IQ and Martin Orford

I do not have The Road of Bones yet (one more in the long wishlist) but according to the reviews it's a very good album retaining the IQ personality. I had always taken the great Martin Orford to be a key soul member of the band's style and composition, but Frequency was a great album and now they seem to have made it again with Road of Bones.

I think it helps that those who came after him, Mark Westworth and now Neil Durant, clearly studied his style and were so influenced by him. I mean, it's obviously not identical, but you can sort of still feel his presence in the music I think. Easier going once someone has blazed the trail already I guess, although that's not to take anything away from the skills of Mark and Neil though, I should say, who both made excellent contributions to Frequency and Road of Bones.

To me, the bulk of work from all three keyboard players sounds very similar, so yeah, you can easily hear Martin Orford's influence on Mark Wentworth and Neil Durant.  I will say this, in listening to "The Road of Bones" I am really liking the nuances that Durant is adding.  In my mind, he adds just a little flair of the exotic in terms of previous IQ work.  I'm not saying that either of the two predecessors are bad, Orford obviously pioneered the sound and Wentworth continued on with it but, so far, I'm liking Durant's work.  I do reserve the right to change my mind at a later date though, I'm really only familiar with two songs on the new album, I'm working my way through the rest of the album.

Hercules wrote: richardh wrote: Mike Holmes and Martin Orford were the joint architects of the IQ sound and style. As said before this is so well established that Westworth and Durrant only needed to continue on with it. Nothing radical has changed with The Road Of Bones although I'm not convinced that it quite deserves its current exalted status.Some of the material is a little bit tired perhaps. Frequency was a wonderful album though and one of their very best imo. I personally think that Frequency was a very good album but a definite step down from Dark Matter. I know Martin did write some of the material on it. The Road of Bones has improved with every listen and is up there with their best now.  No doubt in my mind that both keyboard players listened to Martin's style and played in similar (but not exactly the same) style.