Posts by Schrottrocker

  • Has Pete hung up his flute?

    Has he been playing his oboe too? The last time he used it within Genesis seems to be The Waiting Room, Phil said something in an interview Peter created a noise by holding the reed directly to the microphone.

  • What is your favorite ANTHONY PHILLIPS album?

    The Geese and The Ghost will always remain one of my favourites among Ant's albums, imho it is unique in his discography, I always loved it right from the start and it still keeps growing on me. However, I do not like how Ant often gets reduced on this one album or how people claim on all the rest of his discography be forgettable against Geese.


    Wise After The Event I love too, funny enough I can't warm up to Sides in the same way.


    Field Day has a special place for me as well. This might even be the one Ant album I listened most to.


    There's a bunch of other albums I enjoy too but I guess these three might make my top favourites. I have to mention Pathways & Promenades too, that one I really like and I've been playing it quite often.



    For favourite tracks, I first have to say that all of these albums work really well as whole albums for me; but let's see: On Geese I guess my favourites tracks would be Which Way The Wind Blows, Collections and the title track; on Wise I'd say it is the title track again and Regrets, on Field Day it is Forgotten Pathway and Largo d'Amour as well as Prayer for Natalie, also Nocturne; on Pathways & Promenades I vote for that one 12-string track (Sky Dawn?) and Night Train.


    I forgot to mention the two Archives compilations, I really like those and played them often.

  • First record or CD you ever owned

    Before records and CDs there were cassettes! My older brother and sister had left me a bunch of old children's stories on cassettes: Pumuckl, Kaspar und Seppl, some Astrid Lindgren stories (Madita, Pippi Langstrumpf...) etc. My parents kept buying me more Pumuckl cassettes because I loved them so I ended up having quite a collection of these.


    My first records were just as well leftover stuff my dad left me. My dad had this workmate who sold him 2 or 3 boxes of vinyls for little money and I got everything my dad didn't want: again some Pumuckl records, the Smurfs Christmas songs, the Smurfs with Vader Abraham, a couple of German Volksmusik records, some classical records, finally along with it all The Alan Parsons Project's 'I Robot'.


    The first ever CD I got was a birthday gift from my dad's when I turned 13, it was Donald Fagen's Kamakiriad.


    The first records I bought myself were from a second hand store, they were Supertramp's Even In The Quietest Moments and Crisis? What Crisis?, Pink Floyd's Animals and The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour (LP version, a HÖRZU special pressing, got it for 59,- DM).


    The first CD I bought was Robert Miles' Dreamland.

    The first CD maxi singles I bought were Chicane's Offshore and Sunstroke.

  • ANTHONY PHILLIPS - Strings of Light (2CD/DVD) - review online!

    I can't find the time right now to give a longer in-depth review so for now I'll just share my first thoughts:


    I can't say anything about the 5.1 mix, I don't have a surround setup, just a regular stereo. However if I choose the "Dolby" something option in the audio menu the DVD allows me to listen to the whole double album in one go, the sound is slightly more "surroundy" nonetheless.


    Now, regarding the music itself:


    - By any means another real good Ant Phillips guitar album. Ant is far from appearing old and tired, so no worries, this is not one of those "one more for the fans" albums. Also, Ant always seems to be more original and individual when he creates guitar pieces; I love his keyboard works too but I can see how it might sound too generic to some - not so his guitar pieces. It's all there: the bizarre tunings, that special sound that still indicates this is the original Genesis guitarist.


    - Naturally, Field Day is the one album which is easiest to compare to this one. In some ways both albums are similar but there's a couple differences as well:


    - Field Day suffered a little bit from a large number of short pieces that "ended before they started". That's what took me some time to get used to that album, it made it sketchy in a way. Not so Strings of Light: 2 x 12 tracks, yes two or three very short ones that last only about half a minute but that's it. Ant has always done such little shorties (think of Chinese Mushroom Cloud), but those aside each track gets its chance to come to life.


    - Overall, the album seems to be even more on the calmer side than Field Day or most of Ant's other albums. Field Day still had some fast-played pieces, some with a joyful sound, some more angry or rocky; Strings of Light does have a few of these moments too but really not too many. Still, this doesn't mean the album gets boring or lullabyish.


    - Ant wouldn't be Ant if he didn't some really quirky things to the mix. The one track that stands out most is "Mouse Trip" - a short track which doesn't have any chords, it is nothing but a simple melody (or a few notes rather) played with muted strings (I guess?... my guitar skills are more than limited) and a lot of electronic effects. This track could be straight from some little kids cartoon.


    - The only instrument that is not actually a guitar is the Bell Cittern, featured in two tracks here; this instrument sounds familiar from Field Day. That aside, it's all guitars here, so no mandolins or charangos or bouzoukis.


    I am not doing the album justice yet with these unsorted random comments, these were just some of my first impressions - no matter what, a good and very enjoyable album. Ant still does it.


    One little thing yet: the booklet has a thank you note that mentions among others a certain Rachel Pycroft for writing the "perfect fan letter". Really not meaning to be too gossipy but... I wonder if Rachel was active in the old forum. ;) She seems to be the luckiest Genesis fan on Earth. :)

  • New Interview with Ant re: STRINGS OF LIGHT

    He had his teenage girlfriend Lucy, it is commonly known she left him back then which caused him great heartache and a whole bunch of songs about her (Lucy Will, Lucy: An Illusion, Beside The Water's Edge, and possibly I Saw You Today, most likely more obscure references in other songs). Since then, however, there was never any news about a woman in his life and it seemed he stayed single for a very long time. Then again it's all speculation, he never revealed much about his love life. Except he did now. I'm happy for him :)