TRESPASS

The album on which Genesis became Genesis, a turning point for the band and certainly the most important step towards their transformation into progressive rock trailblazers, 'Trespass' from 1970 showcased from the opening seconds of 'Looking for Someone' that this collective of five young musician is set on to stand out from the sea of rock bands back then. Abandoning their more accessible psych-pop side and changing the man behind the drum kit, Genesis were decisive enough to start writing more challenging music, more complex compositions, and to eventually become this very intellectual and peaceful prog titan.

'Trespass', as much as it is quite impressive and a giant step forward from their debut, is still a but feral, still very imperfect, hardly as mind-blowing as the albums that would come after it, more folky and very, very acoustic. And it is probably this romantic and peaceful side of this elegant second studio album by Genesis that makes is not as appealing as something like 'Nursery Cryme', or 'Foxtrot', or 'Trick'. The band are still exploring, still developing their sound, and I think they achieve the best results on the 9-minute epic 'The Knife', a blistering and aggressive prog number, the 'heaviest' song on the album and the first really dark achievement for Genesis, standing out with the masterful playing and the ballsy approach.

A prevalent Tony Banks, a brilliant Peter Gabriel, and the introduction of the band's extensive use of 12-string guitars, another aspect of their music that sets them apart from a lot of their peers, as they use the instruments for extensive acoustic passages, underlaying Gabriel's 'calmer' singing. Another great moment is the opening track 'Looking for Someone', a beautiful way to open the album; 'White Mountain' is also interesting to hear but the rest of the record is too tranquil, too mellow and too British to a point where it becomes hard to go through longer songs like 'Stagnation' without wondering "When will this finish?"

A good album, but not brilliant. The first important prog album by Genesis that is, however, unrefined and unfortunately has some tedious episodes that I needn't hear, especially when albums like the following five by the band exist; a very promising and unique collection of songs, though, by a band that showed personality and desire to move forward in a musical universe of their own!