STEVE HACKETT

As most Genesis fans know by now, the inspiration for doing the album was due largely to Hackett's frustration with not getting his songs on Genesis albums, combined with his own increased fluency and creativity in writing. And this fact is made indelibly clear on VOYAGE OF THE ACOLYTE. Anyone with doubts about Hackett's contribution to the Genesis Sound need only listen to this album, as it is arguably the most "Genesis-like" of all Hackett's solo albums (or any other member's, for that matter !)

Aside from an overly-long closing track ("Shadow of the Hierophant"), there is no filler to found here. Track-by-track, it flows seamlessly with great arrangements and great songs. The tracks flow so well together, it could easily have been made into an extended suite, although it is probably better as is, as the tracks each stand up so well as individual songs. Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins are present on several tracks, and vocals are handled by Collins, Hackett, and Sally Oldfield (no relation to Mike, as far as I know !).

Production-wise, it isn't the greatest, and there is a little too much reverb on the acoustic numbers. But overall, VOYAGE OF THE ACOLYTE, comes off as a surprising tour-de-force from one of the prog world's most under-rated artists !

Four-and-a-half Stars. (rounded up to 5 !)

Even though he called a whole bunch of singers to help him, the impresison given is of a very cohesive whole, with each track seamlessly introducing the other. It´s probably Hackett´s most diverse work and yet it feels like a big suite, a great musical trip with lots of emotions and moods throughout. His guitar work is a bit more subtle here but still great and one of the record´s highlights of course. The choice of vocalists was also another great idea, even if with one mistake. Richie Havens is perfect! His soulful vocals and emotional delivering gives both How Can I and Icaurus Ascending an ethereal feeling that is not very far from Genesis best works, specially the latter, one of hackett´s most ´Genesis-like`songs ever. A real pity that he doesn´t sing on more songs. Steve Walsh (from Kansas) didn´t won me over at first. it seemed that his vocals didn´t fit it very well, but after a few spins I guess he did a nice job and his very particular style gave the songs a new dimension. The only track that really seems out of place here is Hoping Love Will Last, a kind of soul pop that doesn´t work at all, and that is not helped by Randy Crawford´s effords on the vocal department.

"Carry on up the Vicarage". is another problem: not a bad song per se, but the horrible synth distorted vocals on the introduction ruins it all. Other then those two, the album is marvelous. Great instrumental parts and real nice sung ones make make this album a stunning work after the mild disappointement I felt with Voyage Of The Acolyte. His first solo sounded too much like a Genesis unfinished, incomplete, work (even if that CD has some fine moments too). I wondered if SH had any chance as a solo artist. Please Don´t Touch made me change my mind. This is clearly one of his best and I cherish it since the day it was released. After all those years it still sounds fresh and exciting. One of my favorires by one of the greatest prog musicians of all time. if it was not for the two aforementioned tracks I´d gladly give it a 5 star rating. But since it has its flaws, I´m giving it 4,5. Still a highly recommended CD for any symphonic prog lover.

Side a of the old vinyl is really excellent: Every day and The Virgin And The Gypsy are among his best songs ever. The former is truly´Genesis´ like tune that reminds me a lot of Wind & Wuthering. The latter is a fine acoustic song with a strong chorus. The short instrumental The Red Flower of Tachai Blooms Everywhere sounds very japanese and it is a nice break before the next track, Clocks (The Angel Of Mons), another instrumental one that is good, but I never really would label as one of his greatest ones as so many other reviewers did (Phil Collins could have done wonders with the drums here). On the other side, The Ballad Of The Decomposing Man is simply bad. Its humor fails to arouse me. One reviewer claims it is his ´brazilian influence`, but this mistaken song is really a calypso (a caribbean rhythm, not brazilian), complete with steel drum solo and has nothing to do with the rest of the album. A real dud.

Lost Time In Cordoba is a nice acoustic piece for guitar and flute that has its moments, but in the end it´s not very outstanding. Firefly is another weak song, with the same old twisted humor that lacks any depth or musical background to boot. It starts quite promising but that´s really all. Side b is ultimately saved by the title song, a real fine symphonic opus that I love very much. My remastered CD version has several bonus tracks: most of them are alternate mixes of the original albums (which I find them quite useless, since they all sound pretty equal to the original ones). Only the acoustic medley Live Acoustic Set is really a worth addition to the album, while The Caretaker is nothing but a track with sounds that may be an inside joke (which I didn´t get it. Did anyone?).

Conclusion: with all its faults I still find Spectral Mornings to be Hackett´s best solo album thus far. The good stuff is simply brilliant and enough to warrant this album 4 stars. An excellent addition to any prog rock music colletion.

Steve hackett second solo album, and the first outside Genesis released in 1978 named Please don't touch. Ffom the beggining I might say that this album is a tricky affair in Hackett catalogue, maybe one of the most experimental he done over the years, but with all that a good one. Having here moments from jazz to pop, soul, rock the album as a whole is a bit uneven, some moments are truly fantastic but other are totaly lame and unintristing. Featuring some fantastic musicians like Walsh and Ehart from Kansas fame, Chester Thompson from Genesis and Weather Report, the folk - pop singer Richie Havens , the female soul singer Randy Crawford and others. So an album who can guess how sounds by the guests involved here, from diffrent genres, but in the end I tyhink is a quite fair album, a good one but less good then the next one - he's best without doubt. The music is darker in places, like the title track, but very good, some pieces has vocal arrangements, the most intristinh being the opening track Narnia with Steve Walsh on vocals. Some arrangements are typical for Hackett, the guitar sounds intristing, very smooth combined with more rockier and jazzier sounds. I will give 3 stars maybe 3.5, excellent cover art btw. Not among his best, but not a bad one either. Still In Hackett style.

Luckily, this one grew on me to some extent, as I learned to navigate its hazardous corridors. "Strutton Ground" is a sedate opener with a lovely melody, while "Circus of Becoming" lends the title to the album and milks big top musicality to a T. "Wind Sand and Stars" is an instrumental with a mix of keys and orchestration, like an updated early GENESIS, while "Rebecca" is a lovely acoustic-cum-electric song with a slightly medieval meets new age flavour, and just the right amount of quirkiness. Possibly my favourite. The album closes with another throwback called "Serpentine Song", one of the more developed numbers here and closing with brother John's serpentine flute reminiscent of KING CRIMSON's "Cadence and Cascade".

But if that reference to KC was slightly nuanced, subtlety fairly crashes through the 5th floor window on the dreadful "Mechanical Bride", an uneasy rip-off of "21st Century Schizoid Man". The catchy central riff only underscores how inspirationally impoverished this is, and after recently witnessing it in the live set, I can assure you there is no proper setting. "The Devil is an Englishmen" is another nadir. The treated vocals that characterize most of the album can get wearisome, but when they don't even try to sing, and speak in a lugubrious accent, I have to hit next and let someone else gain benefit from the parable. Apart from these two huge missteps and the aforementioned highlights, most of the rest of the songs have strong and weak aspects. For instance, "The Silk Road" is a fascinating percussive exercise but reminds me of some folk festivals I used to attend, with their undue emphasis on education at the expense of entertainment value.

Like real life storms, this Hackett album can be alternately exhilarating and miserable, but within the eye of the storm is a calmly centered middle ground. Seek it out and you will find the real Steve Hackett.

1. "Ace of Wands" - 10/10

2. "Hands of the Priestess Part I" - 9/10

3. "A Tower Struck Down" - 8.5/10

4. "Hands of the Priestess Part II" - 9/10

5. "The Hermit" - 9/10

6. "Star of Sirius" - 10/10

7. "The Lovers" - 8.5/10

8. "Shadow of the Hierophant" - 8.5/10

72.5/8 = 90.625% = 5 stars!

20+ years on I'm a little tired of hearing the same locomotive type beat that we get on "Ego and Id", but at least before he would have had the sense not to sing on it. Even worse is the film noir of "Down Street", amounting to seven and a half minutes of aural torture, while "Wolfwork" and the similarly named "Howl" also provide plenty of fodder to skeptics. The highlights aren't all that high, but include "A Dark Night in Toytown", a breathtaking orchestral romp, the Dylan penned "Man in the Long Black Coat", where Hackett's lead tickles the bluesy nerve, and "Fundamentals of Brainwashing". A couple of the softer tunes are just too somnolent, like "Set Your Compass" and "To a Close". They are pleasant enough but just don't possess that transcendent quality that would elevate them above ordinary nice songs.

It pains me to say but I can't consider this more than a technical equal of albums like "Spectral Mornings", "Defector", "Cured", or "Highly Strung". Sure it's galaxies ahead in production and technology, but compositionally and architecturally "Wild Orchids" is like that floral arrangement that's been on your dining room table a few days too long. Pretty in a withering way, but smelling a tad past its prime. 2.5 stars rounded down.

He's always had this approach. For Hackett, it's rarely about what he should be doing but what he could be doing. Not what was expected of him, but what he might get away with considering the liberal musical era and the opportunities afforded him through the success of Genesis. After all, 1975 was an enlightening year for him and many others in the professional rock community (both Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page among others were in the midst of serious drug withdrawl, Clapton chronicling this period on his 461 Ocean Boulevard) and somehow through the haze of smack-tinctured eyes and coke-eaten septums, astonishing music was being made. By almost everyone.

For Genesis, a British prog institution, major changes were occurring. Peter Gabriel left to pursue his own directions and the band tightened-up musically, going on to release at least four more excellent LPs (two with Hackett who himself would leave in '77 after the great Wind & Wuthering). It makes the timing of this, Steve Hackett's first self-led effort, both right and unexpected in that it was made before this master axeman left the band. Some will point to similarities with Genesis' music here, of which there certainly are several, and perhaps at the time that worked against the record. But in today's context it works just fine if you've a taste for progressive rock at the very height of its whole maddening marvelousness. Plus we get to hear what makes a really good solo project so compelling, so full of new liberties and ideas previously undiscovered, unneeded or discouraged. The value of the singular vision in contrast to the equally valuable group effort, and why one member of a band is so significant to how that unit sounds and operates. And it's among Hackett's very best work.

Of course he got some very good help. Phil Collins' shamelessly confident skins bop open 'Aces of Wands', totally prog, packed with sheet-pressed layers of Hackett's rounded lines, mellotrons, what sounds like an Arp synth on sci-fi lead, and trooper Mike Rutherford taking no prisoners on bass. The 12-string acoustic is out for romantic part 1 of 'Hands of the Priestess', bucolic and gentle, a good balance to the opener, and Wettonesque pounder 'A Tower Struck Down' with its extra bass parts and unsettling rhythmic lurches continues the constant redirection. A nice attempt at neoclassical in 'The Hermit' reminding of the Selling England days, tarnished slightly by our host's medium singing but kept aloft by his subtle arrangement, extending into sister piece 'Star of Sirius' with a welcome Collins on voice for a lively number peppered by Hackett's laserbeam fills. Another well-placed acoustic interlude before twelve minute closer 'Shadow of the Hierophant' spotlighting Sally Oldfield's heady soprano, ominous battlements from the band, and Steve Hackett's massive mountains.

Not comparable to his following releases, this will be a grower for some and an instant love for others. A remaster would be even better. Nice one, Steve.

"Fire on the Moon" Beginning with a sleepy, lullaby-like introduction, the first piece suddenly takes on a much larger sound that brings things back to where they started. The music alternates in this fashion, with Hackett's very reserved singing during the verses. As one might expect, however, the lead guitar at the end is the highlight.

"Nomads" The second piece is a virtuosic classical guitar workout initially, which turns into a easy-listening song, quite like Sting's later music. It adopts a feverish Mediterranean flavor before launching into an electric guitar solo backed up by the celebrated 1970s Hackett sound.

"Emerald and Ash" Maintaining that exotic flair and sultry, Sting-like aroma, the first half of the track is gentle and pleasant music that eventually culminates in an unsuited transitional phase that turns into heavier and completely unrelated music to serve as the foundation for a screeching and astringent guitar solo.

"Tubehead" Rapid bass and drums make for an upbeat rocking playground for Hackett to exercise his fingers. In many places it sounds like a big mess of effects and reverb.

"Sleepers" The second long one on the album begins with another classical piece and synthetic textures in the background. The second half is, of course, radically different from what came before, involving wild guitar runs, and this time a much heavier wall of background sound.

"Ghost in the Glass" Sweet and tender classical guitar playing make up the beginning of the piece. Once again, non-contextual and poorly transitioned electric guitar rips it's way in.

"Still Waters" Unlike a certain song with a certain similar title, this one is a bluesy roadhouse number with a female-led refrain, a slide guitar solo, and some tapping- very unlike what I expected, given the rest of the album, and overall extremely cheesy, and not my thing at all.

"Last Train to Istanbul" Inviting the Mediterranean flavor back, this piece has woodwinds, exotic percussion, and electric guitars performing a variety of functions. The singing isn't bad, but again I cannot help but think of the several other artists who have been doing this very thing for many years now, and better (like Sting). The authenticity doesn't run deep, and the artificiality of it all is hard to push through, especially as this track comes on the heels of "Still Waters."

Final score: between three and four stars- cause the present work is often enriched by means of previous unreleased and already listened to- stuff (already played I mean, during his recent concerts all over Europe).