GENESIS 1976 - 1982

I won't make a complete review of it. But I just wanted to say that the digital remastering is excellent. You'll hear details in the music that you never suspected to exist in the first place. And what the remastering has done for the vocals is simply amazing. It even makes you wonder at times if the vocals have not been re-recorded for it (but they haven't, don't worry !). I rate it 5 stars for any Genesis fan who already has the original material, even previous remastered editions.

Well where do you begin . This lavish and depending on where you decide to buy very expensive set may seem to some a gamble. The good thing is that all the albums have a seperate release as well. First things first I suppose to fully appreciate these remixed albums is to own either a dvd or sacd surround system (sadly I do not). However. As soon as the first notes of Dance on a Volcanoe kick in and then the album starts . I was amazed just how well this long project has worked. The sound and clarity of an otherwise dare I say muddy album 'A Trick of the Tail' is IMO jaw dropping. The guitar , Keys , Drums and most of all PC's vocals sound so much more clear . Moving on to 'Wind & Wuthering' and more of the same. Being my favourite Genesis album It sounds like it was recorded yesterday and not 30 years ago. ATTWT is not a lot of folks fave Genesis record but it is one of mine. Again every track is so much better even than the definitive remaster. IMO it was the Last Genesis record with the classic Genesis sound which by the time Duke came alng was almost gone. Duke although a decent album does seem to me to border between prog and pop. Although it does contain some great songs this edition seems to enhance some of the more mediocre songs. Abacab also has much more depth and doesn't sound as sparse as previous editions. It's probably my least fave Genesis album but the title & Dodo/Lurker make it worthwhile. The bonus disc has b sides and outakes and maybe only for completists has a few gems included.

On all the accompanying DVD's there is concert footage some of which is very poor in quality and IMO shouls ahve been left off.

I have a lot of remixed , remastered albums in my collection but these albums are THE best I've ever heard.

The music can be discussed in the sections for the individual albums. I'll be discussing the mixing/mastering here. Since I'm in a hurry, I'll make several points:

-Some songs are great: Squonk, Los Endos, Me And Virgil, Match Of The Day, You Might Recall, Me & Sarah Jane, etc.

-Some songs have been ruined: Entangled, the entire Wind and Duke albums, and Snowbound.

The mixing is different and it's up to personal opinion whether the new mixes are better or worse than the old ones; but this for sure is to be said: the entire thing is marred by terrible mastering. The new mixes have been limited and squashed by compression and then maxed out to the maximum volume level. So a proper review can't really be done because of the awful mastering. As me and my father were listening to the last few notes of Blood On The Rooftops on the original mix, a month before the new mixes were released, I told my father "There's no way you can improve on perfection". These new mixes prove that.

A whole era contained in one nice little box!

Reviews for each album can be found elsewhere, this is a review of the whole thing (and my views on the new DVD discs that accompany each album). I finally bought this set after much debating with myself, being that I'm a large fan of the Garbiel era Genesis and actually hadn't heard anything past Selling England By The Pound (so I can't comment on how the new mixes sound compared to the old ones). Not only am I pleasently surprised with the music (more on that in later reviews), but the boxset as a whole was very much well worth the investment. For those who haven't made the switch to CD or simply don't have these albums this is a great way to start. For those who already own these albums, I still recommend this set. Complete with a 48-page book that documents each album in the set and a bonus cd/dvd of unrealeased (on cd anyways) material, this one is great for all the collectors.

As for the recently released CD/DVD remasters of all the albums, they are also quite worth it! I originally thought that the only difference between the cds and the cd/dvd sets was the fact that the music was also on dvd (whoopie....) and it cost about twenty (Canadian) dollars more. I wasn't exactly sure who'd go out of their way to buy that. As it turns out, the Dvds contain promo videos, (a lot of) live material from the corresponding tour of each album or TV bootlegs (except, I think, Abacab has no live stuff on it) and tourbooks as well as the music being on the dvd as well. That, my friends, is well worth it.

So, in conclusion, this one's for those who need these albums (whether they've never heard them, or just don't have them on cd), collectors and people who have enough money to afford the darn thing. Lucky me, I found it for relatively cheap, and it was apperently just about to go up in price (by a lot). Anyways, 3 stars, definately good an worth it! But by no means essential.

Want to hear an album like Trick in all its glory? Buy a used, minty $5 LP at a store near you and crank that beauty. One of the best productions in prog history. Here, it sounds just like any other modern mix that tries to put the detail of every single instrument up front and sacrifices overall warmth and subtlety. Ah, subtlety... Something Genesis always brought to the turntable but isn't within a hundred miles of this boxset. Sometimes I think that's how technology is often used to sell people music they already own: Make something they never noticed before jump out of the mix so people salivate about hearing a new detail they didn't recall.

If you want to hear classic late 70s/early 80s Genesis sound like it is being broadcast on FM radio, then this is the ticket. The disrespect to the original mixes here is nothing short of depressing. We're not talking about something that will only disappoint purists, but work so drastic that it has arguably been the most controversial remastering of the past decade. I'm not sure I have ever read so many negative reviews about a remastering job, and if you are curious about such commentary, your search engine will surely reveal enough reading for a lifetime. Even some of the defenders of this set have admitted that they can only tolerate it at low volumes. Should this be the way we have to listen to music!? I like music that makes me want to turn it up and experience the sound as I become emotionally engaged in the sonics, not music that makes me feel like maybe I should watch some TV after ten minutes. This stuff is a thrill ride for a few minutes, but how anyone could listen to Genesis in this fashion on a constant basis is something I cannot fathom.

Suffice to say that this stuff has clearly been pummeled (and I mean *pummeled*) with compression in the remixing process. The subtle elements of the original mixes are just squashed. Everything is loud, in your face, and dynamically limited beyond reason.

The Defintive Editions weren't definitive, and most audiophiles I know seek out the early Virgin/Charisma CDs with those horrible cropped covers (most of which look bad but SOUND great!). However, compared to this stuff, even those DEs were glorious. The DEs may have been digitally no- noised (ick!) and inferior to the original UK discs (and some US discs) by ten miles, but even they were 100 miles better than this approach. I don't hear any digital noise reduction on these, which is good, but the compression is simply unbearable to my ears. You can almost feel the compressor just pumping on some of this stuff. The sonic approach seems akin to the worst trip (nightmare) imagineable: Vintage Genesis being mixed to appeal to the modern dance club crowd or something...

No thanks.

Unlike some people, I love all versions of Genesis - Peter, Phil, or Ray. I always felt it was the music that made the difference.

This is the mid period Genesis albums, including the classic post Peter albums A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering.

Some have said that this is just a louder version of the same stuff. Well, it IS louder! But it is also much clearer. I can hear the difference between Steve's electric and Mike's 12 string - they are seperated now and clear. Tony's keyboards are up in the mix (I guess it's OK since he was directly involved in the remixes). Phil's vocals are much clearer now and nuances can be heard that were lost in analog mixes. Phil's drums are also much crisper. The whole sound is excellent. Some people say that these songs have been bludgeoned, all life taken out of them, I disagree. I like this sound...and yes, I still have them all on vinyl.

The DVDs with the 5.1 Dolby versions of the songs are fantastic. Mr. Davis sure knew what he was doing. The interviews are interesting, the concert footage is nice, and the music videos, even if I didn't already have the video collection, are a nice touch.

If you are any kind of fan of Genesis, pick this up immediately...or sooner! If you are a casual fan, buy the albums that you like in this format, you will get a kick out of them.

Again - I will comment only the extra tracks (disc 11) because all the rest were commented, reissued, remixed, remastered etc hundreds of times.

Unlike the 1970-1975 box set, this time there's no discovery here. All the 1976-1982 extra tracks were previously officially released and are more or less well-known. For example, Paper Late, You Might Recall, Me And Virgil, Evidence Of Autumn and Open Door stuffed the fourth (studio) side of Three Sides Live 2LP released in June 1982. The first three tracks were recorded during the Abacab sessions and saw the light of day in May 1982 on the 7-inch single entitled 3 X 3. The last two were recorded for (but didn't fit in) Duke in 1979 and first released on 7-inch singles in 1980, Open Door with Duchess and Evidence Of Autumn with Misunderstanding.

There's not much to say about the three non-Abacab tracks. All would be lightminded enough for Abacab, Paper Late sounds like simplified No Reply At All, Me And Virgil sounds like spoiled Me And Sarah Jane. And it's OK that You Might Recall wasn't included in the album, perhaps it would be too good for Abacab...

Open Door and especially Evidence Of Autumn are IMHO both masterpieces. Of course they do not correspond to the music of Duke and should be rejected from the album, but anyway both are outstanding. Open Door is a slow guitar-dominated philosophic ballad in the best traditions of late 1970s' Rutherford, Evidence Of Autumn is a profound and sophisticated keyboard-dominated slow composition in the best traditions of late 1970s' Banks.

Match Of The Day, Pigeons and Inside And Out formed the track list of the 1977 EP Spot The Pigeon, it was the band's last studio release with Hackett. All the three songs sound rather rocky than progressive, Inside And Out is a ballad typical for Rutherford, musically and lyrically humorous Pigeons is an undoubted highlight.

The Day The Light Went Out and Vancouver were released on the 7-inch single Many Too Many. It was issued a few months after the band's 1978 studio album And Then There Were Three, and some copies of the first German vinyl press of the album (gatefold with insert) were distributed together with the German tour edition of the single (for example, I had a copy completed with insert and tour 7-inch). Vancouver is just another Rutherford's ballad, The Day The Light Went Out was written by Banks but being compared to the album tracks composed by him (Burning Rope for example) seems plain and hastily made.

It's Yourself was released on 7-inch single with Ripples in 1976, and partially served as a draft: the short theme in the middle of the track was reworked into the first bars of Los Endos.

And finally, two amazing instrumental pieces, Naminanu and Submarine. Both were first officially released on singles in respectively 1981 and 1982, but some people told me that both were recorded in 1976, during the Wind And Wuthering studio sessions. I failed to find any confirmed information on this, and the booklet in the box set provides only the official releases' credits. But indeed, both sound very much in the vein of mid 1970s Genesis and absolutely not in the band's early 1980s manner, so there's a chance that it's true.

Now, the solids content: strong 4 stars. It's great that all those tracks are collected on one disc, and probably some day we'll see them reissued as a separate compilation album. Maybe even on vinyl. They deserve it.