THE WAKE - LIVE AT DE BOERDERIJ, ZOETERMEER

This is a live recording of a full performance of IQ's classic mid-1980s album The Wake (plus a brand new intro), recorded in 2010 to mark the album's 25th anniversary. It's a somewhat different IQ lineup here from the one who originally recorded the album, but with old reliable himself Mike Holmes still on guitar and Peter Nicholls on vocals the link to the source recording is very much present.

At the same time, the band don't feel themselves obligated to simply regurgitating the album as it was originally presented in the studio: as well as adding a new intro, they spruce up aspects of the songs here and there where it's called for whilst playing other parts straight where the original interpretations will suffice - allowing the veteran band members the chance to draw on the experience of decades of playing this material, whilst the newer members have the freedom to make their own marks on the material rather than trying to mimic their predecessors.

This is particularly notable with Mark Westworth's keyboards, since he clearly sees no obligation to restrict himself to mimicing the vintage sounds of the equipment Martin Orford used on the original album, but the other band members work in some surprises here and there. Some songs are still played very true to the original, others have had more tweaking; perhaps the biggest difference can be heard in the performance of Corners here, always a bit of a divisive song when the original album when it comes to consideration of the studio release, which has a swathe of new textures which gives it a really fresh new spin. (Plus check out Mike sneaking in some of the opening melodies of The Last Human Gateway in towards the end!)

The end result is a live album which is a perfect complement to its source material - the one is not a substitute for the other, but if you love one you'll find the other a refreshing different look at its counterpart.