I absolutely adore this album- My favourite Genesis solo album in fact. It was originally supposed to be a joint project with Mike Rutherford, but Mike was busy touring (although he did still contribute to the album). Check out the followup- Wise After the Event, which has Ant on lead vocals on every track. Also, Chinese Mushroom Cloud is a slowed-down portion of the title track which Ant discovered by accident when messing with the tapes. Similar with Wind: Tales which is a part of Sleepfall played backwards!
You like this better than the 1st 4 Gabriel albums? I can understand that it is the most “Genesis-like” solo album. And yes, I bought it when it came out.
Lovely work - with every passing sequence my mind passes over another hill of rolling countryside. I could spend an entire day playing this over and over.
Yes, you did listen the album the right way, the complete side uninterrupted so you can appreciate the last two songs better 👍🏻 I really like what you said about the album, an important album of my teenage years 😀 Now it’s time for Wise After The Event, Antony Phillips masterpiece 😉
I really can't praise Ant enough for he's work in Genesis and his solo albums. The 70's catalogue are awsome, and to my ears quite near Tony's compositions in mood and expression,. and i really also have to mention his wonderful Scottish suite from Private Parts and Pieces2 album. As Tony said, he was the driving force of Genesis in their early stages, and the most talented of us all! I think you can hear his influence througout the Gabriel period..
I love this album. Thanks to whomever suggested it. Great song and review. Am looking forward to next plunge into Patrick Watson. "Lucy's Water" and "Beijing" are much more active.
This ones up there with the best Genesis solo albums out there due to its immense character and the emotional force behind Ant's playing. It is wonderfully entrancing and didn't only function as an attempt to climb the charts or simply appease the general listener, instead attracting a deeper style of musical consumption. Absolutely stunning songwriting from Ant here and its difficult to deny that his talent shines best on this record - not to discredit other genesis solo records but I truly believe that this is the most earnest and resultantly beautiful record out of them all.
If you like Ant Phillips' vocals definitely check out his impressive 2nd album where he sings all the songs and definitely check out 'Master of Time' which was a bonus song off The Geese and the Ghost album, which is I think is one of the greatest songs of all time.
@@gaiaeternal5131 The BBT cover is far better (in every way). Love Ant but he's no vocalist. Did the right thing getting PC to sing on side one. Those tracks are just gorgeous.
If you want to hear what Phillips and Hackett sound like together, listen to Emerald & Ash from Hackett. Phillips came in to play 12-string backing and it’s lovely.
Two peas of the same pod, wish they would work together more. It's no wonder Steve took his place. Huge respect for both of them. Of course even within the same pod, not all peas are created equal. They all have their own unique shapes.
@@mrtyreus0 Phillips has repeatedly said he doesn’t want to work with Hackett (and certain other people) because he fears the creative process might ruin their friendship.
This is wonderful. It’s nice to hear solo work. Then you understand the contribution they made to the group. Love the textures in this and the early Genesis albums. It’s very visual inducing.
Thanks for reacting to this beautiful album Justin. I bought the LP when it was first released and as a "mad as" Genesis fan at the time, I totally loved it. I have to admit I haven't listened to "The Geese and The Ghost" in probably 40 years. So good to hear it again! You've inspired me to dust off some other Ant Phillips vinyl in my collection and search for some of his more recent releases that I have missed. Keep up the great work JP!
Anthony Phillips has many, many albums, but one I'll recommend from many years later is Slow Dance. It's a full album suite with some more electronic elements but still an organic sound. It's very good.
I'm still here, not as frequently as before I went back to work, but I have been keeping track. Glad to see you get to this gorgeous album. It all seems to keep coming back to "Stagnation". His contribution to Genesis can be felt as far ahead as Selling England. Greetings, Justin, greetings from Disneyland.
His best album by far. The Private Parts & Pieces albums are great, but frequently just lots of 12-string (which I love, but many don't). On some days, this is my favorite album by a member of Genesis. You can see how much influence he had on the band.
Love this album to bits. It belongs in the Genesis canon, alongside Trespass and Voyage of the Acolyte by Hackett. I love 12 string guitars, and this album is quite simply 12 string heaven! It never ceases to amaze me how every member - or former member - of Genesis went on to have a remarkable solo career. Gabriel, Collins, Rutherford, Hackett, Phillips, even Banks, even though his albums weren't quite as successful. The amount of talent in this band is just mind-blowing. I'm not the biggest fan of Ant' singing voice, though, which is why I'm not a huge fan of the albums he produced after G&tG. However, i dig his Private Parts & Pieces series a lot, especially the early ones.
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but the two shorter tracks on this album are actually tape-manipulated versions of others. Wind Tales is a reversed excerpt from Sleepfall and Chinese Mushroom Cloud is the slowed excerpt of the same progression from The Geese and the Ghost with some ominous cello overdubbed.
There’s a bonus track on this album (and which is personally my favorite) called “Master of Time” that I think you may enjoy, sadly it often gets left off of the album. It’s a beautiful, melancholy song that has helped me through a lot.
At first didn’t like it much but just recently came back to it and it’s amazing. I think maybe I was just not listening in the right setting like you were saying. The entire album is awesome. And “god if I saw her now” is great just by itself 11/10.
Suffocation by peace is a thought only you could come up with:D Definitely an album for relaxing. Something that might show up on a new age station.Ty to you Justin:-)
You and I: like minds. Thank you. I really enjoyed that. For long form Saturdays a couple of suggestions: 1. Smallcreep's Day 2. The Day the Earth Caught Fire Thanks, JP. Appreciate you...
Smallcreeps day is a really good album. (good call for a listen and reaction too). Beats the heck out of all the other solo albums Mike Rutherford did (Inc the mechanics ones). How he followed it with 'Acting very strange' is beyond me. Probably the worst album I've ever heard.
Have loved Trespass since 1974 when i got the album but was unaware of G&tG until a couple months ago in comments to one of your vids some mention of it so checked it out, loved it, & got the CD. I get a feeling of 'yugen' when i listen to G&tG. Like when a ship is seen in the distance shrouded in mist slowly passing behind an island. Or the silence of a country hillside in the early morning is accentuated further by a quite sound of a lone cow bell in the distance. 🌅
@@JustJP Wrote a comment because u specifically asked and express my appreciation for ur keeping this lovely channel going, and sharing something of yourself. Tk u!
The oboe here is Robin Miller, who also plays on Lizard, particularly the Bolero. Probably not a coincidence that two of the most beautiful pieces in the prog canon share that common thread.
I always liked that album although I prefer more powerful sounds. But this is, as you said Justin, very emotional and well composed and leads to peace and quiet.
Don't forget to listen to Silver Song. A nice little ditty sung by the Genesis drummer about another Genesis drummer. It was never officially released until the remaster of this album.
Another great release inspired by The Geese and the Ghost is The Master and the Musician. It's by my favorite guitarist Phil Keaggy. Another masterpiece well worth your time.
I felt you kept reading my mind during this reaction, don't do that. ;-) Around the 12 min. mark I was hearing 'The Musical Box' with Old King Cole. You can definitely hear where the Ant part of Genesis fit in. I can't know what he was thinking but I'd guess he wanted his beautiful melodies heard more (something I've heard Tony Banks complain about too) which is why there are so few lyrics on this album. Like you I was wondering what this would have sounded like with some Peter Gabriel lyrics attached to it. It's a pleasant listen yes but how much greater could it have been? Anyway it's the perfect antidote to Lorna Shore, as if Phillips knew it was coming 44 years later and gave us this gift.
Ambient folk prog? So hard to classify this so I won’t, I’ll just enjoy it. Funny, the parts where I wish he would develop further would likely become Genesis rather than Anthony, so I trust his artistic intent. It is his album after all. Thanks for doing this JP!
Good choice for reacting to. If you dig in the solo records of all this great musicians, you’ve got to react to one of the greatest, Fish Out of Water by Chris Squire. Great songs with no guitar sounds. Reminds me the Renaissance prog band arrangements.
Btw I would like to suggest that you make a Spotify playlist with all the songs you’ve listened to on the channel and sharing it. I always enjoy your personality and hearing your thoughts but for some reason I can’t really connect to the music on a first listen here. I almost never pickup new songs from your vids. Idk what it is but I can’t. It would be cool to put all the songs on shuffle and like skip songs I don’t like and then if I find a track I reallly like I can come to the channel and look at your review on it, bc that’s how I normally do it anyway. I search up “justjp Anthony Phillips” or something to see if youve reviewed it. Idk if that’s just me but I would love if you did it! Have a good one.
Interesting history behind this album. It's really a Phillips-Rutherford project but Mike's commitments to Genesis meant Ant had to do most of the work pulling it over the finish line. Plus the difficulties securing label support and distribution, which is understandable considering how... non-commercial the album is. You'd think Virgin would have been interested considering the parallels to some Mike Oldfield music, but I guess this was even too "twee" and pastoral for them. It is definitely "of its time" in many ways, and yes -- the Camel comparisons are apt.
Chinese Mushroom Cloud is obviously a slow rehearsal in a later section of the title track, which I guess he likes so much he decided to use it on its own, but why he called it that, I don't know.
I think the electric guitar and drum notes sound, like JP mentioned, a bomb going off, like watching videos of those atomic bombs in slow motion. The Japanese apparently dropped a bomb on Shanghai before WWII, maybe that’s part of the reference. Or maybe he thought the 12-string guitar played at this speed gives it a Chinese vibe..? Who knows... Maybe even the Chinese mushrooms in Disney’s Fantasia, could be so many things. I’m pretty sure Ant is a classical fan, though.
@@annualblood3032 I get that, but then why not call it Japanese Mushroom Cloud? It seems a ver odd title on an album filled with very idyllic (or, with Henry, wartime), English pastoral and romantic themes set around tudor times. The only other exception is the gun that shot the swallow down at the end of Collections, but otherwise having a 20th century asian reference always seemed odd.
Ah, mushrooms and clouds, what's not to like? This use to be my goto last thing at night fall to sleep record, back in the day. Never used to fall to sleep until the geese had flew west, or the aliens had abducted me, one of the two. This album contains real magic.
I have a request for 'Long Song Saturday'. At 12 minutes and 21 seconds, 'Carrying No Cross' by U.K. is a piece of music that I am quite certain you will love. Maybe not as much as you loved 'Lizard', but I'm sure you'll love it, regardless 🙂
"All the world's a stage" is from Shakespeare's As You Like It -- someone else wrote the lines about a friend. The 1936 movie starts it at 43 minutes. ua-cam.com/video/wFChichBoPI/v-deo.html This play is also where the term "Motley Fool" originated.
I agree that Chinese Mushroom Cloud should have been developed more. This album has some nice pastoral sounds but it also lacks the harder substance and gritty moments that one might find on the "sister album", Trespass. Ant Phillips on his own, misses out on the drama and narrative power that his old muso mates provide. 😎 Thanks for the review.
Ant, far from being just a 12 string master he is truly a multiple instrumentalist, he plays so many instruments I Mean for instance just listen to that piano at the end.
Hi Justin, I have to be honest, you nearly made me cry when you started singing ‘Turn it on Again’, because it reminded me of a UA-cam video of the ongoing Genesis tour I started watching yesterday. Phil Collins looked and sounded so ill 😩 he shouldn’t be onstage really. I could only watch a few minutes because it was tortuous to see Phil as a shadow of his former self. Hobbling onstage with a stick, sitting down and unable to drum, and in my opinion unable to sing in tune too. As a huge Genesis fan, I saw them live in 2007 and they were amazing, but they should’ve left it there. My memories of Genesis live have now been forever tarnished. It’s just so sad 😩. What do you think JP?
I think Phil isn't in too much pain - I saw the entire show (fan video), and he let the backup singers do the high notes. Having Nic his son on the drums is endearing - he does his Dad proud. The tour is coming to the US in November - I am concerned about those two consecutive dates for Chicago, and there is barely a day's rest in between the other shows, which concerns me.
Thank you Andy:) I think the tour is doing well as their last hurrah. For those like myself who discovered them only in recent years, its a gift to be able to see them (though unfortunately they werent in my area lol)
If you look at the complete works of all the members of Genesis and realize that this talent was congregated into one band in their early twenties you can see why there was some conflict
Since you've listened to a variety of Genesis albums and seemed to have enjoyed some of the members' solo stuff (Gabriel, Phillips and Collins)... I highly recommend you to turn you eyes and ears over to Tony Banks' first solo effort: "A Curious Feeling". That album shows just how important Tony was to the overall sound of Genesis. Not only an underrated piece of work compared to the ones from his peers, but also in general. Great video as always, keep up the good work!
I struggle to get into Genesis but this I like being one step removed. I think 80s Phill Collins ruined it for me . I new the latter before the former. I have the album Trespass which I enjoy . Any Suggestions on how to fill the prog hole that is genesis.
Hi Justin, great album, another good Anthony Phillips album is ‘Wise After the Event”. Unlike Geese & Ghost it’s mainly songs. Anthony actually sings on the album, he’s not got a great voice though, it’s an acquired taste, his vocals can be a bit whiney! 😁
Agree, I think his voice is dreadful as a lead. 'Now what are they doing to my little friends' off 'Wise after the event' is real suicide stuff. In fairness.. the rest arent far behind. Still a better album than 'Sides' though...
Afternoon, Justin. Dave from Across The Ocean. I like your review of this album, but don't share all of your enthusiasm for it. No doubt there's plenty of pastoral beauty here and shades of early Genesis, but he seems to me to be stuck in a Trespass time warp. Remember, the band (and music generally) had evolved hugely by the time Geese came out. I recall listening to it on the radio in the late 70s and considering it rather 'old hat'. Maybe, as it sounds a bit New Age, it was years before its time, but I can't help thinking that Ant would not have been so well known, had he not been an ex member of Genesis. I do like this type of acoustic guitar driven rock music, but I was more into artists like Gordon Giltrap and Al Stewart in the 70s and, later on, Stephen Caudel. BTW, the later vocal track sounds to me a bit like Time by the Alan Parsons Project.
This was Ant's first solo album. So even though it was released many years after Trespass, it had been years in the making, and it's understandable that it was his continuation of ideas from Trespass. That a pastoral acoustic album was released at the height of the punk movement didn't help though.
The thing I love about this is it reminds me of Genesis. The thing I hate about it is it doesn't remind me of Genesis. Let me be clearer, it has beautiful moments, great melodies, swoonful key changes just like my favourite Genesis moments and the I remember that Genesis was always a collective:Ant would bring that pastoral feel, Tony would bring Bach or Debussy, Mike would bring his Rock & Melodic sensibilities, Phil would bring weird time signatures and Beatlsy pop, Steve would bring colour and fire. What I'm missing is all the other things that mad Genesis great. Anthony Philips is a great musician but - personally - I need some other flavours.
Back in the day, Steve Hackett teamed w/Steve Howe of Yes to make an album together (GTR). It would have been interesting if Hackett teamed w/Phillips instead. GTR was too commercial sounding for me. Not bad, but not what I would have expected from those two. Phillips is such an underrated talent. And his solo discography is about as large as Hackett's is. I think that combination would have been awesome. Maybe even a Genesis (early prog that is) parallel. "Chinese Mushroom Cloud". Yes, too short. But as in an atomic mushroom cloud, BOOM....it's over. ;)
Ant and Steve are very close friends of late, as they have a great deal in common. But mostly they get together for dinner and conversation. Ant appears on a few of Steve's recordings, but he's said in interviews that he thinks trying to do an album together would damage the friendship.
I wish you would stay out of my record collection! If you scratch it, we will have words! Try my books for some weekend reading. I recommend " Humans Are Imaginary Constructs." by I.M. Notabot, or "The Bands Revenge" by Mike Les Singer. Happy reading-ha ha and an excellent weekend to you, Peace.
I'm glad you mentioned Camel's 'Snow Goose' as this album certainly has a similar ambience without really reaching the heights of that album (unless, as you point out, it's for a stingy 43 seconds at a time) Other parts certainly sound like they could have been a highlight on a follow-up to Trespass but overall it's a bit cloying, uses too much 12 string guitar (and too many strings generally) and there's a fine line between allowing you to relax and putting you to sleep. It's a fine attempt but, for me, just doesn't get the pass marks.
Ken L - So this Album is not for you try Slow dance and parts and pieces series Maybe then you might consider that Ant is a Multi Instrumentalist on a par with the likes of Mike Oldfield.
Well it was completely new to me, I confess I was ignorant of who the artist was - but I enjoyed ten minutes of it and recommended it to friends who will probably be laughing that I didnt know the Genesis connection. Now - a question - TOPOGRAPHY OF THE LUNGS ... HAS ANYONE ANY RECOLLECTION OF THAT EXTREMELY UNUSUAL ALBUM FROM THE 80'S? I can't remember how I got rid if it - I think I gave it to a friend who was into anything pretentious but I wouldn;t mind hearing (how awful it was) again after all these years ... it sounded like 30 minutes of pianos being attacked by feathers, mushy peas, hammers, just about anything that would make a noise ... Maybe it was better than I remember - It wasn't very musical anyway as I recollect. Don't tell me - I gave away one of the rarest records in music history? I doubt it. I'd rather listen to Ernie, The Fastest Milkman in The West by Benny Hill, back to back for 24 hours. Or "Lieutenant pigeon's" TRAIN SOUNDS ALBUM that followed their number one hit featuring their grannie on piano, MOULDY OLD DOUGH. Now that IS a pop classic - One of the oddest hits ever - I can't believe I actually BOUGHT it - The B SIDE was astonishingly cr..p ... They obviously didn;t have even one other single musical idea to put on the B side SO THEY PUT ON ABOUT 60 SECONDS OF A BASS GUITAR RIFFING ON ONE NOTE AND CALLED IT A TAKE ... The grooves were so spaced out, being such a short "song" - you could park a car between the grooves - well, you could cut another song between that groove - which Monty Python actually did on one of their albums - clever trick - so you never knew which groove the stylus would land in and which version of side 2 it would play. Sorry for going on. Interesting channel. I keep recommending it.
You’ve ruined The G and the G with you growling tune yesterday. Now, at hesitation points in the sequence I expect grunting and groaning etc. Honestly, it’s been a little hard to shake off. I’ll live. Just ribbing you, now and yesterday. Some parts of today’s gem remind me of Ambient 3: Day Of Radiance with Laraaji. Sadly, like this, it a bit repetitive and samey. Question, do you not listen to sent music like CDs in case you want to react to them? Or do need permission to listen cuz you have my permission, I hereby bequeath music upon thee to enjoy at your convenience, let be said, let be known to the community realm. Ahem. I know, a bit much. Peace and totes ambient Music
Never one to shy away from a cliche, 'well that's 24mins, 6secs I wont get back'. Sorry, but i found this insipid, uninspired, and dull. Not to mention Hallmarky. Track 1, what was the point? T2, weak, repetitive. Occasional flashes you thought might herald an upturn, change, then, no. T3, twee. T4, Shorter rerun of T2. Which, BTW, I thought largely lifted from The Skye Boat Song. Much a repeat of S1, which at least had 'God if I saw her now' to redeem it. Sadly, no redemption this side.
@@-davidolivares Hallmarky, good word eh. No, i think it'd take more than a sunny day to give this ditty any appeal, to me anyway. Though maybe you're onto something. Here it's dull, cloudy and been raining the last 15 hrs. And it's set to continue for the next 3 to 4 days... if that's any consolation. I'll give it another listen when the suns out, you never know, i may be full of praise then :)
Hallmarky? Hmm…. Have you ever seen any Hallmark movies? I know I have. Over and over and over again. Ad nauseam. My wife loves them. And we’ll watch them over and over (even though I really don’t want to) because she loves them. And if they make her happy then that’s all that matters to me. So, if this album ( a favorite of mine since I bought the album back in the ‘70’s) is Hallmarky, then I need to add this to my playlist so that we can listen to it when we’re in the car driving around. Thanks for giving me the idea.
I absolutely adore this album- My favourite Genesis solo album in fact. It was originally supposed to be a joint project with Mike Rutherford, but Mike was busy touring (although he did still contribute to the album). Check out the followup- Wise After the Event, which has Ant on lead vocals on every track. Also, Chinese Mushroom Cloud is a slowed-down portion of the title track which Ant discovered by accident when messing with the tapes. Similar with Wind: Tales which is a part of Sleepfall played backwards!
You like this better than the 1st 4 Gabriel albums? I can understand that it is the most “Genesis-like” solo album. And yes, I bought it when it came out.
Anthony Phillips is BY FAR my favorite solo Genesis member. His whole discography is so rich with variety and beauty. Keep listening!!
Lovely work - with every passing sequence my mind passes over another hill of rolling countryside. I could spend an entire day playing this over and over.
Yes, you did listen the album the right way, the complete side uninterrupted so you can appreciate the last two songs better 👍🏻 I really like what you said about the album, an important album of my teenage years 😀 Now it’s time for Wise After The Event, Antony Phillips masterpiece 😉
I really can't praise Ant enough for he's work in Genesis and his solo albums. The 70's catalogue are awsome, and to my ears quite near Tony's compositions in mood and expression,. and i really also have to mention his wonderful Scottish suite from Private Parts and Pieces2 album.
As Tony said, he was the driving force of Genesis in their early stages, and the most talented of us all! I think you can hear his influence througout the Gabriel period..
Yes, “Scottish Suite” is terrific!
I love this album. Thanks to whomever suggested it.
Great song and review. Am looking forward to next plunge into Patrick Watson. "Lucy's Water" and "Beijing" are much more active.
This ones up there with the best Genesis solo albums out there due to its immense character and the emotional force behind Ant's playing. It is wonderfully entrancing and didn't only function as an attempt to climb the charts or simply appease the general listener, instead attracting a deeper style of musical consumption. Absolutely stunning songwriting from Ant here and its difficult to deny that his talent shines best on this record - not to discredit other genesis solo records but I truly believe that this is the most earnest and resultantly beautiful record out of them all.
If you like Ant Phillips' vocals definitely check out his impressive 2nd album where he sings all the songs and definitely check out 'Master of Time' which was a bonus song off The Geese and the Ghost album, which is I think is one of the greatest songs of all time.
I know the Big Big Train cover of Master of Time. Good song; I'll check out the original.
@@gaiaeternal5131 The BBT cover is far better (in every way). Love Ant but he's no vocalist. Did the right thing getting PC to sing on side one. Those tracks are just gorgeous.
Master of time is a really great song.
@@gedfaz I love Ant's vocals. There's a real vulnerability to them. Nicer than Nad's Punch & Judy nasally singing!
@@FLASHAHOLIC_TV Yeah not a fan of Nads singing either.... Stops me getting into the Genesis revisited stuff. Shame really.
I love this. What a nice discovery. Yes, the album remains in the same mood, but I think this is really gorgeous music.
If you want to hear what Phillips and Hackett sound like together, listen to Emerald & Ash from Hackett. Phillips came in to play 12-string backing and it’s lovely.
Two peas of the same pod, wish they would work together more. It's no wonder Steve took his place. Huge respect for both of them.
Of course even within the same pod, not all peas are created equal. They all have their own unique shapes.
@@mrtyreus0 Phillips has repeatedly said he doesn’t want to work with Hackett (and certain other people) because he fears the creative process might ruin their friendship.
This is wonderful. It’s nice to hear solo work. Then you understand the contribution they made to the group. Love the textures in this and the early Genesis albums. It’s very visual inducing.
Thanks for reacting to this beautiful album Justin. I bought the LP when it was first released and as a "mad as" Genesis fan at the time, I totally loved it. I have to admit I haven't listened to "The Geese and The Ghost" in probably 40 years. So good to hear it again! You've inspired me to dust off some other Ant Phillips vinyl in my collection and search for some of his more recent releases that I have missed. Keep up the great work JP!
Anthony Phillips has many, many albums, but one I'll recommend from many years later is Slow Dance. It's a full album suite with some more electronic elements but still an organic sound. It's very good.
I'm still here, not as frequently as before I went back to work, but I have been keeping track. Glad to see you get to this gorgeous album. It all seems to keep coming back to "Stagnation". His contribution to Genesis can be felt as far ahead as Selling England. Greetings, Justin, greetings from Disneyland.
His best album by far. The Private Parts & Pieces albums are great, but frequently just lots of 12-string (which I love, but many don't). On some days, this is my favorite album by a member of Genesis. You can see how much influence he had on the band.
Also, you'll be hard-pressed to find a bigger fan of Ant's solo works than me. ;)
Love this album to bits. It belongs in the Genesis canon, alongside Trespass and Voyage of the Acolyte by Hackett. I love 12 string guitars, and this album is quite simply 12 string heaven! It never ceases to amaze me how every member - or former member - of Genesis went on to have a remarkable solo career. Gabriel, Collins, Rutherford, Hackett, Phillips, even Banks, even though his albums weren't quite as successful. The amount of talent in this band is just mind-blowing.
I'm not the biggest fan of Ant' singing voice, though, which is why I'm not a huge fan of the albums he produced after G&tG. However, i dig his Private Parts & Pieces series a lot, especially the early ones.
Ok......I like. never heard his solo work. This and Renaissance are now my 2 favorite things your channel has introduced me to.
This album has a lovely ambience. Thanks.
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but the two shorter tracks on this album are actually tape-manipulated versions of others. Wind Tales is a reversed excerpt from Sleepfall and Chinese Mushroom Cloud is the slowed excerpt of the same progression from The Geese and the Ghost with some ominous cello overdubbed.
There’s a bonus track on this album (and which is personally my favorite) called “Master of Time” that I think you may enjoy, sadly it often gets left off of the album. It’s a beautiful, melancholy song that has helped me through a lot.
At first didn’t like it much but just recently came back to it and it’s amazing. I think maybe I was just not listening in the right setting like you were saying. The entire album is awesome. And “god if I saw her now” is great just by itself 11/10.
> the entire album
Too bad this isn’t a version of the album with Master of Time as the bonus track. Love that song.
Suffocation by peace is a thought only you could come up with:D Definitely an album for relaxing. Something that might show up on a new age station.Ty to you Justin:-)
Glad you enjoyed it Mark :)
Justin, did you change your PO box# Your previous videos say 678616 but this video says 678stJP/616. Maybe you just got a bigger PO box. Wondering
You and I: like minds.
Thank you. I really enjoyed that.
For long form Saturdays a couple of suggestions:
1. Smallcreep's Day
2. The Day the Earth Caught Fire
Thanks, JP. Appreciate you...
Smallcreeps day is a really good album. (good call for a listen and reaction too). Beats the heck out of all the other solo albums Mike Rutherford did (Inc the mechanics ones). How he followed it with 'Acting very strange' is beyond me. Probably the worst album I've ever heard.
Have loved Trespass since 1974 when i got the album but was unaware of G&tG until a couple months ago in comments to one of your vids some mention of it so checked it out, loved it, & got the CD. I get a feeling of 'yugen' when i listen to G&tG. Like when a ship is seen in the distance shrouded in mist slowly passing behind an island. Or the silence of a country hillside in the early morning is accentuated further by a quite sound of a lone cow bell in the distance. 🌅
Thats a wonderful way of describing how it makes you feel Cornell :)
@@JustJP Wrote a comment because u specifically asked and express my appreciation for ur keeping this lovely channel going, and sharing something of yourself. Tk u!
@@cornellrosiu8818 Thank YOU! Really appreciate that :)
I really enjoyed Side One and this is just as good! Now I want the LP and a new turntable. Oh man, my wife is going to kill me … 😉
The oboe here is Robin Miller, who also plays on Lizard, particularly the Bolero. Probably not a coincidence that two of the most beautiful pieces in the prog canon share that common thread.
Easy listening, but in a good way. Meditative, evocative and at times, spellbinding.
Amazing how one can also see why Hackett became the logical replacement.
such a beautiful album.
Hi Justin, thanks for the video, another great Genesis solo album would be Mike Rutherford’s first ‘Smallcreep’s day’. Cheers Justin! 😁
The bonus track Master of Time is a favorite of mine.
I always liked that album although I prefer more powerful sounds. But this is, as you said Justin, very emotional and well composed and leads to peace and quiet.
Don't forget to listen to Silver Song. A nice little ditty sung by the Genesis drummer about another Genesis drummer. It was never officially released until the remaster of this album.
Another great release inspired by The Geese and the Ghost is The Master and the Musician. It's by my favorite guitarist Phil Keaggy. Another masterpiece well worth your time.
Just what the doctor ordered for Saturday.
I felt you kept reading my mind during this reaction, don't do that. ;-) Around the 12 min. mark I was hearing 'The Musical Box' with Old King Cole. You can definitely hear where the Ant part of Genesis fit in. I can't know what he was thinking but I'd guess he wanted his beautiful melodies heard more (something I've heard Tony Banks complain about too) which is why there are so few lyrics on this album. Like you I was wondering what this would have sounded like with some Peter Gabriel lyrics attached to it. It's a pleasant listen yes but how much greater could it have been?
Anyway it's the perfect antidote to Lorna Shore, as if Phillips knew it was coming 44 years later and gave us this gift.
Ambient folk prog? So hard to classify this so I won’t, I’ll just enjoy it. Funny, the parts where I wish he would develop further would likely become Genesis rather than Anthony, so I trust his artistic intent. It is his album after all. Thanks for doing this JP!
17:40 that’s literally Stagnation by Genesis
I recommend his 1997 disc Dragonfly Dreams. Some rare artistry.
Good choice for reacting to. If you dig in the solo records of all this great musicians, you’ve got to react to one of the greatest, Fish Out of Water by Chris Squire. Great songs with no guitar sounds. Reminds me the Renaissance prog band arrangements.
I think he has done one song.
JP has done hold out your hand.
@@skunkworksu7638 Your right, but in this album the best is yet to come. 😍👍
Btw I would like to suggest that you make a Spotify playlist with all the songs you’ve listened to on the channel and sharing it. I always enjoy your personality and hearing your thoughts but for some reason I can’t really connect to the music on a first listen here. I almost never pickup new songs from your vids. Idk what it is but I can’t. It would be cool to put all the songs on shuffle and like skip songs I don’t like and then if I find a track I reallly like I can come to the channel and look at your review on it, bc that’s how I normally do it anyway. I search up “justjp Anthony Phillips” or something to see if youve reviewed it. Idk if that’s just me but I would love if you did it! Have a good one.
Interesting history behind this album. It's really a Phillips-Rutherford project but Mike's commitments to Genesis meant Ant had to do most of the work pulling it over the finish line. Plus the difficulties securing label support and distribution, which is understandable considering how... non-commercial the album is. You'd think Virgin would have been interested considering the parallels to some Mike Oldfield music, but I guess this was even too "twee" and pastoral for them. It is definitely "of its time" in many ways, and yes -- the Camel comparisons are apt.
Chinese Mushroom Cloud is obviously a slow rehearsal in a later section of the title track, which I guess he likes so much he decided to use it on its own, but why he called it that, I don't know.
I think the electric guitar and drum notes sound, like JP mentioned, a bomb going off, like watching videos of those atomic bombs in slow motion. The Japanese apparently dropped a bomb on Shanghai before WWII, maybe that’s part of the reference. Or maybe he thought the 12-string guitar played at this speed gives it a Chinese vibe..? Who knows... Maybe even the Chinese mushrooms in Disney’s Fantasia, could be so many things. I’m pretty sure Ant is a classical fan, though.
@@annualblood3032 I get that, but then why not call it Japanese Mushroom Cloud? It seems a ver odd title on an album filled with very idyllic (or, with Henry, wartime), English pastoral and romantic themes set around tudor times. The only other exception is the gun that shot the swallow down at the end of Collections, but otherwise having a 20th century asian reference always seemed odd.
Ah, mushrooms and clouds, what's not to like? This use to be my goto last thing at night fall to sleep record, back in the day. Never used to fall to sleep until the geese had flew west, or the aliens had abducted me, one of the two. This album contains real magic.
32:20 Described Abacab....
Justin if you enjoy Ant’s voice you must do the followup, Wise After The Event imo it’s the best album he ever did.
It's hard to imagine what Genesis would have sounded like if he had stayed in the band.
I have a request for 'Long Song Saturday'. At 12 minutes and 21 seconds, 'Carrying No Cross' by U.K. is a piece of music that I am quite certain you will love. Maybe not as much as you loved 'Lizard', but I'm sure you'll love it, regardless 🙂
"All the world's a stage" is from Shakespeare's As You Like It -- someone else wrote the lines about a friend.
The 1936 movie starts it at 43 minutes.
ua-cam.com/video/wFChichBoPI/v-deo.html
This play is also where the term "Motley Fool" originated.
I agree that Chinese Mushroom Cloud should have been developed more. This album has some nice pastoral sounds but it also lacks the harder substance and gritty moments that one might find on the "sister album", Trespass. Ant Phillips on his own, misses out on the drama and narrative power that his old muso mates provide. 😎 Thanks for the review.
Ant, far from being just a 12 string master he is truly a multiple instrumentalist, he plays so many instruments I Mean for instance just listen to that piano at the end.
There's one more great Ant/Mike collaboration, Scottish Suite, which has some heavier moments... the heaviest in Ant's catalog anyway.
Hi Justin, I have to be honest, you nearly made me cry when you started singing ‘Turn it on Again’, because it reminded me of a UA-cam video of the ongoing Genesis tour I started watching yesterday. Phil Collins looked and sounded so ill 😩 he shouldn’t be onstage really. I could only watch a few minutes because it was tortuous to see Phil as a shadow of his former self. Hobbling onstage with a stick, sitting down and unable to drum, and in my opinion unable to sing in tune too. As a huge Genesis fan, I saw them live in 2007 and they were amazing, but they should’ve left it there. My memories of Genesis live have now been forever tarnished. It’s just so sad 😩. What do you think JP?
I think Phil isn't in too much pain - I saw the entire show (fan video), and he let the backup singers do the high notes. Having Nic his son on the drums is endearing - he does his Dad proud. The tour is coming to the US in November - I am concerned about those two consecutive dates for Chicago, and there is barely a day's rest in between the other shows, which concerns me.
Bob Holtzmann Yeah, Phil definitely needs to rest his voice between shows, he’s obviously straining his vocal cords sometimes 😩
Thank you Andy:) I think the tour is doing well as their last hurrah. For those like myself who discovered them only in recent years, its a gift to be able to see them (though unfortunately they werent in my area lol)
If you look at the complete works of all the members of Genesis and realize that this talent was congregated into one band in their early twenties you can see why there was some conflict
You can find that on Justin's channel, in the Videos.
"Sleepfall - The Geese Fly West". One of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard. As the album ends, I feel I'm flying away with the geese.
Just make sure you're back in time for supper! :D
@@JustJP Supper's Ready?
@@WTFungus 😉🥘🍛🥙
Since you've listened to a variety of Genesis albums and seemed to have enjoyed some of the members' solo stuff (Gabriel, Phillips and Collins)... I highly recommend you to turn you eyes and ears over to Tony Banks' first solo effort: "A Curious Feeling". That album shows just how important Tony was to the overall sound of Genesis. Not only an underrated piece of work compared to the ones from his peers, but also in general. Great video as always, keep up the good work!
Let’s change the channel name to The Genesis Goodtime Hour and be done with it.
@@Katehowe3010
Of course.
A bit of trivia: this album is a favorite of the actress Rosanna Arquette.
I struggle to get into Genesis but this I like being one step removed. I think 80s Phill Collins ruined it for me . I new the latter before the former. I have the album Trespass which I enjoy . Any Suggestions on how to fill the prog hole that is genesis.
Hi Justin, great album, another good Anthony Phillips album is ‘Wise After the Event”. Unlike Geese & Ghost it’s mainly songs. Anthony actually sings on the album, he’s not got a great voice though, it’s an acquired taste, his vocals can be a bit whiney! 😁
Agree, I think his voice is dreadful as a lead. 'Now what are they doing to my little friends' off 'Wise after the event' is real suicide stuff. In fairness.. the rest arent far behind. Still a better album than 'Sides' though...
Afternoon, Justin. Dave from Across The Ocean. I like your review of this album, but don't share all of your enthusiasm for it. No doubt there's plenty of pastoral beauty here and shades of early Genesis, but he seems to me to be stuck in a Trespass time warp. Remember, the band (and music generally) had evolved hugely by the time Geese came out. I recall listening to it on the radio in the late 70s and considering it rather 'old hat'. Maybe, as it sounds a bit New Age, it was years before its time, but I can't help thinking that Ant would not have been so well known, had he not been an ex member of Genesis. I do like this type of acoustic guitar driven rock music, but I was more into artists like Gordon Giltrap and Al Stewart in the 70s and, later on, Stephen Caudel. BTW, the later vocal track sounds to me a bit like Time by the Alan Parsons Project.
This was Ant's first solo album. So even though it was released many years after Trespass, it had been years in the making, and it's understandable that it was his continuation of ideas from Trespass. That a pastoral acoustic album was released at the height of the punk movement didn't help though.
@@jimhardiman3836 Fair point, Jim.
The thing I love about this is it reminds me of Genesis. The thing I hate about it is it doesn't remind me of Genesis. Let me be clearer, it has beautiful moments, great melodies, swoonful key changes just like my favourite Genesis moments and the I remember that Genesis was always a collective:Ant would bring that pastoral feel, Tony would bring Bach or Debussy, Mike would bring his Rock & Melodic sensibilities, Phil would bring weird time signatures and Beatlsy pop, Steve would bring colour and fire. What I'm missing is all the other things that mad Genesis great. Anthony Philips is a great musician but - personally - I need some other flavours.
Back in the day, Steve Hackett teamed w/Steve Howe of Yes to make an album together (GTR). It would have been interesting if Hackett teamed w/Phillips instead. GTR was too commercial sounding for me. Not bad, but not what I would have expected from those two. Phillips is such an underrated talent. And his solo discography is about as large as Hackett's is. I think that combination would have been awesome. Maybe even a Genesis (early prog that is) parallel.
"Chinese Mushroom Cloud". Yes, too short. But as in an atomic mushroom cloud, BOOM....it's over. ;)
Gog -Ant underrated absolutely, read my comment where Justjp reviews/ discusses Geese and the Ghost Side 1!
Ant and Steve are very close friends of late, as they have a great deal in common. But mostly they get together for dinner and conversation. Ant appears on a few of Steve's recordings, but he's said in interviews that he thinks trying to do an album together would damage the friendship.
I wish you would stay out of my record collection! If you scratch it, we will have words! Try my books for some weekend reading. I recommend " Humans Are Imaginary Constructs." by I.M. Notabot, or "The Bands Revenge" by Mike Les Singer. Happy reading-ha ha and an excellent weekend to you, Peace.
I'm glad you mentioned Camel's 'Snow Goose' as this album certainly has a similar ambience without really reaching the heights of that album (unless, as you point out, it's for a stingy 43 seconds at a time) Other parts certainly sound like they could have been a highlight on a follow-up to Trespass but overall it's a bit cloying, uses too much 12 string guitar (and too many strings generally) and there's a fine line between allowing you to relax and putting you to sleep. It's a fine attempt but, for me, just doesn't get the pass marks.
Ken L - So this Album is not for you try Slow dance and parts and pieces series Maybe then you might consider that Ant is a Multi Instrumentalist on a par with the likes of Mike Oldfield.
I place this somedays as the very best solo record by a member of Genesis. Usually battling early Hackett releases and Security.
Well it was completely new to me, I confess I was ignorant of who the artist was - but I enjoyed ten minutes of it and recommended it to friends who will probably be laughing that I didnt know the Genesis connection.
Now - a question - TOPOGRAPHY OF THE LUNGS ... HAS ANYONE ANY RECOLLECTION OF THAT EXTREMELY UNUSUAL ALBUM FROM THE 80'S? I can't remember how I got rid if it - I think I gave it to a friend who was into anything pretentious but I wouldn;t mind hearing (how awful it was) again after all these years ... it sounded like 30 minutes of pianos being attacked by feathers, mushy peas, hammers, just about anything that would make a noise ... Maybe it was better than I remember - It wasn't very musical anyway as I recollect. Don't tell me - I gave away one of the rarest records in music history? I doubt it. I'd rather listen to Ernie, The Fastest Milkman in The West by Benny Hill, back to back for 24 hours. Or "Lieutenant pigeon's" TRAIN SOUNDS ALBUM that followed their number one hit featuring their grannie on piano, MOULDY OLD DOUGH. Now that IS a pop classic - One of the oddest hits ever - I can't believe I actually BOUGHT it - The B SIDE was astonishingly cr..p ... They obviously didn;t have even one other single musical idea to put on the B side SO THEY PUT ON ABOUT 60 SECONDS OF A BASS GUITAR RIFFING ON ONE NOTE AND CALLED IT A TAKE ... The grooves were so spaced out, being such a short "song" - you could park a car between the grooves - well, you could cut another song between that groove - which Monty Python actually did on one of their albums - clever trick - so you never knew which groove the stylus would land in and which version of side 2 it would play. Sorry for going on. Interesting channel. I keep recommending it.
You do make perceptive comments Jason. I love this album, but prefer side 1.
The Snowgoose by Camel is imho better than this great album.
You’ve ruined The G and the G with you growling tune yesterday. Now, at hesitation points in the sequence I expect grunting and groaning etc. Honestly, it’s been a little hard to shake off. I’ll live. Just ribbing you, now and yesterday.
Some parts of today’s gem remind me of Ambient 3: Day Of Radiance with Laraaji. Sadly, like this, it a bit repetitive and samey.
Question, do you not listen to sent music like CDs in case you want to react to them? Or do need permission to listen cuz you have my permission, I hereby bequeath music upon thee to enjoy at your convenience, let be said, let be known to the community realm.
Ahem. I know, a bit much.
Peace and totes ambient Music
Never one to shy away from a cliche, 'well that's 24mins, 6secs I wont get back'. Sorry, but i found this insipid, uninspired, and dull. Not to mention Hallmarky. Track 1, what was the point? T2, weak, repetitive. Occasional flashes you thought might herald an upturn, change, then, no. T3, twee. T4, Shorter rerun of T2. Which, BTW, I thought largely lifted from The Skye Boat Song. Much a repeat of S1, which at least had 'God if I saw her now' to redeem it. Sadly, no redemption this side.
Nothing like like a sunny day to warm the heart. May you blah blah blah blah, Hallmarky enuf?
@@-davidolivares Hallmarky, good word eh. No, i think it'd take more than a sunny day to give this ditty any appeal, to me anyway. Though maybe you're onto something. Here it's dull, cloudy and been raining the last 15 hrs. And it's set to continue for the next 3 to 4 days... if that's any consolation. I'll give it another listen when the suns out, you never know, i may be full of praise then :)
@@jfergs.3302
Might work, sometimes you have to be flogged into the mood. I mean, to me, it’s not thaaat bad. Just a bit as you coined, hallmarky.
Hallmarky? Hmm…. Have you ever seen any Hallmark movies? I know I have. Over and over and over again. Ad nauseam. My wife loves them. And we’ll watch them over and over (even though I really don’t want to) because she loves them. And if they make her happy then that’s all that matters to me. So, if this album ( a favorite of mine since I bought the album back in the ‘70’s) is Hallmarky, then I need to add this to my playlist so that we can listen to it when we’re in the car driving around. Thanks for giving me the idea.
@@albarton7189
Our hearts go on forever (for you and your wife). Happy wife, happy life.