Short Reviews [Tamarisk - 2021 - "Suspended Animation"]

A while back, Steve Leigh and I got back in touch with each other again. Some 30 years ago we were swapping letters (back in the days before email) about Landmarq, of which he was keyboard player, and I soon discovered his previous band, Quasar, but while I knew he had been in Tamarisk I did not hear any of that material until fairly recently. With the excellent ‘Breaking The Chains’ compilation being released, there is now a new Tamarisk on the block which features not only Steve but original singer Andy Grant, Steve’s Quasar and Landmarq bandmate, drummer Dave Wagstaffe, along with Ed Rome (who had been guitarist on one of their early cassettes) and guitarist Tom Yetton. What we have here is unabashed neo-prog, and genre which even some progheads look down on, but for those of us who threw ourselves into that scene in the 80’s and 90’s it contains a wonderful naivety with that mix of rock and prog which is a delight. Unlike some neo-prog acts who have moved onto different pastures since those days, Tamarisk are all about the time when it was possible to find bands playing this type of material in sweaty pubs and venues, totally under the radar of the media who were doing their best to pretend the music did not exist and would hopefully disappear (spoiler alert, it didn’t). The new Tamarisk reminds me somewhat of what Credo were like more than 20 years ago (while “The Penetration Gap” has more than a hint of Twelfth Night) but given the history of the bands it is quite possible that Credo were actually influenced by them as opposed to the other way around. Steve has always had a wonderful touch on keyboards, and here he is in his element, while the rhythm section are tight which allows Tom to either noodle or hit the riffs, and then at the front is Andy Grant. He has lost none of the passion or angst over the years, and apart from the recording quality this sounds very much like something their younger selves could have recorded the first time around. Both Steve and Andy were in Chemical Alice a million years ago, another band who have reached almost mythical status when Steve’s replacement, Mark Kelly, was asked to join Marillion. Their time in Tamarisk had a huge impact on the scene, and with this new album they are back, and the result is a neo-prog delight.