Author Topic: The IQ Thread  (Read 61060 times)

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Online Ben_Jamin

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #455 on: October 16, 2019, 09:21:36 AM »
I find it amazing how they're still continuing evolving their sound, even when two original members of old return.

This is a really great album. Need the lyrics though, im having trouble discerning certain words peter sings
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Offline RoeDent

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #456 on: October 17, 2019, 11:58:30 AM »
I've said this before, but my main takeaway from this album (Disc 1 in particular) is how HUGE the keyboards sound. Reminds me a bit of Frost* and Jem Godfrey's stadium-sized keyboard effects.

Offline romdrums

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #457 on: October 17, 2019, 02:37:12 PM »
I agree.  Neil's keys occupy a lot of sonic space in the mix, which is fine by me.
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Offline emtee

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #458 on: October 26, 2019, 08:54:22 AM »
Finally, some time and a laptop.

This is another masterpiece album. It took a few listens for everything to sink in but when it
did, man oh man! It contains all the elements I love in music. So much so that if someone were
to ask me who my current favorite band is, my answer would be IQ. Every album they put out
is equal to or greater than the last one. They have a 5-album run that would stack up against
any band, even my big 4...Genesis, Yes, Dream Theater and Pink Floyd.

Brilliant masterwork!

Offline Fritzinger

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Offline RoeDent

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #460 on: October 26, 2019, 01:14:33 PM »
Great review! It's given words to my feeling (and it's not a negative one, or at least I'm willing to turn it into a positive one with perseverance over time) of how the album lacks definitive choruses and repeated sections. The epics in particular feel linear, and thus it takes more listens to get your bearings round them.

Offline Zantera

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #461 on: November 02, 2019, 05:37:08 AM »
Semi-related to IQ but I recently got my dad the Martin Orford album The Old Road on CD because my dad is a big IQ fan and I thought a side-project/ex member type album would be a nice gift and I was even surprised myself how enjoyable the album was. All i know is he was a founding member of IQ and spent ~25 years in the band but I figured there might be some people here who haven't heard the album and I thought I would recommend it. John Wetton sings on a few songs as well!

Here's a song from it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWwu7qXvOzc

Just thought I would recommend in case someone hasn't heard it :)
« Last Edit: November 02, 2019, 05:48:50 AM by Zantera »

Online lonestar

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #462 on: November 02, 2019, 08:39:08 AM »
It's a great solo effort for sure, especially the instrumental on it Power and Speed. Also check out the re-released The Lens albums, it's from the pre-IQ days...
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1mtknMdRkZWeKMsZ5iDYsE


https://www.sonicperspectives.com/album-reviews/iq-resistance/?fbclid=IwAR3GRYG3t4XdkyVIDAijsDkuerFZXdOQcU_G8WSE4qwbsTBnw-P30agEVsk


Here's my review for RESISTANCE!  ;)

Very legit review...I like the multiple grading scales on that site, the site I write for is 1-5 stars, with half stars, it gets annoying being so limited. In all honesty, I'd rather do away with rating it and just write about the music, but ratings are a necessary evil.
Finally, some time and a laptop.

 They have a 5-album run that would stack up against
any band, even my big 4...Genesis, Yes, Dream Theater and Pink Floyd.

I've always said that, it's definitely one of the most consistently excellent runs out there, and I'd put it at a six album run...Ever-Resistance

Online lonestar

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #463 on: December 07, 2019, 09:11:13 AM »
Beast of a set from the Christmas bash last night....on my very short bucket list is to at least make it to one of these events...

For Christ's Sake
It All Stops Here
From the Outside In
Sacred Sound
Shallow Bay
Stay Down
The Last Human Gateway
Subterranea
The Road of Bones
A Missile
For Another Lifetime
Further Away
Encore:
Ten Million Demons

Offline jammindude

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #464 on: December 07, 2019, 10:22:57 AM »
With every album, they climb my chart as one of the greatest bands of all time. 

Every time I think about how much I missed out by not checking them out when I had the chance, it's almost a painful thing. 

I don't think I would have liked the first two (though I remember seeing the albums in the record store as a kid.  The album cover for The Wake especially stands out in my mind) as I was deeply into thrash at that time and my state of mind was "heavy and fast", "if it's too loud, you're too old" type of thing that many 14-16 yr old boys go through.   

But when Ever came out in 1993, I was just coming out of my extreme death and black metal phase and was starting to be drawn to more intricate material whether heavy or not.   IAW being a big reason for that.     If I had heard Ever as a new release, I'm sure I would have been hooked.     It's been almost a bit overwhelming to hear SO MUCH amazing music all at once. 

Resistance is definitely growing on me, but as someone pointed out, it's not quite as straightforward as RoB was.   Not really "linear" was the term I believe someone used earlier.   I would say that's accurate.   But it is still breathtaking.   I'm just still trying to get used to the songs. 
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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #465 on: December 07, 2019, 11:25:12 AM »
Just had it confirmed by Neil Durant...they did bust out all of Last Human Gateway.



I hate living in the States sometimes.

Offline emtee

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #466 on: December 09, 2019, 02:28:17 PM »
I can't make it through a single day without hearing, at the very least, Fallout and For Another
Lifetime. The album is stunning. Their last 3 albums are just incredible.

Offline Fritzinger

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #467 on: December 10, 2019, 04:27:51 AM »
Just had it confirmed by Neil Durant...they did bust out all of Last Human Gateway.



I hate living in the States sometimes.

Dude don't be. I had to wait a decade until I was able to see Steely Dan live. And even for that concert, I had to take the plane to get there (from Germany to UK).
You guys have so much musical awesomeness going on over there, I can't feel sorry for you  :lol
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Online lonestar

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #468 on: December 10, 2019, 05:26:43 AM »
I've actually seen IQ twice, once ages ago when they did their sole west coast performance, and last year when I had to travel 3k miles to New Jersey for it.

Offline BelichickFan

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #469 on: December 10, 2019, 06:57:22 AM »
My favorite IQ.  I haven't been able to get into "Fire and Security" and "Perfect Space", they're OK but just kind of taking up space for me.  Everything else I really like.  "Stay Down", "Alampandria", "The Great Spirit Way" and "Fallout" probably being my favorites.  I don't like all IQ but I really, really like this one.

Offline The Walrus

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #470 on: December 10, 2019, 07:06:59 AM »
Couple months late to the party but Resistance is quickly rising on my top 2019 albums list. Phenomenal record.
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Offline RoeDent

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #471 on: December 10, 2019, 07:10:27 AM »
The build-up of tension in the first 4 minutes or so of Stay Down is incredible, especially the drop at "silence".

Online The Letter M

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #472 on: December 10, 2019, 10:23:30 AM »
Seeing as it's December, has anyone else been spinning Tales From A Dark Christmas lately? This album is one of the better rock Christmas albums I listen to during this time of year, and it's amazing, especially the opening song. After the holiday season, I'll have to go back and give Resistance more spins, too.

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Online lonestar

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #473 on: December 10, 2019, 10:34:02 AM »
The build-up of tension in the first 4 minutes or so of Stay Down is incredible, especially the drop at "silence".

I love how they slowly build up the ticking of the clocks.. Just insanely good.

Offline RoeDent

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #474 on: January 06, 2020, 11:08:11 AM »
I don't feel so guilty about bumping the thread now after we got a new album a few months ago.

Resistance got into the Top 10 of DTF's Albums of the Year "poll". Which has led to an idea growing in my mind, about running an "IQ Cup" tournament in Polls & Survivors. I ran a similar tournament for Steven Wilson songs 2 years ago, and this would run in a similar way, ie. the songs would be placed into groups and a round-robin "league" would take place, with the highest-ranked songs going to a knockout phase, and whittled down to find a tournament champion.

I assume, by IQ's placing in the Albums of the Year thread, that a decent amount of people are fans, to varying degrees. But I'd like to gauge interest, to see if there would be a decent number of participants in such a tournament. Would you be interested in taking part in something like this?

Offline Evermind

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #475 on: January 06, 2020, 11:47:52 AM »
I will sure play in such a league.
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline jammindude

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #476 on: January 06, 2020, 11:49:08 AM »
I don't feel so guilty about bumping the thread now after we got a new album a few months ago.

Resistance got into the Top 10 of DTF's Albums of the Year "poll". Which has led to an idea growing in my mind, about running an "IQ Cup" tournament in Polls & Survivors. I ran a similar tournament for Steven Wilson songs 2 years ago, and this would run in a similar way, ie. the songs would be placed into groups and a round-robin "league" would take place, with the highest-ranked songs going to a knockout phase, and whittled down to find a tournament champion.

I assume, by IQ's placing in the Albums of the Year thread, that a decent amount of people are fans, to varying degrees. But I'd like to gauge interest, to see if there would be a decent number of participants in such a tournament. Would you be interested in taking part in something like this?

I think the problem you would run into is that while many people adore the last 2 or 3 albums, there's probably only a small handful that are familiar with their earlier stuff.    How many voters would you get for the Tales From the Lush Attic or The Wake songs?   Or even the Are You Sitting Comfortably songs?

I first heard Frequency about 5 years ago and fell in love.  Then I picked up Road of Bones and wanted more, so I went all the way back to Tales and Wake.   They took awhile to grow on me, but eventually I was completely hooked.   Today I do have all the albums, but I'm still getting to know some of the stuff from Seventh House and the PL albums.   Subterrenea is also still growing on me.   Not sure how well I really *know* the material.   
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Offline RoeDent

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #477 on: January 06, 2020, 12:07:40 PM »
I think the problem you would run into is that while many people adore the last 2 or 3 albums, there's probably only a small handful that are familiar with their earlier stuff.    How many voters would you get for the Tales From the Lush Attic or The Wake songs?   Or even the Are You Sitting Comfortably songs?

This is why I would plan to split the songs as evenly as possible among the groups, so there should be something to vote for in every matchup. I make it absolutely clear that this is not an attempt to figure out the forum's favourite IQ song. There are way too many chance elements for that to be the case.

There are so many bands with significant discographies I'd love to see represented in Polls & Survivors, and IQ are one of them.

Offline SwedishGoose

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #478 on: January 06, 2020, 01:39:18 PM »
Some of the best stuff is in the early recordings..... (basically in all of their recordings....)

I'm game

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #479 on: January 06, 2020, 06:05:30 PM »
Sure... It'll finally give me a reason to post in that forum for the first time in my decade on DTF.

Offline Fritzinger

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #480 on: January 07, 2020, 01:56:46 AM »
I don't feel so guilty about bumping the thread now after we got a new album a few months ago.

Resistance got into the Top 10 of DTF's Albums of the Year "poll". Which has led to an idea growing in my mind, about running an "IQ Cup" tournament in Polls & Survivors. I ran a similar tournament for Steven Wilson songs 2 years ago, and this would run in a similar way, ie. the songs would be placed into groups and a round-robin "league" would take place, with the highest-ranked songs going to a knockout phase, and whittled down to find a tournament champion.

I assume, by IQ's placing in the Albums of the Year thread, that a decent amount of people are fans, to varying degrees. But I'd like to gauge interest, to see if there would be a decent number of participants in such a tournament. Would you be interested in taking part in something like this?

I think the problem you would run into is that while many people adore the last 2 or 3 albums, there's probably only a small handful that are familiar with their earlier stuff.    How many voters would you get for the Tales From the Lush Attic or The Wake songs?   Or even the Are You Sitting Comfortably songs?

I first heard Frequency about 5 years ago and fell in love.  Then I picked up Road of Bones and wanted more, so I went all the way back to Tales and Wake.   They took awhile to grow on me, but eventually I was completely hooked.   Today I do have all the albums, but I'm still getting to know some of the stuff from Seventh House and the PL albums.   Subterrenea is also still growing on me.   Not sure how well I really *know* the material.

I love Tales From The Lush Attic!

Bring it on  :metal
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Offline Eldomm

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #481 on: January 07, 2020, 05:42:33 AM »
As a 30+ years IQ fan, I’d participate for sure 😁

Offline romdrums

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #482 on: January 07, 2020, 08:24:16 AM »
I'm in, though I'm not very familiar with the early material.  Better start prepping!
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Offline RoeDent

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #483 on: January 07, 2020, 11:30:51 AM »
Thank you for responding. It might take a little while for me to work it out, certainly to arrange everything. My idea would be to have every main album track straight into the group stage, which gives us 88 songs. There are only three tracks I would consider to be "interludes", My Baby Treats Me Right on Lush Attic, and Provider and The Other Side on Subterranea. Not sure yet whether to just include them and have them take whatever results they do, or to throw them into a qualifying tournament alongside non-album tracks like those from Seven Stories into Eight and the bonus disc from The Road of Bones.

UPDATE: I've managed to cobble together (with help from Discogs) a list of 20 songs that would form a qualifying tournament, including all the ones mentioned above, a track from the Ever 2018 reissue (Lost in Paradise) and a couple from the 2013 reissue of Tales from the Lost Attic (Just Changing Hands and Dans de Parc Du Chateau Noir. The idea would be to have eight of these songs qualify for the main tournament. I don't think I've missed anything out that is an original song in its own right, ie. not a demo, remix or live version of a song already on a main studio album.
« Last Edit: January 07, 2020, 12:09:47 PM by RoeDent »

Offline SwedishGoose

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #484 on: January 07, 2020, 02:51:29 PM »
I guess you have excluded the songs on Tales from a Dark Christmas?

Offline RoeDent

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #485 on: January 08, 2020, 02:28:08 AM »
I guess you have excluded the songs on Tales from a Dark Christmas?

I didn't know that was even a thing. I'll include them except for the first track as For Christ's Sake is already on the list. The qualifying tournament is going to be fairly simple. People pick the eight songs they want to be in the main tournament, and either we eliminate the ones with the fewest votes and go again, or if there's enough of a consensus we'll just end it there.

Also I've decided that eight songs will qualify out of this tournament, because that gives us 96 songs, meaning a nice 8 x 12 group structure. And I've decided to keep Provider, Other Side and My Baby Treats Me Right in the main tournament as it just makes thing easier from an organizing point of view. So 88 main songs + 8 qualifiers = 96 songs total. Plus having 8 qualifiers allows me to place one qualifier in each group.
« Last Edit: January 08, 2020, 02:36:29 AM by RoeDent »

Offline RoeDent

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #486 on: January 09, 2020, 01:02:46 PM »
Listening to Resistance, and I'm beginning to understand why it's taking me longer to get a grip on this album than I expected. Most, if not all the songs are through-composed. They lack traditional repeated "choruses" and hooks. So my brain's having to concentrate harder to grasp each section and what it offers to the overall picture of the song.

Offline RoeDent

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #487 on: January 13, 2020, 01:33:54 AM »
Let the madness begin! Round 1 of the IQ Cup Qualifying Tournament is underway. Voting is open for 48 hours.

https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=54702

Offline RoeDent

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #488 on: January 16, 2020, 10:29:59 AM »
I've finally taken the plunge and picked up Nomzamo. And it's pretty good, to be honest. Still good tunes. I already knew No Love Lost, which was always going to be my gateway into these PL Menel albums. Nomzamo is also a very good track.

Offline RoeDent

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Re: The IQ Thread
« Reply #489 on: January 21, 2020, 01:44:19 AM »
The first group of matches for The IQ Cup is officially open!

https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=54738.0

There will be new polls every day, over at Polls & Survivors.