Genesis
Archives, 1967-75
Atlantic
1998
A gift from my lovely girlfriend, Billie Sue (Thank you!)

     It is doubtful that any box set has been so long awaited as this set from Genesis. It's been at least two years since I first heard about it and I am usually the last to know what's going on. I am happy to report this set was very much worth the wait.
     As you probably know by now, this set includes four discs, the first two discs featuring an entire live performance of the double-length concept album,The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Disc three features several live tracks from Selling England by the Pound, a couple early B-sides and a great live version of Genesis' epic-length masterpiece, "Supper's Ready." Disc four features several out takes and B-sides from Genesis' pre-progressive era. These pretty, late '60s pop tunes are not too interesting, (although not bad for what they are) but their inclusion does not subtract from the overall value of the set. The first three discs are absolute treasures since they present some of Genesis' most important and creative material in a live setting. They effectively perform the much needed role of filling in the space between the two live albums Genesis Livefrom 1973 and Seconds Out from 1977.
     Much has been made of the fact that Peter Gabriel recently re-recorded some of his vocals on this live material. The purpose of this was probably to fix some vocals which did not record too well due to some of the notoriously cumbersome masks and costumes Gabriel wore on stage in the '70s, especially on the Lamb tour.
     These overdubs are not like the ones on Yes' recent Keys to Ascension albums because they do not enhance the live track with multiple layers of vocals that sound too pretty and too perfect to be completely live. These new vocals completely replace the old ones, but only in certain places. They are detectable, however, as Gabriel's voice has become a little scratchy over the years since the original performances. These overdubs should not dissuade one from buying and fully enjoying the box set though.
     It is remarkable how well The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway translated to the live arena, even with all the little instrumental segues between tracks. They are all here and performed with spirit and accuracy. Also interesting is the added muscularity with which some of these live tracks are performed. "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" particularly benefits from some heavy-handed drumming and guitar distortion on this set.
     Of course, Peter Gabriel adds some of his weird little stories between songs during some of the concerts, and they are often almost as much fun as the music itself. This set is quite a treasure for those of us who did not get to see Genesis in concert back in the day. Genesis concert veterans will also find a lot here to jog their memories of what must have certainly been a magical experience.
     The packaging of this set is quite nice. The booklet features some good stories and anecdotes, as well as some of the best pictures of Genesis on stage I have seen yet. They compliment the stories and music well. Too bad the booklet is so narrow that one has to pry it open to read it, which will eventually lead to the booklet falling apart. Mine already is.
     All in all, this set is worth every penny. It is definitely one of the best and most worth while box sets to come out of English progressive rock so far.

Gentle Giant
Under Construction
Alucard
1997
Manifest Discs & Tapes, Charleston, SC

     In stark contrast to The Genesis box set is this joke of an album. This two CD set promised unreleased material in the form of alternate takes, live tracks and just plain unreleased material from Gentle Giant's entire career. Well, that's sort of true, but I feel a little misled.
     The first several songs this set offers up are unreleased songs recorded before Gentle Giant's first album. At the time of these recordings Gentle Giant's sound was not fully developed. These songs are not really representative of GG's usually very progressive and interesting material. Insterad, they reveal Gentle Giant's roots in popular soul music of the late '60s. These songs are organ heavy, catchy, booty-shakin' shuffles which sound incredibly dated in comparison to Gentle Giant's best work -- not really what I had in mind. Later we have a couple of nice live tracks which are followed by almost an entire disc of short snippets of half-finished demo versions of well-known GG songs and other completely useless stuff. Many of these are true demo recordings featuring Kerry Minnear toying around with melodies on an old upright piano. Most of these sound as if they were recorded on rather primitive recording equipment and don't offer much enjoyment. Possibly the only interesting aspect to these tracks is that they shed some light on just how important Kerry Minnear's writing and keyboard playing was to the success of this band's unique sound and vision. Minnear is one of the most underrated musicans in progressive rock and he deserves more credit. Too bad his genius is revealed on such an incongruously inferior album.
     The most appalling waste of aluminum these CDs offer is the nine-minute "sample archive" track. This is nothing more than an insufferably long collection of various sounds and riffs from various demos which Dan Bornemark and Dan Barrett could not figure out what else to do with. Each sound byte and its source are even listed in the booklet! Maybe these guys love Gentle Giant so much that they think we need nine minutes of this crap, but I guess I am not that much of a fanboy. I don't need to hear "snare shot, Valedictory" any more than I need to hear dictaphone recordings of Derek Shulman taking a leak after a few pints of Guiness.
     There are a few good moments on this set. The live versions of "Interview" and "Timing," from the underrated Interview album are great. "Intro 74" and "Intro 76" are nice (but short) tracks previously only heard as pre-recorded music at the beginnings of Gentle Giant concerts. (The end of "Intro 76" is also briefly audible on the beginning of the live album Playing the Fool.) Aside from that, this is a shabby and disappointing piece of work which serves only to make you want to listen to all the other Gentle Giant albums you already had. Gentle Giant and their fans alike deserve better treatment than this.

Ash Ra Tempel
The Best of The Private Tapes
Purple Pyramid
1998
Borders Books & Music, Jacksonville, FL.

     Just as I had decided I liked Ash Ra Tempel one day recently, I encountered this new double CD of outtakes and rare tracks from this seminal German space rock band. These two CDs, released on the new and ubiquitous Purple Pyramid label are compiled from six separately sold CDs, collectively known as The Private Tapes.
     This set reveals Ash Ra Tempel, Ashra and Manuel Göttsching (all one and the same, more or less) as being purveyors of 70s electronic music at its best, worst and everything in between. Here, one can find everything from bad Hawkwind-like, three-chord space blues ditties to long spacey synth-driven spaceouts similar to what made fellow Berlin School mates Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze (who played drums on the first Ash Ra Tempel album) famous. Fortunately, the long synth pieces outnumber the three-minute rock-n-roll tracks. Unfortunately, however, there is nothing on this set in the wonderfully heavy vein of Ash Ra Tempel's magnificent first album. Neither do the solo Manuel Göttsching pieces live up to the glory of his Inventions For Electric Guitar album. Most of the tracks are fairly simple and feature Göttsching's guitar solos over a bed of simplistic, repetitive synth sequences. Sometimes Göttsching wails and sometimes he simply plucks a couple mysterious notes over and over again. Most of the best music on this album is quite reminiscent of Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze, but it always falls just a little short in terms of creativity. Two of my favorite tracks are the wonderfully exhilarating "Hausaufgabe," and the creepy, early track "Gedanken." The first features Göttsching soloing over an unusually happy sounding foundation of organ, synth and a rather primitive sounding drum machine. It's not as cheesy as it may sound. Somehow it works. The latter track shows how avant-garde Ash Ra Tempel could be when they wanted to. It utilizes some veird volume swell techniques to create a slowly undulating atmosphere of cymbal washes, guitar and who knows what else. This is very much a product of German space music's early days when creepy was cool.
     This album is a good purchase. About 75% of the tracks are enjoyable. Considering the uneven nature of this set, however, I would be afraid to hear the worst of The Private Tapes if this stuff is the best.

Electrum
Frames of Mind
Independent
1998
Promo from band

     This unsigned New England band's debut CD, Frames of Mind is a very tasteful endeavor in every way. From the cover art to the music, Electrum present themselves as an intelligent, mature-minded progressive rock band who seek to create and promote their art without too much regard for trends or hype. This is a good thing. Upon reading their website, before hearing the CD, I discovered that Electrum's main influences are Rush & Dream Theater (although they also claim several other more interesting ones). This made me wonder if what I was going to hear was another one of these insipid Magna Carta-label prog-metal bands which seem to be popping up like mushrooms after a heavy rain. Fortunately, Electrum bears little resemblance to these prog imposters. Frames of Mind is decidedly void of any metalisms at all, actually. There are no "He-sounds-just-like-Geoff-Tate!" operatic vocals, because Electrum has chosen the instrumental route. Guitar distortion is kept to a minimum, and there is very little soloing anywhere at all. In doing so, Electrum has managed to create the ensemble atmosphere, which all the best progressive bands have done. No one member gets the spotlight for too long while the others just repeat the same four chords for five minutes. They all share the duties equally in playing their compositions.
     "Ascension" is a stately 11-minute piece which begins the album. Its beginning features a good dose of a very welcome keyboard chordal backdrop, which becomes sorely missed later on in the album. It then switches to an arpeggio riff, in a very obvious 7/8 which, seems to be Electrum's favorite meter. Unfortunately, this is part Electrum's downfall. Almost every track seems to feature a 7/8 riff and the mellow guitar arpeggios are so ubiquitous that after a while you may start to wish that Dave Kulju would do something -- anything different with his guitar. Play a solo, do some finger tapping, smash it up and burn it! Just do something different! With the exceptions of the more dynamic tracks like "Reverie," and "Inertial Dampers Off Line" much of this album sounds like Rush playing mellow, Weather Channel-ish jazz fuzak, due to the morass of soporific guitar arpeggios and politeness into which it all eventually slips.
     Frames of Mind does feature some good moments, and is quite a professional job considering Electrum's humble beginnings. This is, after all, a debut album by an unsigned progressive rock band, and in that regard it is much better than most. Electrum has potential and they are one or two steps ahead of their competition. If they manage to record another album (and they should), I am convinced it will reflect growth and improvement.

Frames of Mind can be purchased through Electrum's website for a mere $8, which includes shipping. You can also send your check to:
Electrum
P.O. Box 178
Billerica, MA 01821-0178
USA

Änglagård
Hybris
Mellotronen
1992
Doug Larson

     While I doubt too many of my readers are not familiar with this album, I feel I am long overdue in writing a review of at least one of Änglagård's albums.
     I purchased both of Änglagård's studio albums, Hybris and Epilog, shortly after learning that they had both gone out of print. I had only heard one track by the band up to that point, but my friend Jason strongly suggested I purchase immediately before it was too late. Now, almost two years later, both albums are still available sporadically from various prog dealers, but I am not sorry I bought them when I did. Both albums are almost undisputed masterpieces and are already considered classics. I actually slightly prefer the second album, Epilog because it is less "rock-n-roll" and much more original than Hybris. However, Hybris is the album which blasted Änglagård to instant fame in the international prog community and was the first shot fired in the Swedish prog revival of the 1990s, which also brought us bands like Anekdoten, Landberk, Sinkadus and the Pär Lindh Project.
      The first track, "Jordrök," is an instrumental which begins with a gothic sounding solo piano arpeggio. Soon the rest of the band kicks in for some heavy riffing built around the original piano riff. Mellotron, Hammond Organ, flute, electric and acoustic guitars and some incredible drumming by a very young (17) Mattias Olsson propel this magnificent instrumental piece through so many changes and themes that this 11-minute piece feels like it contains a normal album's worth of music.
      The second track, "Vandringar i vilsenhet" begins delicately with a flute melody which eventually gives way to acoustic guitar and Melotron. The music builds in intensity until a regal, powerful theme develops which contains some very Chris Squire-like bass playing and some more of that deliciously goose-bump inducing Mellotron. This theme repeats later on, but not before we are treated to some slightly frantic playing (a characteristic developed to its logical extreme on the second album) and some vocals by guitarist Tord Lindman. His voice is not the best, and it sounds awfully feminine at times. The vocals are really kept to a minimum on all the tracks on this album, though, so they're not much of a distraction. Like "Jordrök," this track goes through so many changes, it is hard to describe. The general mood however solemn regality to it which is so characteristic of Änglagård and many other Swedish groups. For my money though, no one I have heard has ever done it like Änglagård.
     The other two tracks on the album are quite good, but a little less original sounding and heavier on the vocals. They are still amazing, just slightly less amazing.
     Like Yes and King Crimson before them, Änglagård were masters of the ensemble atmosphere. The entire band gives everything they can to each piece. This is extremely complex, sophisticated music in which all the members contribute fairly equally to the composition.
     My favorite way to describe the music of Änglagård is to say that they sound like Genesis on steroids. This is probably not fair because, despite some superfluous similarities, Änglagård were quite original when at their best, and they avoided the lame Genesis rip-offs that legions of lesser neo-prog bands have committed. Elements of several of the big-name progressive rock bands of the past can be found in Änglagård's music, but they were the first ones in a long, long time to do anything worthwhile and new with the influences. Änglagård are the absolute cream of the crop of the '90s prog revival. Indeed, they even have their own imitators now in the form of bands like Sinkadus, who are so pathetically desperate to sound like Änglagård it is sad, but as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Änglagård deserves it.

Edgar Froese
Epsilon in Malaysian Pale
Virgin
1975
Jacksonville Flea Market, Jacksonville, FL

     One of the great things about record collecting is the adventure and the challenge of finding what you are looking for. This holds especially true when you have a taste for obscure music. I found this lovely, sealed LP in one of the least likely places of all - the Jacksonville Flea Market. Flea markets are a great place to buy knives, hubcaps, bongs, stolen car stereos and anything your heart desires with a confederate flag on it. Rare German space albums on the other hand are somewhat harder to find. That's why I was stunned with disbelief when I found this album there and bought it for a mere $6! What was even more amazing was that the guy I bought it from knew it was hard to find and worth more!
     Aside from the initial joy of getting such a great deal on such a great find, this album has proven to be a real treasure to listen to as well. When I purchased my first two Tangerine Dream albums, Ricochet and Phaedra, I was blown away by the sonic landscapes formed out of T. Dream's creative use of analog synth sequencers and the spacey washes of Mellotron I found on those two albums. I was disappointed to varying degrees when I discovered other Tangerine Dream albums did not quite live up to those two masterpieces. That was before I knew about Edgar Froese's solo work outside of Tangerine Dream. This album was recorded only six months after Rubycon and has a very similar feel to it. The main difference I notice is that this album is a little more relaxed in its mood and is not quite as complex. It veers more toward "new age" music in this way, but do not let that scare you off. This is still fairly avant-garde in nature and has little in common with today's new age music or even the recent music of Tangerine Dream.
     Epsilon in Malaysian Pale is comprised of two excellent side-long tracks. The title track is 17 minutes of Mellotron-centered spaciousness which is vaguely similar to Phaedra's "Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares," although with a less melancholic tone. The piece begins with some stunningly realistic synthesized tropical bird calls which show just how much control Froese had over his synthesizers. (In those days you didn't just press a key and get one of hundreds of pre-recorded MIDI sounds out of your synth. You had to manipulate and coerce the synth into doing things like that.) From there, the sound of Mellotron flutes and strings take over with a brief section of mellow but rhythmic sequencer.
     Side two is "Maroubra Bay," another 17-minute track. This time the Mellotron takes a back seat for the majority of the piece and a quick, soft-toned analog sequencer takes control. The rhythm here is punctuated occasionally by some slightly grating, siren-like synth notes which hearken back to early Tangerine Dream albums like Alpha Centauri. This, however is a much more pleasant and listenable affair than much of that stuff. This is a really good piece and is my favorite of the two on this album.
     I believe this album is out of print, but it is worth looking for in used LP stores. I also imagine it has been in print on CD at one point or another. Keep your eyes peeled. Good music pops up in the strangest places.

Arti & Mestieri
Tilt
Cramps
1974
A gift from my roommate. (purchased from New Sonic Architecture)

      Possibly the most exciting recent addition to my record collection is this magnificent album by Arti & Mestieri. This album is the first and most well-known of the band's five or so albums. It won't be the only one I ever own though!
      This mostly instrumental album finds this Italian band playing a fusion of ripping jazz-rock a la Mahavishnu Orchestra and Italian symphonic progressive rock not unlike early PFM. I have had some recent discussions with an internet friend about this album. He finds it to be "fusion by numbers." This band is indeed very influenced by jazz fusion, but the added romance of Italian progressive rock melodies and composition elements is what makes this album so different. Hammond organ Mellotron and A.R.P. synths help provide the textures familiar to progressive rock, but violin, saxophone and occasionally even vibraphones add the jazz flair. Not to be overlooked also, is the drumming of Furio Chirico, who plays some of the fastest, most busy and technical jazz rock drumming I have ever heard. He is easily on par with people like Billy Cobham and Bill Bruford in this respect. He could be accused of over playing, but I think he keeps things relatively tasteful, as he is never heavy handed or overbearing. Besides, all of the other musicians shred too, so he is never out of place!
      The first four tracks on this album, "Gravita 9,81/Strips/Corrosione/Positivo Negativo" all form a suite of continuous music with common melodic themes. The suite ranges from ripping jazz rock to mellow vocal melodies which would have been at home on PFM's Photos of Ghosts or Per Un Amico. This is the best part of the album. Following that are a couple of shorter, jazzier pieces and then an excellent 13-minute track similar to the first suite.
     The last track, "Tilt," is quite a departure from the style of the rest of the album. It sounds very similar to some of the synth blip and noise weirdness fellow Italians and Cramps label mates Area occasionally indulged in. This is certainly not fusion by numbers! It's pretty weird, but fun stuff if you like that sort of thing. I especially like the demented violin reprise of the melody from the first track on the album.
     Only two songs on this album feature vocals, all of which are in Italian. This is a rare case where I would like to hear more vocals. Giovani Vigliar is quite a good singer. He has a mellow voice which, once again, points to the more well-known Italian progressive rock influences of bands like PFM.
     Tilt is an essential element to any "Ita-prog" fan's record collection. Even if Italian prog does not usually do much for you, try this album out.