Subterranea

Subterranea tells of a man held captive all his life with almost no contact with the outside world. A grating sound at the end of Provider marks his escape or release, and Orford explained that being let loose could itself be part of the experiment, with the man watched throughout. In the world outside he is overwhelmed by sights and sounds, lives among the homeless, refuses a religious cult and meets a woman named Maya, who names him and is then lost to him. He kills a watcher who gives up the name Mockenrue, realises that other victims carry the same mark, and in The Narrow Margin is the only survivor of a fire, then returns to isolation. The mark is the square IQ logo, a recurring symbol on the sleeve.

All the music is credited to IQ and all the lyrics to Nicholls. It was recorded and mixed at Nomansland in the New Forest, with Holmes producing, Orford handling pre-production and Rob Aubrey engineering. Tony Wright played saxophone as a guest, and Tony Lythgoe made the artwork. A film adaptation by the American company Birdman Films followed in 2016, but its soundtrack was issued as a solo Mike Holmes album. Live, the band performed the whole work at De Boerderij on 22 October 2011.