Genesis – Trespass (1970)

Despite my teenage Genesis obsession, this was an album that never actually came into my possession, until a few weeks ago at Harborough Market for a small sum.

This is often viewed as their first real prog album - their debut the previous year, From Genesis To Revelation had been a flop, and they quickly escaped the clutches of Jonathan King, returning to complete school, before reforming in September 1969.

While there's certainly hints at what is to come, most of it is a difficult listen. Few of the songs are strong, Gabriel's vocals sound more hesitant and less confident than he would be in a couple of albums' time, but, and this feels particularly apparent in Lookin For Someone and Stagnation, it's in the long instrumental central sections that you hear where Genesis are going. Of the other tracks, White Mountain feels a little stronger, and it's only with the final track The Knife, that any of excitement or real sense of what might arise over the next few albums becomes clear. It really is the strongest thing on the album, by a country mile.

This was the only album with drummer John Mayhew, and the end for original guitarist Anthony Phillips, who left soon after, to be replaced by Phil Collins and Steve Hackett, who would join Gabriel, Rutherford and Banks in shaping the sound over the next five years. It sounds like this external input to the Charterhouse school band was sorely needed.

Link to full album

2* - much of this is a turgid listen, showing only glimpses of later work