During 2014, the guys were busy working towards their thirtieth anniversary the following year, and so made the decision to release three EP’s to bridge the gap from their last albums in 2012, of which this is the second. Released in the summer of that year this contains four versions of the song which appeared on ‘Euphoria’ plus a piano version of “Beyond The Barbed Wire” (from ‘Battle Scars’). Galahad have never been afraid to experiment with their own music, and it is interesting to compare the third song on this EP, the ten-minute plus album version, against the opener which has just Dean on piano and Stu on vocals. Of course, stripping a song back to its essentials is nothing new, and something that Martin Orford has been a party to both with IQ and Jadis numbers, but these are so very different that in many ways they come across as totally different songs. Between the two on the EP there is a hybrid version which as it sounds, contains elements of both the piano and the full on prog version. It’s hard to say which I prefer, as they are both damn fine, and it is interesting to see the band experimenting like this.
The same is true of the last number, as with just some reverb on his vocals this is Stu stripped right back with just the Dean’s piano to pitch against. There is no hiding place when music is performed in this manner, both must be perfect as any mistakes can so easily be heard. This is still available from the band as both a download and a physical CD and is well worth investigating if you are a fan.
