In the last waking moments --- Edison's Children --- 2012 (Random Disturbance)
When is a Marillion album not a Marillion album? When it's one from Edison's Children! Now, that is an extremely inaccurate and unkind, and untrue comment, but it serves to make my point if in a rather ham-fisted way, which is that this album is the creation of one of Marillion's founders, bass player Pete Trewavas, and roadie/musician/film composer/producer Eric Blackwood, though most if not all of Marillion do play on the album. It's primarily though a collaboration between Trewavas and Blackwood, and is much darker and bleaker than anything Marillion have ever put out, except perhaps "Brave" and the track "Gaza" off the current album.
The story behind how Edison's Children formed is a long and interesting one. And here it is. On the 2006 Marillion tour, at which Eric was a roadie, Pete proposed that they should at some point work together. Eric agreed, but nothing came of it, both being extremely busy. The next year, after Marillion released what I consider to be their only ever below-par album, "Somewhere else", the subject was brought up again, and both seemed enthusiastic about the prospect, but again nothing came of the intentions. Finally, when Pete missed his flight out of New York in 2009 after a tour there with Marillion, Eric and his wife put him up and this time they decided to do something about the collaboration they had been talking about, on and off, for over three years at that point.
And so, Edison's Children was born.
As I said, Marillion help out, contributing to a track here, a track there, but this is in no way a Marillion album by any other name. It's the solo project (okay, okay:
collaborative project!) of Eric Blackwood and Pete Trewavas, and they each do a phenomenal amount of work here, both writing the music and also playing it. In addition to his usual bass duties Pete sings some of the leads, plays keyboards and also guitar, while Eric sings most of the songs, plays guitar, bass, keyboards and programmes some of the drum patterns.
"Dusk" gets us going, with bongo-style hollow drums and little effects, this being the single drum pattern Blackwood programmes in, then his smooth guitar slips in as the song begins to take some sort of form, both the men taking the lead vocal in a harmony for a moment before Eric takes the lead, and he's certainly used to singing, from his time with Crimson Steel among others. The drums hit in and we hear, sort of in the background, what I'm going to refer through this review to as "the
Waking Moments theme": three keyboard notes that repeat through most of the rest of the album, popping up all over the place and certainly fastening the concept style of the album together. As I mentioned, Blackwood is the main vocalist, and it will be five more tracks into the album before we hear Trewavas take the lead again.
It's a nice slow opener, moody and somewhat desolate, as is most of this album, with some very Marillion-style guitar from Blackwood, and some great keyswork from the Marillion bassist. There appears to be some sort of undefined basic concept running through the album; I think it has to do with alien abduction, though I couldn't swear and it's really only an educated guess. If that's correct, then, the protagonist is abducted by aliens but doesn't know why, or why he's been chosen. He's just an ordinary guy, no-one special, and he can help no-one, least of all himself. The story would seem to revolve around his attempts to understand this event and come to terms with what it means.
The opening track, then, slips almost unnoticed into the next one, "Fracture: fallout of the first kind", with that "theme" repeating on the keys in the background as Blackwood's guitar winds up and ramps the tension up. It's a harder, more powerful song, grinding a bit, Trewavas's bass rumbling like thunder, the percussion much heavier and insistent. The first of what will also become a recurring event through this album, recorded snippets of conversations, announcements etc, can also be heard in this song.
A very short interlude on the classical guitar with a very strained vocal from Blackwood leads into one of the standouts, "A million miles away (I wish I had a time machine)" which is one of the most commercial of the songs on the album, and if there were to be a single --- indeed, a hit single --- from it, this would be my expectation for one such. With a lovely jangly happy guitar line counterpointed by Pete's thick, pulsing bassline, and rippling keyboards it has a lot of I think Supertramp in its construction, and it's very catchy indeed.
More taped conversation as we head into "Fallout of the second kind", with a marching drumbeat and bass pattern, then some bubbly keyboards before Blackwood's vocal comes in and it's a heavy, almost claustrophobic song, a real sense of being trapped, the drum pattern turning almost militaristic near the end, then Pete takes the vocal for "Outerspaced", and I have to say his voice is pretty shattering, a little too high-pitched for my tastes (or maybe it's just for this song?) as Eric goes crazy on the guitar, almost Led Zeppelin-like, before a seriously buzzy bass leads in the much slower "Spiralling".
The theme returns as Blackwood takes back the mike, and Steve Rothery guests on the guitar parts, bringing his own special touch to the song while Pete sets up a lush backscape with the keyboards, then Trewavas's bass takes the lead for "The "other" other dimension", with spacy keyboards courtesy of Mark Kelly, and Pete back on lead vocals for the last time. Again, I have to say I'm glad it is the last time, as despite his many other undeniable and documented talents, Trewavas is no singer. The song is pretty weird, splitting off at times back into "Spiralling" and bringing in the theme at odd points, throwing in some spoken vocal parts too. Strange. I can't say I like it to be honest. Too confused, not at all well-defined.
Things re-establish themselves with "Across the plains", a short keyboard-led instrumental quite reminsicent of early Genesis and then we're into the title track, which ticks along nicely somewhat like a softly beating heart, with an appopriately soft vocal from Eric Blackwood and some towering keys from Pete, then everything kicks back off for "Lifeline" with a heavy, thumping beat and some wild guitar before "Fallout (of the third kind)" comes in on quiet acoustic guitar and gentle vocal. But it's a brief respite, as the hard guitar and thunderous drums from the previous track punch back in and Eric's voice gets more urgent and powerful, and takes us into what is essentially the closing track, although there is one more after it.
"The awakening" is also the longest track on the album by a country mile. A true progressive rock epic, it comes in at a massive fifteen minutes and liberally sprinkles the "
Waking Moments theme" throughout its length, with great acoustic guitar from Pete in the opening section, a passionate vocal from Eric, and backing vocals by the great Steve Hogarth himself. Completing the Marillion connection, drums on this track are handled by none other than Ian Mosley. There's an instrumental section, mostly on acoustic guitar and the thing slows down in about the fifth minute, with some soft keyboards taking the melody, quite Marillionesque, with vocals not really coming back in until nearly the eleventh minute. Powerful vocal harmonies lead the piece out before they fade away and another instrumental takes the song to its conclusion, with the theme ringing out right as the last three notes.
Then there's a weird little acoustic guitar piece called "Fallout (of the fourth kind)" to end, but it's very unsatisfying really, as it almost cuts off right at the end. It's very jarring and I would not think a great way to end an album, but I guess it's a small quibble that slightly mars an otherwise worthy first effort from a band we hopefully will be hearing more from, depending on the busy schedules of Marillion (and Transatlantic, of course), to say nothing of the demand in which Eric Blackwood appears to be. Well, I guess we can wait, if it's going to be anything as good as this.
TRACKLISTING
1. Dusk
2. Fracture (Fallout of the first kind)
3. In the first waking moments
4. A million miles away (I wish I had a time machine)
5. Fallout (of the second kind)
6. Outerspaced
7. Spiralling
8. The "other" other dimension
9. Across the plains
10. In the last waking moments...
11. Lifeline
12. Fallout (of the third kind)
13. Awakening
14. Fallout (of the fourth kind)