THE TOKYO TAPES

This is mainly a soloist live album from Steve Hackett in a one-off collaboration with several very good Prog Rock musicians who were mainly acting as touring musicians for him in a one-off project: John Wetton on bass and vocals, Ian McDonald on wind instruments and keyboards, "the fantastic" Chester Thompson on drums (as Hackett introduces him to the audience before the start of one song in the album; I agree with Hackett in his opinion about Thompson), and Julian Colbeck on keyboards.

The set-list consist mainly of some solo songs composed by Hackett (with two of them sung by him), plus two songs from the original line-up of King Crimson and composed by Ian McDonald with Peter Sinfield ("In the Court of the Crimson King", with great drums by Thompson, and "I Talk to the Wind"), one song from the solo albums done by Wetton ("Battlelines") and an almost acoustic performance of Asia`s "Heat of the Moment". Also there are some songs from Genesis also sung by Wetton BUT played with different arrangements adding some new parts which were not included in the original versions, a thing which gives some variety, of course. Hackett also plays some solo acoustic guitar pieces. Some of the old Genesis songs also include some brief melodies and parts of other songs from this band. These versions sometimes sound a bit "strange" but they sound good anyway.

In one interview, Wetton said that this project was always a one-off project and that was the only way it was considered then. A brief one-off tour in Japan in December 1996 and that was all. A funny experience for all the musicians who were involved in it, with also very good performances from all of them. The recording and mixing is very clear and very good.

The album also includes two bonus solo studio tracks by Hackett which are two good instrumental new songs.