It’s been three long years since ‘the oblivion floor’ and, in that time, drummer Jimmy Keegan departed the band for personal reasons, leading to the return of Nick D’Virgilio (at least for studio work) for a cover of ‘iron man’ (the bonus track on the ‘the oblivion particle’) and ‘falling for forever’, the one newly-recorded track to be found on the exhaustive 2CD compilation, ‘the first twenty years’. Clearly the vibe was right because now, on ‘noise floor’, D’Virgilio has returned to play on his first complete Spock’s Beard album since ‘X’ and the chemistry is immediately obvious. An elegant album that takes huge strides across a landscape littered with prog, rock, blues and even metallic influences, ‘noise floor’ is the sound of a band both exploring and honing their skills, each member clearly enthusing the others, and the result is an album that positively blazes with energy.
Opening number, ‘to breathe another day’, digs heavily on ‘trick of the tail’-era Genesis, with its syncopated rhythms, rich organ textures and burrow-into-the-brain melody. Despite a svelte runtime of under six-minutes, it’s a bold, exploratory track that manages to take in multiple vistas without losing sight of the glorious, hope-infused melody that sits at its core. It is a quite wonderful start. As clocks tick, the slower ‘what becomes of me’ emerges, all rich, hazy guitars underpinned by Dave Meros’ throbbing bass work. Ted Leonard remains an absolute treasure on vocals as he inhabits each and every song, conveying the requisite emotion with simple power. Things take a whimsical turn for the baroque introduction to ‘Somebody’s home’, a track that gives guitarists Alan Morse and Ted Leonard a chance to haromonise with each other before the song is stripped back to its folky core, cleverly catching the listener out before the band unleash a stadium-worthy rock chorus. It’s that sense of adventure and the ever-looming unexpected that keeps Spock’s Beard material ahead of their peers and yet, despite the wide sonic terrain the band cover, it never feels disjointed or awkward. The album’s longest track, at eight minutes, ‘have we all gone crazy yet’ is an elegant epic which benefit greatly from the interplay between Alan’s guitar and Ryo Okumoto’s keys. As with early genesis, there’s plenty of whimsy present in the make-up of the track, but a stinging guitar riff is never far from view, always ready to ground the track if it tries to fly too far into the realms of fantasy. Indeed, the mid-section of the song is just a mass of pedal-to-the-metal soloing so gloriously over the top it’ll have air-guitarists everywhere leaping from their seats. It’s an exciting moment in an album that never fails to fling those curveballs. In contrast, the shorter ‘so this is life’ is simply lovely, a sweet, sweeping piece of music with a Beatles-esque melody and George Martin strings, it allows a moment of tranquillity that is only enhanced by Alan’s sensitive lead work. An album highlight, it is a wonderful, elegant piece of music and ranks high as one of the finest songs the band has ever recorded.
Following on from so gorgeous a song is no easy task, but ‘one so wise’ has a Peter Gabriel vibe only for the band to spin it on its head with, breaking the whole thing down for one heart-stopping moment, before unleashing a virulent battle between keys and guitar that will leave you breathless. Next up is the creeping horror of ‘box of spiders’ which, as befitting its title, is full of crawling bass, skittering lead work and unhinged rhythmic impulses. An instrumental, it dashes out from the corner unexpectedly, causing you to choke on your tea before the cinematic closer, ‘beginnings’, segues directly from its forebear, allowing the album one moment of sky-scraping grandiosity before the curtain falls.
As is customary, the album comes with a bonus disc, this time comprising four additional tracks. First up is the haunting and sentimental ‘Days we’ll remember’, a shorter, poppier track that would easily have found a home in the charts twenty years ago, but which is now condemned to relative obscurity, loved by those that take the trouble to find it. Equally melodic is ‘bulletproof’ which edges, weirdly, into the melodic territory of ‘how deep is your love’ before building to an epic finale worthy of a Broadway musical. The sweet, acoustic ‘vault’ builds considerably to a soaring conclusion before the album comes to its end with the instrumental insanity of ‘Armageddon nervous’, a blazing masterclass in prog instrumentalism possessed of a great sense of fun and the sort of sparkle-in-the-eye-excess with which Jeff Wayne infused his War of the Worlds project. It provides a fitting coda to the album and you can’t escape the feeling that Spock’s beard had a great time recording this one.
From start to finish, ‘noise floor’ is the sound of a group of exceptional musicians cutting loose in the studio and enjoying every thrilling minute of it. The sense of energy and adventure that permeates this album is impossible to ignore and everything from the performance to the mix is suffused with love. Spock’s beard never disappoint, but even so, ‘noise floor’ is a cut above their other material. 9
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