Genesis – Trespass
“Nobody needs to discover me, I’m back again”
So, September 1969 Gabriel, Banks, Rutherford and Phillips decided to give it a proper go as Genesis as a full-time commitment, however they would write music on their own terms. Jonathan Silver who had played drums on From Genesis To Revelation left for school in America, and was replaced by John Mayhew. They began touring around England for about six months writing and performing new music before they were signed by Tony Stratton-Smith to his Charisma Records label. The album that would become Trespass was recorded in July 1970 and was a significant departure in sound, proficiency and style from their first record. If you didn’t know, I doubt one would easily guess it was the same band. Gone were the short pop songs of 18 months prior and in its place were long pastoral multi acoustic guitar and electric guitar passages with sweeping analog keyboards – namely Hammond Organ and Mellotron…and the introduction of flute courtesy of Gabriel which was a unique sound for a band and helped differentiate them from others of that era.
Vocals are up front and confident – it sounds like Peter Gabriel era Genesis from the very first line of Looking For Someone which has moments that sound like it is setting us up for Supper’s Ready a couple years later. It really is astounding the difference between the sound of this album and their debut. it is atmospheric in parts, pastoral in places, raw and aggressive in other parts – sometimes all within the same song. Speaking of which there are only 6 of them on the album. After the broad sweeping nuanced opening of Looking For Someone with its instrumental middle section comes White Mountain which enters like a dreamscape coming into focus, wispy and pastoral much like the song Dusk on side 2. It has some really beautiful instrumental sections as well. Visions of Angels was a leftover from the Genesis To Revelation album that was reworked and re-recorded – again the difference in sound is quite amazing as it is hard to imagine other than lyrically that this song was from the same writing sessions as those that produced From Genesis To Revelation. It is however a nice link between the two releases as a connecting thread. It is also a wonderful piece of music which for me only suffers in the chorus sections as I find it a bit rough in execution. I have a feeling the song was probably pretty short in its original form but that they worked up the instrumental parts with organ and mellotron. The piano/flute combos are the most pleasing parts of the song for me.
Side 2 starts with Stagnation which has become a pretty iconic Genesis song for those who love the PG era. It is the earliest example of the epic type song that the band would subsequently master and become known for. The song has a ton of acoustic guitar tracks, some great mellotron instrumental sections and it develops over non-repeating sections which build in intensity up to a grand finale that doesn’t disappoint. The band would use parts of it in their Old Medleys after Gabriel had left the band. Dusk is a beautiful song and the shortest one on the album at just over 4 minutes. The longest song is The Knife which ends the album with the most aggressive song by them to date and the song they used to end shows with. Actually, even through The Lamb era The Knife was often used as the encore. Again, it is an iconic sounding Gabriel era song the likes of which they would perfect over the next couple records. Like many other songs on the record, it has parts that slow down and are allowed to breathe a bit – stripping away instruments and adding in flute and keyboards for lighter touches to develop before building up to the crescendo ending.
Other than The Knife and parts of Stagnation, the only song that would make its way back into their live shows was White Mountain which was performed during the 1976 Trick of The Tail tour post Gabriel. So, all in all Trespass is a pretty amazing record. One that some consider very high in their list of favourite Genesis albums and for good reason. What it definitely is though, is unique as a whole, mainly due to the dual acoustic guitar interplay of Phillips and Rutherford which wouldn’t sound the same following Phillips departure prior to the album’s release in October of 1970.
Recommended Listening – White Mountain, Stagnation, The Knife
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