It’s not remarked upon very often, but prog and glam weren’t necessarily the oppositional forces we routinely remember them as being. The haughty pomposity of the former and the preening arrogance of the latter were in fact capable of rubbing along together rather nicely; not to mention a mutual interest in raiding the dressing-up cupboard for capes, masques and feather boas.
Seventh Wave set up shop bang in the middle of this particular intersection in 1974. A way-ahead-of-the-game UK synth duo comprising keyboardist Ken Elliott and percussionist Kieran O’Connor, former members of twisted psych-rock pseers Second Hand, they birthed the brazenly ambitious Things To Come in that year, then augmented the line-up with like-minded sonic bravehearts including Van Der Graaf’s Hugh Banton for 1975’s psi-fi.
Both albums sound utterly marvellous today, reminiscent of Wizard-era Todd Rundgren with their fractured, sparkling and genre-hopping melodies, whirling synth bombast and glittery decadence. Yelping glam vocals go head-to-head with appliance-of-science time signatures, martial stridency, footling testcard muzak and dystopian kosmische chilliness to properly dizzying effect.
Other aural touchstones would be Be-Bop Deluxe minus the guitars, Lamb Lies Down-era Genesis (on Fail To See) and Supertramp’s priapic evil twin on Star Palace Of The Sombre Warrior.
