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Genesis Box Set 3 (1970-1975)[13 Disc Set]

Genesis - Genesis Box Set 3 (1970-1975)[13 Disc Set] Audio CD

A fair review of the Genesis "Genesis Box Set 3 (1970-1975)[13 Disc Set]" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Genesis reviews here, or go back to the Genesis tabs.

Band: Genesis
Title: Genesis Box Set 3 (1970-1975)[13 Disc Set]
Rating:

Release Date: 2008-11-11
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Looking For Someon 2: White Mountain 3: Visions Of Angels 4: Stagnation 5: Dusk 6: The Knife 7: Trespass in 5.1 DTS and 5.1 Dolby Surround 8: Trespass Reissue interview with the band 9: The Musical Box 10: For Absent Friends 11: The Return Of The Giant Hogweed 12: Seven Stones 13: Harold The Barrel 14: Harlequin 15: The Fountain Of Salmacis 16: Nursery Cryme in 5.1 DTS and 5.1 Dolby Surround 17: Nursery Cryme reissue interview with the band 18: Watcher Of The Skies 19: Time Table 20: Get 'Em Out By Friday 21: Can-Utility And The Coastliners 22: Horizon's 23: Supper's Ready 24: Foxtrot in 5.1 DTS and 5.1 Dolby Surround 25: Foxtrot reissue interview with the band 26: Belgium-Rock Of The '70s(1972) 27: Italy-Piper Club(1972) 28: Dancing With The Moonlight Knight 29: I Know What I Like(In Your Wardrobe) 30: Firth Of Fifth 31: More Fool Me 32: The Battle Of Epping Forest 33: After The Ordeal 34: The Cinema Show 35: Aisle Of Plenty 36: Selling England By The Pound in 5.1 DTS and 5.1 Dolby Surround 37: Selling England By The Pound reissue interview with the band 38: Shepperton Studios, Italian TV(1973) 39: Batacian, France(1973) 40: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway 41: Fly On A Windshield 42: Broadway Melody Of 43: Cuckoo Cocoon 44: In The Cage 45: The Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging 46: Back in NYC 47: Hairless Heart 48: Counting Out Time 49: Carpet Crawlers 50: The Chamber Of 32 Doors 51: Lilywhite Lilith 52: The Waiting Room 53: Anyway 54: Here Comes The Supernatural Anaesthetist 55: The Lamia 56: Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats 57: The Colony Of Slippermen(The Arrival/A Visit To The Doktor/Raven) 58: Ravine 59: The Light Dies Down On Broadway 60: Riding The Scree 61: In The Rapids 62: It 63: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway in 5.1 DTS and 5.1 Dolby Surround 64: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway reissue video with the band 65: Melody-French TV(1974) 66: Happy The Man 67: Twilight Alehouse 68: Going Out To Get You(Demo) 69: Sheperd(BBC Nightride 1970) 70: Pacidy(BBC Nightride 1970) 71: Let Us Now Make Love(BBC Nightride 1970) 72: Provocation(Genesis Plays Jackson) 73: Frustration(Genesis Plays Jackson) 74: Manipulation(Genesis Plays Jackson) 75: Resignation(Genesis Plays Jackson) 76: Extras 1970-1975 in 5.1 DTS and 5.1 Dolby Surround 77: Extras 1970-1975 reissue interview with the band 78: Box Set 1967-1975(VH1 Special) 79: Watcher Of The Skies-Midnight Special(1973) 80: The Musical Box-Midnight Special(1973)

Vast improvement over Definitive Edition remasters
Maybe the best remastering of CD's I have heard. The sound quality of the stereo remixes in this set is superb. Dramatically more clear, detailed, and powerful than the Definitive Edition remasters that preceded them. The albums themselves are priceless; each among the best ever in rock. One of the greatest bands ever at their peak. Absolutely essential set.

Hold on to your Definitive Editions from the 1990's
The purchase is worthwhile for some of the extras, particularly the original slide show from the "Lamb" tour, and for the novelty of the remixes. If you are a big fan of Gabriel-era Genesis, then there is no way to avoid buying this unless you can't afford it. However, this by no means should stand as history's primary enduring representation of these albums, and they certainly should not be expected to be an "improvement".

The "Definitive Edition" remasters of the 1990's still stand as the next best thing to pristine original vinyl.

In many cases, much of what made some of these songs special and groundbreaking is literally lost in the mix of this new edition. In particular, I single out "Back in N. Y. C. " in the new edition of "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" as being an unforgivable hatchet-job. I suspect that there were effects applied during the mix-down of the original album which were forgotten, impossible to re-produce, or simply not even considered by the new engineers. To make matters worse, the US edition does not include the hybrid SACDs, opting for standard CDs instead, and the mastering of the stereo mixes features some of the most excessive ham-handed brick-wall limiting I have ever seen. Somebody needed to tell the mastering engineer that this is art-rock, not nouveau-punk. I can only hope that SACD editions in Japan and the UK were mastered with a wider dynamic range, although I wouldn't bet on it.

As long as I'm being so sour, I should note that while I found the new interviews on the DVDs to be informative and very revelatory regarding the personalities and interactions of the band members, I must say I liked Tony Banks a whole lot more before I heard him whine and take cheap shots at Gabriel for hours on end. In the interviews, there appears to be a direct correlation between each band member's degree of solo success and how positive their comments were about other band members and past work, as well as their ration of screen time. Thus, Phil can afford to love everyone and everything, Peter is gracious if slightly arrogant, Mike is diplomatic and kind, Steve is curiously snobbish, and Tony is an ill-tempered toddler who didn't get what he wanted from Father Christmas. In terms of screen time, Tony gets more than his share, no doubt because he wanted it and nobody else saw any point in fighting about it.

I feel bad now, so please find and buy a copy of "The Fugitive" by Tony Banks; it is his best solo album and very much worth having.

Genesis Box Set #3 - The Gabriel Years
The first of these albums featured guitarist Anthony ("Ant") Phillips, while the rest feature Steve Hackett. This set takes us from the earliest Genesis (barring the "From Genesis to Revelation" album) to the time of Peter's leaving of the group (1975) and spans the albums Trespass, Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England By The Pound, and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. This box set contains many of my favorite Genesis tunes, and I am exceedingly happy with this set.

All of these albums have been painstakingly remastered and remixed, including 5. 1 surround sound. There are also extras of TV appearances and concert film work showing them at their finest, along with very interesting, and telling, commentary from all of the principle players.

All in all this is a very good sounding set thanks to Nick Davis and I appreciate the effort he put into these recordings. If you like the Gabriel years, you'll love this set. 5 stars. Highly recommended.

Depends on how you listen
However, whoever is in charge of remastering albums should be flogged. This is probably my favorite Genesis era and a newly mastered version is something to celebrate. The ongoing "loudness war" (Google it) is not resulting in "better" sound. I used to think remastered versions were somehow restored - kind of like how old movies are cleaned up and made to look new. Instead, engineers are just pumping up the volume so that on first listen (like at a CD store or online sample) the music sounds better. In fairness there is more to it than that but that is often the most noticeable change. To see this, load and old and remastered version of your favorite song into something like Audacity and note how much larger (i. e. higher amplitude) the waves are. Or just play and old and new version on the same stereo at the same volume level. If they keep doing this the peaks and valleys in the waveform get squished (compression) and you lose the dynamics of the music. You can also start clipping off the tops of peaks which isn't a good thing either and leads to a certain harshness in the music. Some music has been so overmastered as to be quite harsh - but depending on how you listen you might not care. [. . . ]

As for this box set, it is not as poorly mastered as some. It definitely has had its volume pumped up resulting in some compression and harshness to the sound. If your normal way of listening to music is to rip it and listen via an MP3 player through low quality earbuds, on a car stereo, or at max volume as you party with friends you won't notice anything and will probably be quite happy with this set. If, on the other hand, you like to sit down in front of a pair of nice speakers, or you have some high end headphones, and really LISTEN to music you might not be all that impressed. I find there to be enough harshness to the sound as to be less pleasant to listen to with a somewhat tiring effect on the ears (perhaps somewhat less so if you get the vinyl set but I've not heard that except via a lossless digital version which probably isn't perfectly equal in terms of loudness, etc. ). That said, it's not that bad and many people might not be all that sensitive to it. If you are someone who is sensitive, I would suggest finding a way to try before you buy.

Finally, there are times when this set sounds a bit different to my earlier copies. For example, the vocal effects on "The Knife" sound less pronounced and more hollow compared to my 1985 Charisma Records CD version (which is a cool collectors' edition with picture CDs). I like that version better than this new one. Tresspass is one of my favorite albums and I don't really enjoy listening to this new version. As always, your mileage may vary.

What's not to like?
The first Genesis song I heard was 'Misunderstanding', and I didn't like it! I remember changing the radio station when it came on. I was first introduced to Genesis in the 80s, and the introduction was not promising. However, a few years later they came out with Abacab, and I went from being a 'hater' to a fan. As a drummer, I never got tired of the musical bridge in the middle of the song. Then my parents found a real to real movie of Seconds Out at our local library, so they borrowed it. I was amazed at the beauty and complexity of their music and watched the reals over and over until the day we had to return it. After this I was completely hooked! A few years later a friend introduced me to the Gabriel years (music I had previously only heard sung by Phil Collins).

I have come to appreciate every period of Genesis and by the time I graduated college I owned a complete set of Genesis records and CDs. Unfortunately the records were lost in a flood and the CDs were sold in a fit of madness. I have found Genesis CDs to be the hardest to find anywhere, and when the box set of selected remasters showed up on the shelves of the PX in Camp Ceder II, Iraq, it set me on a trip of nostalgia that is finally coming to it's conclusion. Each box set has increased my appreciation for their music, but none as much as this latest instalment.

The interviews with the band are the best yet. It was great to hear Peter and Phil both complimenting and occasionally ribbing each other. It was also great to be able to put to rest many of the roumors I had heard over the years about the splits that occurred in the band. I had also come to enjoy the solo projects of Anthony Phillips and Steve Hacket, and it was good to learn so much more about these uniquely talented and quiet guitar players.

The mixes are a huge improvement. The sound has so much more space to it, and some of the songs described by the band as "too busy" were opened up and greatly improved. The bonus material was a pure delight, a glimps into some creative energy of the band that was lost to many of us. The only dissapointment was the complete neglect of the first album. While I understand that the band does not really consider this to be a "Genesis" album, many of us feel very differently about it, and would love to have heard a remix of this album. The other dissapointment was with the live video selections. There were several different versions of the same songs, especially Supper's Ready and Musical Box. While these are great songs, they were not the only great songs during this era, and I would like to have seen some of the others show up, especially Cinema Show.

Over all, though this is the best of the set, although I wouldn't want to be without any of them. This is a band that has truly lived up to the name "Progressive". Each album showed progress in style, technique and musical ability, without ever losing that unique Genesis "quirkiness" that made us all love them.

You can see a complete list of all Genesis discography, or go back to the Genesis tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.