Genesis - Trespass

 The Lamb Lies Down on Trespass
The other listed reviews are by far more articulate and I recommend you read them. MY REVIEW, well, I'm just at a loss as to how Genesis continued after Peter Gabriel left. What really amazes me about the old Genesis is the vintage of this music. tHen AgaIn, i GUESS i SHOUlDN'T BE sURpRISED. This is renascence rock. Forget about all that Phil Collins crap. I'm a old school Genesis junkie and I will tell you this. Trespass is the best. Nursery Cryme is second. The original Genesis Live is third. Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is the finale. After that, why bother with anything else. You already have so much classic Goth Fantasy Rock anything else is just folly. If I had to keep just 1 Genesis album it would be Trespass. I say that with no reservation. January 27, 2008

 Not Quite The Beginning...
For anyone who isn't familiar with Genesis' early stuff... this CD is a must have. To hear Peter Gabriel's heart-wrenching, soulful sound is quite extraordinary. No Genesis library is complete without their early stuff and Trespass is NO exception. Only six songs on the CD, but each song is a treasure.

You could hear even then, that they would be HUGE! The talented artists who put together this album may not have all made it into Genesis' later recordings, but this one in my opinion, is a classic!

I still get shivers when I hear Peter opening on "Looking For Someone" and "Visions of Angels". In my opinion, two of the prettiest melodies ever produced by Genesis.

I know this is the album that did it for me all those years ago... one listen and I was hooked. A fan for LIFE! December 23, 2007

 The birth of the classic Genesis sound over 35 years on
English prog rockers Genesis released its second album Trespass in Ocober of 1970.
After the band's debut album From Genesis To Revelation in 1969, their then manager and producer Jonathan King (who admittedly tarnished the debut somewhat with some cheesy horn and string arrangements) parted ways with the band and then Tony Stratton-Smith took over as the band's manager after he started Charisma Records in the UK.
Then soon afterwards, lead singer Peter Gabriel, bass player Mike Rutherford, keyboard player Tony Banks and guitarist Anthony Phillips got first a new drummer out of John Mayhew (replacing Chris Silver) and a new producer John Anthony and recorded their sophomore effort at Trident Studios in London. As a result, the band switched gears with their second album and morphed from the pop outfit from their debut to the prog rock outfit that would define them over time.
"Looking For Someone" is the incredible opener, starting with Peter Gabriel's unique voice breaking through the silence alongside Banks' organ and the rest of the band coming in to create this masterwork. Next is the atmospheric "White Mountain" is so named that it features mellotron (first time that it appeared on a Genesis track) giving one the feeling of being in the snow-covered mountains somewhere plus the 12-string guitars of Phillips, Banks and Rutherford kick in and Gabriel's vocals give it a powerful feel. The first side concluded with "Visions Of Angels" which had a balladish sounding track but a great piece nevertheless.
The album's second half kicks off with "Stagnation" which is a Genesis classic which is still a great song and the band still holds this track in high regard still as the finale is still played live during "I Know What I Like" in live performances done to this day. Next is the quiet but powerful "Dusk" which includes a powerful flute solo from Gabriel in the bridge. We close the album with the ferocious "The Knife" which is one of the band's best epics. The band would continue to play this track live for the next few years and occaionally into 1980. The track goes through tempo and mood changes which would make things like King crimson look non-existant in comparison.
Despite the fact that Trespass didn't set the record charts on fire upon its 1970 release in either the US or UK, the album was Genesis' first masterpiece and a huge sign of things to come from this incredible band.
RECOMMENDED! November 7, 2007

 "Yet in the darkness of my mind, Damascus wasn't far behind"
Luis Mejia (son) - Genesis' real introduction to the world of music was shown with the marvelous, intricate Trespass, being released in 1970, it is a great (and much better) transition from the beatles' pop, undertaking style shown in From Genesis To Revelation, changing in a beautiful way to cultural progressive rock, FAR much better. Its still one of their firsts and difficult to remember (or even difficult to find), but even though Genesis' classic lineup wasn't yet formed, the virtuosity of long time members Peter Gabriel, Anthony Banks and Mike Rutherford is shown in their very first expressions, keeping a remarkable fresh and dreamy style, and even member Anthony Phillips gave the album a fierceful and delicate touch. This is certainly a cultural album, dignified to collect, but this is were Genesis shown their true expressions of musical genious, extremely good and very appreciateable.

Trespass is not in form a concept album, but it does assume an ambient of the renaissance era, having a very cerebral composition and a dramatic style, yet the ambient of the album is shown in its poetical lyrics and its theatrical way of playing music, but even though this aspects are fantastic and appreciatable, its also the core of professional crude critics and such low reviews, I really don't seem to get it! Anyway, Trespass is Genesis' first true album, as far as I'm concerned I've never heard From Genesis To Revelation, and I don't doubt it may be a good album, but still its a very difficult one, their critics about pop with certain orchestral arrengements goes just like Elton John's Empty Sky, a forgotten miss, and when producer John Anthony came into producing Genesis, and with the entry of percussionist John Mayhew, they seemed to realize what kind of music they were really able to play, and this is the result, a tremendous progressive rock album, with some soft but consistent inclinnations but certainly a theatrical and intricate one, that came to be a really ignored album, what an irony! Trespass keeps a scent of originality and still an influenced touch, having cerebral, intricate, complex, thoughtful, emotional, dramatic, cultural, delicate, theatrical, fierceful, peaceful and fierceful moods.

All the 6 songs have a very delicate and beautiful composition, each one keeps its moments, although the cohersion of the album is perfect, every song fit perfectly but there are some that are certainly a highlight, just like the dramatic and fierceful Looking For Someone, my title line was extracted from a fragment of the song, and its such an emotional and thoughtful song with certainly beautiful lyrics, its also the most memorable one, along with the mellow, beautiful and mellodic Visions Of Angels, its a song wich keeps very few traces from the past album, but remains as one of my favourites, a true hymn for humanity; and last but not least, the incredible, fierceful, potent and aggresive The Knife, its one of their very first musical acclaims, the only one that made it better than the other songs, it recalls a fierceful theme of battle, full of emotions, also being a 9 minutes long but consistent piece of art. The rest of the tracks are also fantastic and beautiful as well, there not a bad song in the whole album, but some are just better, like the focused magic of White Mountain, which tells a mytic fable of a wolf, the instruments are played so nicely that you can feel perfectly the mytic ambient they try to express, and from here you can go to Stagnation, its another slightly acclaimed song, although it possess a majestic beauty and an exotic, intricate performance, it has a lot of twist and turns, going from beautiful and inspirational falsettos to a heavy musical bridge, and so on; I admit that Dusk is my least favourite, its the most short and dullest one, although its a calm interlude song for preparing the listener for such a hard song as The Knife. Track pick: Looking For Someone, Visions Of Angels, The Knife.

At this time Genesis' lineup had already been changed, Trespass is the last album without their classic lineup, later in Nursery Crime they would be Collins, Gabriel, Hackett, Rutherford and Banks, so this maybe another reason of Trespass' bad critics, but the performance is as delightful as any other album, I even can say a lot of albums that come after this one, just as the impressive and extremely potent performance of drummer John Mayhew, and the fantastic work of Anthony Phillips, one of Genesis' most virtuous musicians, and just as Peter Gabriel fantastic flute and vocal ability (but not the best one; for his best listen to The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway), or Mike Rutherford listenable bass and Banks remarkable organ and piano, and its to regard that the organ was a popular rock instrument by that time (The Doors, Van Der Graaf Generator, etc). A touch of the band Renaissance is also influenced, and when you've heard certain VDGG albums, I realize that a lot of their Genesis' inspiration comes from this album.

In conclussion Trespass assumes the start of Genesis' musical intelligence, beauty and detailed composition, there's nothing to waste on this album, and its still a fantastic piece for the classic rock collection. August 30, 2007

 wonderful music
The classic sound of Genesis was almost in full swing as early as Trespass. Peter Gabriel does a fantastic job with his singing ability throughout the album, along with the rest of the band.

Upon first hearing the album, I was surprised that the production is quite different from the future Genesis albums. It doesn't sound as good. It's muddy, but sort of tacky as well. It doesn't sound pure or delightfully attractive, like on Foxtrot and Selling England by the Pound. Still, it's good enough.

As far as songwriting goes, these are some really well-written songs. Not *quite* as memorable as what would happen as early as Nursery Cryme, but really, just one step down in terms of quality. I love the album anyway.

"Looking for Someone" has a really neat atmosphere that reminds me of walking through a forest, not to mention a spectacular build-up of piano work near the end. "Visions of Angels" sounds like the Moody Blues which is always a good thing.

"The Knife" ROCKS like Genesis never really rocked before. Seriously, it's a special song in the catalog of Genesis in that it's a lengthy jam that's mostly dominated with guitar soloing and a few fast-paced vocal lines from Peter Gabriel. Quite unusual for Genesis to tackle something like that but they're really GOOD at it, that's the amazing part.

Fantastic album. June 22, 2007

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