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Reviews: Genesis 1970-1975

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Reviews: 9

Review by hifirene November 9, 2008 (4 of 6 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
Yesterday I listened to al the SACD’s in stereo (I’m waiting for my new Multi channel amp).
Started with my favored, Selling England.
In one word, fantastic, it never sounded so clear as this mastering.
The mixing is not very dividend then the original one, the voice of Peter is so live like, you almost can touch him.
There is no harshness and no irritating highs in the recording, instruments are also very live like and the basses are superb.
The rest of the box is almost on the same level, depending on the age of the recording.
Not one of my Toshiba cd’s or Classic Records vinyl’s sounds like this box.
This is just fantastic, this is totally other stuff then the two Genesis boxes.
It was worth waiting for.
I think that the influence of Peter Gabriel was a positive one on the remastering of this box.
Next week I will listening to the MC mix and I hope I will be as enthusiast for the box as I am now.

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Review by BigTony November 13, 2008 (13 of 14 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
Well its been a long wait, but finally the best stuff has made it onto my doormat and into my SACD player. I've only listened to the 5.1 channel version, but based upon the careful use of the surround mix assume the 2ch will also sound superb.

I listened to the original CD's last week, so I'd still have that sound in my memory prior to these turning up, and I can say I'm totally totally 'amped' by the sound. There is less of the 5.1 in the mix than on the 76-80 set, much more subtle, but the killer aspects of the SACD is PG vocals are now liberated, no longer muddy and hidden, you can hear the lyrics! And the soundstage for theinstruments is so improved, especially the bass, yocan actually hear whats ing on, rather than the old muddy CD version.

But the one fact everyone wnats to know .. No there is no sign of the 'over brightness' of the 76-80 sets, none of the slightly earpiercing highs that just get tiresome after 30 mins of so. What we have here is a beautiful sound, recreating the feel of the band, without going ott. There are just so much better dynamics, soundstage, instrument resolution, its worth buying a SACD player just to hear this music in its full glory.

The boxset is evidence of what can be done with the will of the production team, to recreate an audio masterpiece. Its a shame that many releases were just about coining in cash, rather than utilising the format.

Even if you were not a Genesis fan you should buy this :-) Everyone should hear the masters of progrock in there finest hours, going from album to album you can hear the music of the band evolving, exploring. This is a definitive masterpiece. Now buy it, or tell santa you've been a good girl/boy and this is what you deserve for xmass.

My system : Oppo 980h, DSD to Onkyo 805, Ruark Prologue One floorspeakers, subwoofer, center and MS bi-polar rears. PS send your family out to the pictures and turn it up!

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Review by Kikke November 14, 2008 (8 of 9 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:    
I actually wanted to write a story similar to the one 'Big Tony' did. All he states is so very, very true. I own Selling England on cd as well as on vinyl. This sacd version out performs them both by the same difference as the light from the moon and the sun where the latter represents the sacd sound. Indeed no harshness and overly brightness that is, unfortunately, so characteristic for the former releases.
I now understand why it took so long. If they re release the others in this quality I’d buy them all over again.
The surround mix is done perfectly. What a shame that this format is nearly dead for as far as non classical music is concerned. This release clearly shows that it took till now for the format to blossom.
The voice is mixed much better than in the Phil Collins versions. Instead of mixing the voice primarily on the center channel it’s now on the left and right as well putting it at the ‘height’ where it belongs. Where you can pin point the location of the center speaker in de earlier versions because of the voice the music now floats’ naturally coming from the space instead of the speakers.
This sacd is among the best ones ever released. It makes it worth investing in a full blown top quality surround set.

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Review by PLS December 8, 2008 (5 of 6 found this review helpful)
Sonics:  
I've been quite surprised with the level of detail of the PCM layer in this edition.The sounstage is much improved in all works!
The SA-CD (DSD layer) is a very good refinement of the pcm layer. Of course this depends of the hardware in the chain!
In this case, the surprise was "The lamb lies down on Broadway", compared to the "Definitive Edition Remaster! But dont underestimate the other works in this box,they are very good too!
I recommend this box without a doubt! It a very pleasent listening time!
Go for it, if you like the music!

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Review by mystic fred December 9, 2008 (6 of 7 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:    
No problems with compression, over-compensation, just pure clear full sound, and lots of details/alterations I have not heard before - "Supper's Ready" was always cited for less-than-average sound quality having been squashed on a single LP side, but here it is revealed in its full glory, the 5.1 channel layout used to its full advantage especially during "Willow Farm", its familiar little chirps and squeaks coming from everywhere! Nice to have included "Happy the Man" and "Twilight Alehouse", but "Genesis to Revelation" and "Genesis Live" should have been included..? Fabulous listening experience, many nice rare tracks and videos - a must-have for Prog fans who like to hear their music at its best!

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Review by Bayside Bomber January 14, 2009 (4 of 5 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
I was so excited when this finally arrived from Amazon.uk that I hardly knew where to start listening. Musical Box? Cinema Show? Supper's Ready? The Lamb? I barely saw my wife or my office in the subsequent two days.

A one word review: Wow! The multichannel recordings reveal so much about the music and the band that has been hidden until now. There is a heretofore unheard backing vocal on Fountain of Salmacis. There are both hi-hats and tambourines on Moonlit Knight. Peter's voice chokes up at the end of Musical Box. You get the idea. Indeed, the most amazing revelation is Peter Gabriel's voice. I used to marvel at how someone with such a raspy voice could managed to carry a tune and then was surprised when he seemed to improve as a singer after going solo. But these discs expose nuance and expressiveness in his vocals that prove he was always in total control. There are layers within layers in his vocals. (Unfortunately, the discs do nothing for his flute.) The SACDs also do justice to Steve Hackett and Phil Collins -- the older issues were just too damn compressed to hear individual musician's voice.

The producers make interesting use of the multichannel capabilities. Peter's vocals are nearly always front and center, as is Steve Hackett's guitar (at least when he is playing lead). Tony Bank's solos are usually front and center as well, but on Firth of Fifth the keyboards are largely in the rear channels until the key change near the end of the song when they move forward (with the tide?). Ambience that was drowned in the original stereo mixes is now allowed to breath in the rear channels. And there is a ton of ambience. Phil Collins drums are mixed rather curiously -- hi-hats are usually in the rear but drums are in the front -- but it seems to work.

I have lived and loved these albums for over 30 years. This week I discovered them afresh. A truly jaw dropping experience.

By the way, I purchased this from amazon.uk for about $130 US. It took five weeks to arrive. I have a region free DVD player but I have yet to watch the videos.

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Review by chromal February 9, 2009 (15 of 16 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
Imported from the UK as I live in the USA where I understand the box set bizarrely omits the SACD remasters. UK edition DVD content seemed to play without region-code objection. Could these be region-free discs? They're really well worth checking out because of the video interview content with the band members; I've learned a lot.

Anyway, the SACD remasters. At this point, I've listened to most of the seven included SACDs at least twice, so I likely have a lot left to discover, but have been listening to the 'definitive CD remastered' editions for years now...

As a CD album, Trespass never really took off for me. Although there are some terrific early songs, the album listening experience was marred by the many layers losing coherence. (This is a problem with any of the CD editions of albums featured in this set, but particularly the earlier Trespass through Foxtrot albums.)

I honestly wasn't sure what to expect when I loaded Trespass; the previous CD mixdown just didn't cast the vocals or instrumentals in a flattering light... I always had assumed as a young band, Genesis simply didn't have access to good recording production. Fortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case at all; the fidelity of the eight-channel studio multitracks is remarkable and no song goes untransformed. "Looking for Someone" takes on a soulful intensity that never quite shone through before, "White Mountain" also shines anew. The vocal backings in "Visions of Angels" are reilluminated, as is all the rest of the album, really. Finally, and this is true of all the SACD remasters, the channelized bass finally has the room it needs to breath, and the fifth member's contributions shine as much at the bottom end as the rest in the hi-frequency ranges. Although this lineup lacks Steve Hackett and Phil Collins, Anthony Phillips and John Mayhew should look back with pride over what they and Genesis accomplished, revealed in true form for its first time on SACD.

Musically, things move to a new level with Nursery Cryme and Foxtrox. Sonically, both are similar and somewhat distinct from Trespass. They share the same level of dramatic improvement as Trespass in the jump to SACD; the clarity and definition of the instruments has been elevated from wall of sound to soundscape by the fidelity of the format. Genesis is doing so much, and in such a wide dynamic range, and again, these albums have been allowed to unfold and spread their wings.

As the box set proceeds on through time, more 'radio hit' type songs come up, like "Harold the Barrel" or "I Know What I Like" from Selling England benefit no less from the fidelity jumps, although they sounded OK on CD, there's no comparing the presence of the two.

Lamb Lies Down on Broadway does no less excellently, sonically, say what you will about the album's overall songwriting consistency, its highlights more than make up for its weakest moments, and the SACD remaster treatment takes it, too, to a new level.

Overall, listening to the Genesis remasters has me wondering what other rock master tapes could, and should be unearthed and treated similarly. SACD Led Zepplin IV, anyone?

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Review by audiogirl April 11, 2014 (8 of 19 found this review helpful)
Sonics:  
Does not get much worse than this. Not only did they remix the albums, they torched the dynamics & applied excessive EQ. This is how you destroy works of art.

Foxtrot
DR13
DR10 (SACD)

Nursery Cryme
DR12
DR9 (SACD)

Selling England by the Pound
DR14
DR10 (SACD)

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
DR12
DR8 (SACD)

Trespass
DR13
DR9 (SACD)

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Review by madfloyd May 2, 2014 (2 of 6 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
I have to agree with audiogirl, this is a wasted opportunity.

Perhaps the folks that think this sounds good have very mediocre systems. I have a good one and find this almost unlistenable as it is so fatiguing. The highs are cranked up and vocals HURT.

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