TRESPASS

Always wondered me how these guys could jump from their debut album to this almost masterpiece of progressive rock? Just a kind of enigma. But Trespass, with many defects of course, is a stunning work. Dark, epic, pastoral sometimes, violent at the same time. This image of the forest with the mountains behind over the greenfield, and the knife hammered on the tree, are the perfect representation of the spirit of Trespass. As Hackett said once, those guys were a cooperative of songwritters, the four of them with their brains in a full work bringing ideas all the time. Even the drummer John Mayhew did a good job with this complex music. For me, the best tracks are The Knife, an epic written by Gabriel and Banks which combines violent lyrics (how the revolutions against a dictatorship could finish in another dictatorship) with frenetic hammond sections (a la Emerson) and great electric solos by Phillips. White mountain, another epic story with acoustic guitar in the begining and great keyboard job. Vision of Angels, a Phillips number with almost classical piano and symphonic flavour and Stagnation, some dark piece full of 12 strings guitars and refined keyboards touches till a superb ending. The rest is in a bit inferior level. Looking for someone is good too, but not so consistent, thoug it has a good and rather long instrumental section. Dusk, is the weak one, a pure acoustic number, a bit monotonous. The sound of the album is surprisingly good, even in the first recordings. The new remastered version take it to a higher level. The great story of Genesis starts here, and of course with an excellent addition for any prog rock collection.