Customer Reviews

Trespass

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Genesis debuted in 1969 with "From Genesis To Revelation," and although it's a good album overall, it's tarnished somewhat by producer Jonathan King, who smothered most of the band's songs with horns & string arrangements, making them sound more like an orchestral outfit than a rock band. But with new producer John Anthony onboard, Genesis totally shifted into high gear with their second album, 1970's "Trespass," and delivered their first real masterpiece---they truly became a band with this one. "Trespass" has been somewhat overlooked by record buyers over the years, as it doesn't feature Phil Collins on drums or Steve Hackett on lead guitar, but fear not: guitarist Anthony Phillips, in his second & final album with the band, is an amazing player himself (and for further proof of this, check out his wonderful catalog of solo albums), and John Mayhew, in his only album with the group, is no Phil Collins, but his drumming here is certainly good (if it wasn't, I don't think the band would've hired him in the first place), and he gets the job done. The classic Genesis line-up with Collins & Hackett were still one album away, but the "Trespass" line-up of the band still deliver the goods in tremendous fashion. "Looking For Someone" is the incredible opener, starting with Peter Gabriel's unique voice breaking through the silence, with the rest of the band later joining in to create a rock piece filled with wonderful drama & atmosphere. "White Mountain" is appropriately titled, starting with Tony Banks' lone mellotron giving one the feeling of being in the snow-covered mountains somewhere. Then the beautiful acoustic guitars of Phillips & Mike Rutherford kick in, Gabriel starts to sing, and the band take us off on another great musical adventure. "Visions Of Angels" has a more ballady feel to it, but it's still a very strong, majestic tune. "Stagnation" is a Genesis classic, a shimmering beauty played with great virtuosity, featuring a very exuberant instrumental bridge, and passionate vocals by Gabriel. "Dusk," the quietest tune on the album, is a very lovely number, featuring a first-rate flute solo from Gabriel in the bridge. And finally, Genesis throw down the gauntlet with the ferocious "The Knife," a monster 9-minute piece about the heat of battle, with the band working like a five-headed behemoth to bring this powerful track to life. It's a fabulous, memorable rocker, the first Genesis signature tune.The classic album cover, featuring a renaissance painting with a big knife slashing across the painting, is a perfect reflection of both the album's beauty and power. "Trespass" was Genesis' first true musical statement, and a firm sign of things to come from this incredible band. :-)

Whether pre or post Gabriel, pre or post Hackett, this is remarkably overlooked as one of the real touchstones of the classic era of progressive art rock. Guitarist Anthony Phillips, acknowledged by the other original members as the band leader, left after this recording due to serious bouts with depression and stage fright.

Rock criticism has always had contempt for anything that was not completely proletariat. 3 chords and a gob of spit could get you a Village Voice rave. Thus, anything high concept or classically influenced was lambasted as pretentious, pompous, or bombastic. Sadly, they just don't make bands (or albums) like this anymore. Don't miss it.

Trespass is certainly an overlooked album in the history of Genesis. Recorded in 1970, and just after recording it, founding guitarist Anthony Phillips left the band and drummer John Mayhew were replaced with Steve Hackett and Phil Collins respectively. The production is pretty good considering the technology of it's day and being the band first real studio album.

Trespass is a album that is leaps and bounds better than their first album From Genesis To Revelation. On Trespass they have set a superb foundation for what would follow in the next several years. The standout songs are Visions Of Angels, Stagnation, Dusk, and The Knife.

Classic elements such as Tony Banks sweeping mellotrons and organ, Mike Rutherford's 12 string guitar and Peter Gabriel uniquely inflected singing and accompanying flute would establish the signature sounds for the future of Genesis' music.

There are two versions of this album availible, a remastered edition that is part of Virgin's Records catalogue and a first CD editon on MCA Records in the US and not part of Atlantic's remastered catalogue. Get the new Virgin release.

In July 1970, Genesis released it's second album, "Trespass." Like their first album, "From Genesis To Revelation," it too vanished without a trace. However, all was not lost. "Trespass" was important for three reasons:

1. It got the attention of the British Music Scene, especially in London (bands like Yes, Pink Floyd & Humble Pie were taking notice).

2. The album officially put Charisma Records on the map (even though the Nice's fourth album, "The Five Bridges Suite" was before it.

3. 'The Knife' was not only a hit but would become a stage favourite for the early years.

Just as Genesis was signed on Charisma Recors & before this album was released, Guitarist 'Ant' Phillips was not celebratory at all. Due to his stage fright, he would later resign. His lead guitar work on 'Looking For Someone' & 'The Knife' wasn't the greatest but it seem to be perfect in the right spots. John Mayhew wasn't bad either. His drumming was okay, more basic & his background vocals was decent. Mayhew would comment later on some stiff profound statements after he was fired. Genesis would find the final missing ingredients in Phil Collins (June, 1970) & Steve Hackett (Late December 1970) in their next album.

If you look closely at the album itself, you can see all 6 songs on the cover & the back. Let me describe: The couple looking out at the scenery, they're 'Looking For Someone.' The mountains in the picture ('White Mountain'). The Angel behind the couple ('Vision Of Angels'), The scene is in 'Stagnation' & the time of day is 'Dusk.' 'The Knife' in the back of the cover.

Trident Studios were kicking out execellent, well-sounding, high quality albums. Although they were using 16-track (a quantam leap forward since their first album was uning 4-track recording) the sound is very murky & somewhat cloudy. The editing is very bad on this album. That's why it gets the 3-Star rating.

Now let's go through the songs:

LOOKING FOR SOMEONE: Peter Gabriel's voice sounds more confident then he did on the first album. Right from jump, it's like he's on a mission. The song builds up until it crashes into an exciting climax.

WHITE MOUNTAIN: A pretty song. Acoustic guitars over Tony Bank's Hammond L122. Gabriel whistles through the outro while Banks makes his haunting Hammond Organ statements.

VISION OF ANGELS: Another light hearted song w/ Banks using the Mellotron MK II for the first time.

STAGNATION: This song begins w/ quiet acoustic guitars & then builds up to a loud cresendo as Banks' L122 tells the story. The loudness builds to a complete halt when Gabriel's flute quiets the noise only to build up for another cresendo.

A better version of 'Stagnation' can be heard in the 1998 Box-set, "THE GENESIS ARCHIVES 1967-75" when the 'Class of 1971' line-up were on BBC Live, 1971. The very last part of the song has the makings of a great late 60's band.

DUSK: A beautiful acoustic piece w/ great background vocals. Again, the Mellotron creeps up only to add melancholy.

THE KNIFE: The second most explosive song on the track. A song about a revolutionist on a power trip. Michael Rutherford's Fender Precision Bass sounds distorted through the whole song. As the song breaks in the middle, everyone improvises during the quiet moments, very unusual indeed. And remember, once the smoke is cleared, you'll be screaming "We are only wanting freedom!"

A better version of 'The Knife' is on the 1973 album, "Genesis Live."

If you're getting into Genesis, I highly recommend this as the starting point. If you're a regular Genesis fan & only are familiar w/ the 80's stuff, ("Duke," "Abacab," "Genesis," "Invisible Touch," "We Can't Dance") this may not be for you unless you feel daring enough to really know what Genesis really was. I took the plunge when I bought this back in 1996 was I was 18.

For the die hard fans, you might like, but for us HARD CORE GENESIS FANS (I fit in this group) this is 'our' Genesis that we know & love, when they went for broke & transformed themselves into Progressive Art Rock before they sold out to pop rock.

"Trespass" was just the beginning.

I think Trespass is probably the most overlooked and under-appreciated albums in the Genesis catalog. Released in 1970, it has a few things going against it from the start. It didn't feature future front-man Phil Collins and it was released as a one-off in the United States on MCA records. Because of this, it typically isn't marketed with the entire Genesis catalog and did not receive the remastering it deserved until after Atlantic had remastered its Genesis holdings.

Trespass clearly lights the path for future Gabriel-era releases. While its predecessor, the debut From Genesis To Revelation, featured three-minute pop songs, Trespass relies more heavily on typical progressive rock blending acoustic and electric guitars with haunting keyboard work and Peter Gabriel's unique vocals. And despite the fact that drummer Phil Collins does not appear on this album, the percussion work is surprisingly strong. While Steve Hackett is credited with developing the trademark Genesis guitar sound, its amazing to hear the guitar work on this album. Guitarist Anthony Phillips truly laid the groundwork for the Genesis guitar sound (Steve Hackett joined with Collins the following year).

Trespass has its flaws. It suffers from age and the production isn't perfect. But it's an important piece in the development of Genesis.

"Trespass" marked the first Great Leap Forward in Genesis's career. Heavily influenced by "In The Court Of The Crimson King", the pieces here are much longer and more complex than those on the debut "From Genesis To Revelation", thus providing a blueprint for the rest of their 70s work. The playing and singing is far more competent, although compared to later efforts still sounds a bit rough; however, this works largely to the advantage of the album, which exudes a certain quiet, hearfelt melancholy that will surprise anyone who grew up with the "Invisible Touch" era. The majority of the album centers around a delicate 12-string acoustic guitar interplay--interspersed with snatches of flute and acoustic piano--which was an early hallmark of the group's sound. This reaches its peak on "Stagnation", a low-key epic which was perhaps the best song in their repertoire until 1972's "Foxtrot". And although the majority of the album is quiet, acoustic, moody and slightly precious, the group takes a hard and surprising left turn to riotous electric rock on the closing piece "The Knife" (based on an organ riff from The Nice's version of "Rondo"). Like most early Genesis albums, the lyrics run the gamut from pretentious, naive fantasy storytelling ("White Mountain") to truly inspirational personal insight ("Stagnation"). Overall, "Trespass" is an album of beauty, grace, melodicism and emotional power which sounds very much of its time; Genesis continued to better its approach with each successive release until sometime in the mid-to-late 70s.

I have always had a tendency to favor early albums of bands, and Genesis is no exception. Trespass is truly the birth of the Peter Gabriel-era Genesis sound. Every song on the album is quality. But there are a few blemishes which keep this album from the pantheon of masterpieces that follow.

First of all, despite the amazing (and often overlooked) studio innovations, such as the organ solo in Stagnation which bends around like a synthesizer by manipulation of the tape pitch control, and Peter Gabriel's ring-modulated voices on The Knife, this record was poorly recorded. The acoustic guitar things sound gorgeous, but the levels were not hot enough going to tape, hence the terrible hiss on the soft sections. There are a lot of tape dropouts throughout the album. This may be due to bad quality master tape. Trident Studios normally churned out excellent-quality tracks in the 1970's, but this is quite a disappointment. There are some bad tape splices, such as the transition in Stagnation into "wait, there still is time..." and of course, the drums.

The drums are the main reason this record suffers. For starters, John Mayhew plays drums like a high-school garage band drummer, pounding out repetitive and tasteless fills on almost every other bar. His toms are tuned too low and boxy for the style of music. Those tom sounds belong on a KISS album. They overpower everything due to too much woofiness and presence. This album is mixed beautifully in places, but when it's bad, it's BAD.

Bottom line: The best parts of the record are the parts without drums. Ant Phillips is a great acoustic guitarist, the lyrics are breathtaking, Tony's organ and Mellotron are glorious, Mike's bass and guitar playing are as solid as ever, and Peter sings his heart out.

This could have been in the top ten Genesis albums had Phil Collins played the drums, and the engineer had been more careful about levels. Could have been mastered better.

Still a must-have album for any fan of early-70's creative music!!

Was there not supposed to be a remastered version of this released on Atlantic records?

This is a fantastic album from 1970 that shows Genesis moving beyond the charming pop songs of their debut and bringing a bit more of a prog feel to their pieces. Of course, Trespass is still a far cry from sophisticated, "full blown" prog albums like Selling England by the Pound (1973) and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974), but it is still excellent nonetheless. I guess it is worth pointing out that a folk revival was in full swing in England around this time, and the guys in Genesis were apparently not immune - as such, a "pastoral serenity" colors many of the pieces. Come to think of it, I really appreciate the gloominess of Trespass and the rich textures generated with several acoustic 12-string guitars being played at once.

The lineup at this early developmental stage included Peter Gabriel (lead vocals, flute, accordion, percussion); Tony Banks (Hammond organ, piano, mellotron, 12 string acoustic guitar, vocals); Mike Rutherford (bass guitar, 12 string acoustic guitar, cello, vocals); Anthony Phillips (12 string acoustic and electric guitars, dulcimer, vocals); and John Mayhew, drums, percussion, vocals). Although not the classic lineup, the Genesis sound was definitely beginning to emerge and Anthony's delicate guitar playing is excellent throughout. Unfortunately, Anthony was taken ill (with bronchial pneumonia I believe) and when coupled with a growing anxiety, was forced to leave the band (he was replaced by Steve Hackett in 1971). In addition to the overall sound, rough sketches of both the story-telling and aggressive playing found on the follow-up album Nursery Cryme (1971) appear on Trespass.

The six pieces on Trespass are fairly short by prog standards and range in length from 4'14" to 8'56". In large part, the songs are very quiet and loaded with 12-string acoustic guitars and piano, with the single exception of the excellent (and aggressive) closing track The Knife, which features some thunderous playing on the electric guitar. Like a lot of folks, this is my personal favorite (along with White Mountain) and certainly would not have been out of place on Nursery Cryme. It is an extremely aggressive piece and the screams at the end are positively hair-raising - they freak me out every time I listen to the track in fact. For those of you that liked this combination, Nursery Cryme is somewhat similar (although the bizarre nature of the lyrics was bumped up a thousand-fold on Nursery Cryme).

I used to own this on vinyl and the CD version has not cleaned up the murkiness of the vinyl recording much at all - this really is not a big deal though, given that it only serves to enhance the generally dark mood of the album. For those of you that are curious, my understanding is that this version by MCA sounds better than the 1994 remastered version by Phantom Sound and Vision, although the reviews are somewhat mixed.

All in all this album is very highly recommended in whatever format you can find it in.

I picked up this CD recently. I am truely surprised by the quality of the material of this 'not so popular' album. Prior to that I had a 'best of' and only one album (Selling England by pound by Genesis, which is offcourse superb and one of the best albums I own). I did not expected much from this CD just because in there are more acclaimed albums in their progreesive phase (Lamb lies down..., Foxtrot, Trick of a tail), but this is surprisingly good. I guess I have to get all those earlier (Progressive period) Genesis albums.

The song I liked the most is 'White Mountain', it has a strage tickling tune. I think it is very catchy too. The other tracks are almost equally good though. I can describe all the tracks but what's the use when you can explore those yourself. When the musicianship is concerned 'Selling England by Pound' was a better place than this but this is also a very well produced gem.

A (forgotten?) classic from Genesis.

Trespass is one of the Genesis's best album, along with Foxtrot, Nursery, Selling and Lamb.
In a way Trespass reaches the pureness of Genesis, there is what I consider one of the best progressive rock and no prog rock album ever made. Beginning with Looking for someone, outstanding piece, deep meaning, sweet and hurting melodies,
Stopping by Stagnation, which is an amazing song, great melodies, great words, there you can find the unique atmosphere that only Genesis and few others can give,
Stagnation is a masterpiece, listen at it deeply an you'll agree with me, a poem of music.
The knife is the ultimate progressive and non progressive rock song, wonderful strong melodies, screaming voices, an absolutely out of the ordinary Steve Hackett's guitar solo, you can listen at this album over and over for an entire life and never get sick of it.
If I would be in a desert island and I would have the choice of having 10 albums to listen for the rest of my days I'd include Trespass with no doubts .
I'm sorry for my English, I'm not a native and therefore not a perfect writer, hope you got the meaning though: Trespass: Music Masterpiece.