Thursday, April 16, 2009


Rewiring Genesis ~ A Tribute To The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Unifaun ~ Unifaun
Two takes on doing a Genesis. The first is a project partly instigated by Spock’s Beard Nick D’Virgilio. Completely re-recording Genesis’s epic double album concept might seem a tad pointless, but D’Virglio and cohort Mark Hornsby have made enough of a difference in the arrangements to warrant this recording. Using brass, strings and even an accordian this is a fresh and inspired re-working. Vocals and drums are by Virgilio who is excellent throughout. If anything I would have gone even further in making the arrangements even more radical, but this is a highly enjoyable treatment.

Unifaun take there name from a lyric on “Selling England by the Pound”. This band are Nad Sylvan (from the recent excellent Agents of Mercy album) and someone called Bonamici. They basically set out to write the Genesis songs, Genesis never did! It actually works. This sounds to me the album the band should have made after “Wind and Wuthering” if Hackett had stayed in the band. The songwriting is very much in the Genesis style, but it’s very strong and doesn’t feel like just mere copying. There is something very much the bands own working throughout. I like this a lot!

Hawkwind ~ Quark, Strangeness and Charm/PXR5 (remasters)
These two for me constitute the highlight of Hawkwinds time on the Charisma label. Robert Calvert is the star here. His vocals and lyrics are excellent and really should have secured Calvert’s status as a true rock visionary on a par with say Peter Gabriel or even Roger Waters. Outstanding re-releases by Esoteric.

Patrick Moraz ~ Change Of Space
Amazingly, almost back to the standard of “Story Of I”. Lots and lots and lots of wild frentetic synths. But that’s how we like it.

Camel ~ Moonmadness (Deluxe Edition)
Considered by many as Camel’s finest, this was actually remastered a number of years back. But the original analogue masters have been newly digitally transferred by Ben Wiseman, remastered by Pascal Byrne and sound sensational. Now extended with lots of live material into a 2CD affair, this is the ultimate version of this recording. A very nice digipack layout only slightly let down by the oversight of not printing the musician credits. Why do Mark Powell projects tend to do this! Apart from that highly recommended.

Also released and remastered for the first time is “Raindance” the album that featured Richard Sinclair. This has a more mellow almost AOR feel about it. But still lots to enjoy. They have also released “The Snow Goose” as a 2CD deluxe edition.

By the way, just read that Transatlantic (Roine Stolt, Pete Trewavas, Mike Portnoy and Neal Morse) are back together to record a third album!!
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