GHOST- THE WATCH |
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Musicians: TRACKS: Hailing from Italy, The Watch weigh in with "Ghost" released in 2001, it is in fact their follow-up to "Twilight" which was released under the name of "The Night Watch" in 1997. The pedigree of Italian Progressive bands is of course an impressive one, so where do 'The Watch' fit into the grand scheme? Very snugly is the short answer. There is enough solid playing and musicianship on display to quench the thirst of any Prog fan, add to this a great production, mix, quirky lyrics and a very able lead vocalist, and it is a fail-safe recipe. Or is it? I am sure I am not the first person to be struck by Rossetti's VERY similar sounding Peter Gabriel vocals. Uncannily in places! Were it not for the up to date production it would be very easy to imagine this album came from 'Nursery Cryme' era Genesis out-takes. That said I was very impressed with this band, and I will forgive any "clone band" against the current crop of tribute bands. At least this outfit have the balls to run with their own compositions, and very ably do they pull it off as well. Track one "DNAlien" opens promisingly with odd time signatures, setting out The Watch stall right from the off. As soon as Rossetti begins singing you are in no doubt as to the blue print. Crisp percussion, agile bass, organs and mellotrons display the bands musicianship, albeit with the retro-style that may put as many folk off, as please. "Heroes" opens with a jaunty beat developing into a slower bridge and a keyboard/guitar drenched section, picking up the beat again. Rising and falling the vocals here are very Fish like, in fact the similarities to Marillion are evident, or should that be shared influence? Distorted vocals and nasally synthesiser lines, interspersed with mellotron carry the early 70's era flag convincingly. Lyrically the band moves about from the contemporary to the whimsical/mythological complete with treated vocals (particularly on track 4 'Moving Red'). Rossetti remains the inevitable focus of all these tracks as it is almost impossible to get past just how much he does sound like Gabriel, at other times there are strong comparisons to Fish, which in itself is hardly surprising I guess. But to his great credit the vocals are delivered with a true passion, power and clarity in pronunciation and as the disc develops Rossetti does begin to find his own identity. Which does begin to make the difference. "Riding The Elephant" hints at an almost Ultravox "Vienna" riff slowly developing into what is a highlight song. Here as on the following song "And The Winner Is", The Watch hint at their own style briefly, while still deeply entrenched with rising mellotron, flute, and that shadowy Hackett-esque guitar sound they prove that deep-down a more original voice is gasping for air. Just how far The Watch can develop, I suppose depends on how much their own identity is explored. Certainly I imagine this release will split Prog fans into two camps. If you consider the musical memory/legacy of Genesis as a holy cow then this will not be for you. If on the other hand, like myself, you are happy to be whisked away on a voyage of retrospective Prog from an all too brief era, bathe in lush arrangements, off-beat time signatures well recorded with a punchy production, you could do a whole lot worse than pick this up. I for one enjoyed this, for and
despite, all the reasons mentioned above leaving me looking forward to
their next release. (Lizard 2001) Contact & Info: Review by Chris Christou |
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Ghost
THE WATCH
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Musicians: Simone Rossetti
- Vocals Track list: 1. DNAlien (8:36) Now and then a new artist or band takes you by surprise. I was totally astounded by the Italian band The Watch's debut album "Ghost". Actually I don't know whether The Watch is a new band or not, because the vocalist Simone Rossetti were singing in a band called The Night Watch before, but he's the only connection between the two bands. I was expecting an album with reminiscences to King Crimson, but I immediately found out that the music is very similar to Peter Gabriel-era Genesis with lots of magnificent bombastic Mellotron. You can't help thinking about Genesis albums such as "Trespass" (1970), "Nursery Cryme" (1971), "Foxtrot" (1972), "Selling England By The Pound" (1973) and songs such as "Firth Of Fifth", "Musical Box" and "Watcher Of The Skies" when hearing The Watch. The similarity doesn't only lie in the music, because Simone Rossetti's voice is very close to Peter Gabriel. Genesis is actually the only band I come to think about, but perhaps there are some reminiscences to Cathedral, King Crimson, Marillion, Spock's Beard and Änglagård too. Although the very obvious Genesis references they're far from Genesis clones because of the magnificent compositions that they're delivering. Now I have to try to get hold of a proper copy of this album, because my CDR advance copy has some dropouts on the last track. Italy has always been one of the leading lands of Progressive Rock, and now they can add another classic to the list. This might be the best album of the year 2001. Highly recommended! Reviewer: Greger Rönnqvist greger.ronnqvist@infodata.sema.se Discography: Twilight (1997) (as
The Night Watch) Contact & Info: |