A Glimpse of Potential (Trespass - Genesis)

Member Name: JonnyM79

Product:	Trespass - Genesis
Date:	04/03/02 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clear Potential, The Knife

Disadvantages: Piss-poor Drumming, Songs not fully developed

Trespass was the second Genesis album, following their debut work From Genesis to Revelation, which was released in 1969. This first work was written while still at school and was what the band thought that their producer, Jonothan King (he of the recent kiddyfiddling allegations) would want to hear. It had sold abysmally, some record shops getting confused by the title and putting it in the religious section! This 2nd effort then was the first proper outing by the band actually playing the music they believed in.

A lot had changed since the first album. The band had left their parents' homes and Tony Banks, the keyboard player had actually spent a year at university studying physics, before deciding to follow a career in music. Genesis had lost a drummer (John Silver) and replaced him (John Mayhew). The line-up featured Gabriel, Rutherford and Banks, all to go on to later fame, as well as Mayhew and Ant Phillips on lead guitar, who had a major influence on the album with his preferred pastoral themes. They were living in more or less abject poverty in a small cottage, mainly sustained by food parcels from various concerned parents. However they had garnered several months touring experience which had helped them to become a tight playing unit. Decca had dropped them but they had a new deal with Tony Stratton-Smith's Charisma label. The album was recorded over just a few days at Trident studios in London.

The album opens with Looking for Someone, with solo vocal using those three words. It's immediately evident that Gabriel had a fine voice, but the second thing you notice is the painfully bad drumming; Mayhew able to do little more than accompany the music with simple beats and the occasional cymbal crash. The song is however a class above anything on their previous album, and is the first sign that the dull verse/chorus/verse etc structure had been tossed out the window. This is followed by White Mountain, a narra
tive of the adventures of the head of a wolf pack, somewhat ripped off from the book White Fang. Again Gabriel sings with energy and the song moves at rapid speed.

Visions of Angels is third and has a gentle pastoral feel and a catchy if somewhat cheesy chorus. This is followed by Stagnation, at 10 minutes the first of Genesis's many extended works. The musical ideas are extremely interesting, if not all that well pieced together, but it builds to a climax, with Gabriel showing the throat-shredding aggression he could impart into lyrics. The closing segment was good enough to make a brief appearance in their medley of old songs played on the We Can't Dance tour in the nineties.

Fifth is Dusk, a gentle instrumental, a sign that any remaining Jonothan King influence had been thrown off (he would never have allowed such things. This is followed by the one work of genuine high quality, The Knife (a live favourite for the next decade). This starts at a breakneck pace with Mellotron introduction and is written about a dictator siezing power in a bloody revolution with frightening lines such as "Show me the names of those we must kill; they all must die with their children!"

The album gained some small success but really it was the constant touring that Genesis put in that gained them success, turning into an awesome live act, with Gabriel mesmeric when dressed in his wild costumes. This was to be achieved without two of the line-up that recorded Trespass. Ant Phillips became afflicted with crippling stage fright, and while they were replacing him the band decided they needed a better drummer. Steve Hackett and Phil Collins were the replacements and the band's profile set off on a long upward path that would last over 20 years.

Overall, as a standalone piece this is pretty poor apart from The Knife which is outstanding, but is available on Genesis Live (1973) with far superior Collins drummi
ng. As such I can only recommend it to Genesis fans with an interest in the history and development of Genesis. Buy some other of their many excellent albums such as Selling England By The Pound, or Duke, before you judge them on this which was really part of their growing-up process.

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