Seventh Wave

Biography

Mid-seventies technoid pop duo with some ever-so-slight progressive tendencies, their music was ahead of its time in that it sounds like much of the early 80's techno-pop, but in general it could hardly be considered progressive. Beware: the album covers are very cool and have a definite "progressive" look. From the ashes of Second Hand (an early 70's British prog band in the vein of Web, Beggars Opera, etc.) comes Seventh Wave, whose real claim to fame was being the first synth duo, presaging...

Mid-seventies technoid pop duo with some ever-so-slight progressive tendencies, their music was ahead of its time in that it sounds like much of the early 80's techno-pop, but in general it could hardly be considered progressive. Beware: the album covers are very cool and have a definite "progressive" look.

From the ashes of Second Hand (an early 70's British prog band in the vein of Web, Beggars Opera, etc.) comes Seventh Wave, whose real claim to fame was being the first synth duo, presaging everyone from O.M.D. to Soft Cell to Erasure. But Seventh Wave made genuine efforts to make progressive music, they weren't always successful. Ken Elliott plays all manner of keyboards and synthesizers and sings, while drummer Kieran O'Connor contributes lots of orchestral percussion (tympani, chimes, xylophones and such). Besides this, Things To Come is problematic. Four of the tracks are uninteresting pop-rock with banal lyrics, the arrangements (especially on "Old Dog Song" and "Fail To See") sound like "Hungry Heart"-period Springsteen gone synth-mad. Several other tracks are mere sound-effects. Just try to find a trace of melody in "Premonition," which sounds like the audio track (not the incidental music) from a "Doctor Who" episode. Still, they manage to create some worthwhile listening, notably in the beautiful multitracked solo synth piece "Smog, Fog And Sunset," which sounds like Larry "Synergy" Fast in his more inspired moments, while the four short instrumental tracks at the end (beginning with "Communication Skyways") form a nice seven-minute suite. When Psi-Fi arrived, signs of improvement were apparent. The ersatz Phil Spector Wall-Of-Sound on the straight rock numbers was ditched in favour of a more streamlined sound resembling some Bowie or Roxy Music. Elliott seems to have lost his desire to noodle unnecessarily with his synths. But the REAL reason to own the album are the two fine, long progressive numbers at the end of the album, "Camera Obscura" and "Star Palace of the Sombre Warrior." The former especially far outshines all their previous, and then-current work. Also of interest: "Manifestations," a spacy piece with a guest-starring role by Hugh Banton of Van der Graaf Generator, "Aether Anthem" and "El Tooto," both short, merely fanfares but pleasant enough. Both LPs have been reissued on CD on the German Line label, but you'd probably be better off looking for used copies in cutout bins. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.