a favourite part of the band's live set list. This CD really is a true progressive rock classic. The booklet features new artwork by Peter Nicholls.
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| Ever
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With a career that spans nearly 25 years, IQ remains one of the biggest names in the world of Progressive Rock. Getting their start in Southhampton England back in 1981, IQ was often compared to two other great Prog bands from the UK, Marillion and Genesis. For years the band struggled to create their own identity. And they did so by outlasting the glory days of Fish’s Marillion and Gabriel’s Genesis. Here again is IQ with their classic line-up of Peter Nicholls, Martin Orford, Mike Holmes,...
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