PRIVATE PARTS & PIECES VII - SLOW WAVES, SOFT STARS

Slow Waves, Soft Stars is perhaps Ant's most new age-like recording, containing quite a bit of relaxing, tasteful keyboards along with his acoustci, a bit removed from the forefront on a number of pieces, nicefully so. A hidden gem among his PP&P series.

This is an extremely underrated album from soft music master Ant. I usually read the words New Age when it's described, but I think that sells it short. It's actually a fine ambient album. The long suite Ice Flight stands up with the best of Eno, Steve Roach or Robert Rich, in my opinion, and I wish that Phillips had done more dabbling in this area, since he has a talent for evocative ambient music. Many of the pieces are such atmospheric synth background music, but Phillips also intersperses some lovely, often energetic acoustic pieces of the kind his fans have come to know and love to break up the sleepiness. Ambient or prog electronic listeners will enjoy this, whether or not they are big fans of the rest Phillips' catalogue.

This is a deceiving album as well as a deception. As the title warns, what you have are bits and pieces of Ant messing around with synths. How can you make an album with that ? I can only dream of the possibilities that Ant could have done with all these bits and pieces pulled together under the name of Genesis... Truly science fiction !!!

There are times when you want something blazing out of the speakers, and others, like me this evening, when you just want to sit back, admire supreme musicianship, and let an ambient mood wash over you.

Phillips has released a number of these Private Parts & Pieces albums, and, I suppose, the only connection between any of them is that they show him at his experimental best, messing about, if you will, with different soundscapes.

Synths are very prominent here, together with his trademark acoustic & classical guitar work.

This album will not have you running out of the bed screaming madly. Actually, it is more likely to put you into bed in a mellow mood! And that is the point. This is one of those albums designed to make you relax, come down, and marvel at the beauty of it all.

Three stars. It is not essential, but if you are interested in expanding the collection of the former Genesis man, you could do worse than start here.

As I have said previously while I was reviewing some prior « Private Parts » from Anthony, there is a mix of very good music and average one throughout this long experience.

The last works from the man left me pretty cold and I never have rated one of these with the minimum rating just for respect. But musically, some didn't deserve two stars as far as I am concerned.

Anyway?this seventh experience of the genre is quite satisfactory and is a complete break with some prior references. I would categorize this album as a full blown electronic prog music one. Of course, there are some delicate pieces of short acoustic work in here; but the high interest of this album is of course held in the long and very good "Ice Flight".

This is a piece of music that could have sat on some albums from great German masters (I hope that you get the idea). It lacks maybe of true poignant moments, but the relaxing and peaceful atmosphere is rather satisfactory.

The whole album is actually a pleasant listening: the acoustic parts are extremely melodic and deserve an interested ear. Anthony didn't release such a good album for quite a long time. Three stars is my logical rating (maybe seven out of ten would have better reflected my opinion).

Elevenses

As one can almost derive from the cover art and the album (sub)title alone, Private Parts & Pieces VII: Slow Waves, Soft Stars saw Anthony Phillips returning to New-Age territory after two purely Classical albums in Private Parts & Pieces VI: Ivory Moon (a Classical piano album) and Private Parts & Pieces V: Twelve (a Classical guitar album). The present album is a bit more diverse and varied and it is most similar to Private Parts & Pieces IV: A Catch At The Tables in its pleasant blend of electronic/ambient and acoustic guitar pieces. Vangelis (in his more ambient, relaxing moods) and Mike Oldfield (in his acoustic moments) come to mind while hearing this album.

In my opinion, this album is much more interesting than the previous two entries in the Private Parts & Pieces-series, and I enjoy the present one a lot more than any of those. Yet, it is still not particularly impressive or challenging in its own right.

Pleasant enough, but not exactly my cup of tea.

Mainly experimental, new age music that does not arise much attention. First song says much - there is little to discover under the shallow surface of experimental synths.

The following is a bit better by having at least a melody and takes influence from JM Jarre. Another highlight from otherwise boring suite is "Cathedral of ice" that at least has solemn chords on a synthesizer. The first acoustic number comes with the track 6 at it is actually a good number with a soloing and rhythm guitar.

"End of the affair" was memorable to me thanks to dark theme synth chords and classical guitar leading the song.

The rest of the album is not captivating with a few exceptions: "Elevenses" is a classical guitar workout and "Goodbye Serenade" a melancholic dreamy track.

We can say that on this album, guitar tracks lead the way and almost all synth tracks spoil the ambiance because of poor composition.

The album is not recommended since it will fail to arise attention throughout its entire length.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why the rating on this album is so low on this website. Despite running with it to an extent in the US, Ant has always rejected the New Age-label to his music, and I can see why. The whole purpose of New Age music is to remain in one place, to make you relax or be spiritual where you are, to literally not "move" it's listener. This album doesn't do that at all, but you have to be really attentive as a listener to discover it's moving beauty.

There has always been a debate about what the word "progressive" means in "progressive rock". Some have said it was about breaking boundaries between music, to be experimental, to usher on the development of rock as an artform, and in all this "progressive rock" is in juxtaposition to an imaginary "regressive rock". Genesis - the hive from which Anthony Phillips as a solo artist emerges - have mostly used another kind of definition, one less grand, and more descriptive of the thing that actually occurs within the music, that made it different, at least from Genesis' point of view. It's this: progressive rock is music that progresses, that goes from one thing to the next, and doesn't - or at least tries not to - go back and forth between repeating verses and choruses. Genesis has always sought to maximize contrast in going from one sequence to the next. Tony Banks always gives the famous example of the 'A Flower?' moment in 'Supper's Ready', in between the softly romantic 'How Dare I Be So Beautiful?' and the ugly vaudeville 'Willow Farm'. Peter Gabriel described the form Genesis found on Trespass as 'journey songs'.

'Slow Waves, Soft Stars' doesn't leave it's listener in one place, no, it takes the listener on a journey. The playing is sparse. It is not just 'beautiful', as the synth sounds Phillips do have a kind of - for lack of a better word - cheap quality about them. Anthony Phillips clearly is no Klaus Schulze, no Vangelis, no Florian Fricke, no Tony Banks even (although Tony has lost his way soundwise - not compositionally - with the advent of digital synths) and the synths he uses probably sound cheap because they are: as his former bandmates were raking in millions, Phillips was merely trying to survive in the 80s. But as happens on that other Phillips synth-album '1984', his utter quality as a composer shines through in what he DOES with these cheap synths. With them, and by composing great music, Phillips is able to weave a web in which the listener can go on a journey, going from one bit to the next. Contrasts are not stark as in Genesis music, but smooth, small, sometimes hardly noticable, but they are there. It's like Peter Gabriel sings in 'it': 'it never stays in one place, but it's not a passing phase'. You're there, and you remain there - yes, that's the new age thing - but then at the same time you're taken to all kinds of other places.

Is there no contrast? Yes, there is! Because right in the middle, just when you've gotten used to the mechanical coldness of the synth sounds (this is also a contrast: the beautiful warm chords played with the cold synths), Phillips puts them aside completely and plays some utterly beautiful acoustic guitar pieces. This is the warm core of this album, right in the middle, as he leaves this section again at the end to return to where he started to round the album off, making this one one of Phillips' most consistent compositions from his career.

So yeah, safe to say this is one of my favourite Anthony Phillips albums, and I love a lot of his output. It's an acquired taste, as it won't necessarily please Genesis fans, nor will it please the electronic music-aficionado's, nor New Age lovers, nor acoustic guitar-lovers. But whomever is able to dive into it, accept it for what it is, and give oneself over to it, will count it among the great masterpieces from the fringes of the progressive movement.