THE FOX LIES DOWN; A TRIBUTE TO GENESIS

Last week I reviewed an excellent and ambitious Tribute to Genesis called The River of Constant Change, now is the turn for The Fox Lies Down, which is less fortunate than the previous, even when this time the album features recognized prog' artists like Patrick Moraz, John Wetton, The Flower Kings instead of unknown artists like in the first one.

Maybe that's the problem, the well known and respected artists have nothing to win with this tributes and sometimes don't give 100% of them, on the other hand the unknown bands hungry for fame give all they got in a Tribute album that represents for them the possibility of fame without having to invest a cent.

The Fox Lies Down is not bad really, it has some excellent songs and interpretations, but because of the shorter song list and the different level of performances is less solid than the previously commented tribute.

But lets go to check the songs:

Can Utility and the Coastliners was chosen by the fusion icon Brand X, a band in which Phil Collins played some years before, this time with Nick D'Virgilio on drums who would be a Genesis member in the later released CAS.

Great song and very good version, Brand X added the fusion spirit with a more complex fusion atmosphere that includes congas and a killer electric guitar, if all the bands would do the same and resist the easy path of simply cloning a well known track, this album would be excellent.

Carpet Crawlers is presented by John Ford (The Strawbs), the intro is promising with a beautiful rhythm guitar, but soon this beauty vanishes specially when the boring drum machine starts to play, the vocals are correct but I don't know what direction John takes, tries to be folksy (what's expected according to his background) but sounds almost as a Reggae version.

A monotone version of an already simple song that always found out of place in a complex album as The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, sounds very similar to the awfull Carpet Crawlers 99 (Without the interest to listen Gabriel and Collins back together) but strangely was released one year before than the Genesis version, mediocre track.

The Swiss keyboard virtuoso Patrick Moraz (Yes, Moody Blues, etc) with the aid of Ronnie Ciago on the drums plays an interesting version of Los Endos, somehow sounds like a version of this excellent instrumental played by Yes, respectful but innovative at the same time, sadly looses the mystery and darkness of the original version which is the most distinctive characteristic of this track, until this point is good even when not great, but whoever gave him the idea of adding part of the lyrics of Squonk at the end of the track, should be hanged, because it's terrible.

Your Own Special Way is IMHO one of the worst songs ever recorded by Genesis during their progressive years and I believed nobody could ever do a worst version than Phil Collins, but the veteran John Wetton achieves this discredit, he turns it into a whiny and mediocre ballad that would be ok for a karaoke contest like American Idol, but never for a tribute to a Progressive icon like Genesis.

Knowing the great vocal of John I expected much more from him, the worst track of the album.

Now, Mother Gong really knows how to make cover version of a simple song, In the Beginning is only an obscure and poppy track taken out of From Genesis to the Revelation.

Being evident that there's not very much to work with, they simply changed all the track into a psychedelic and hallucinating experience that sounds like taken from a Pink Floyd nightmare, strange but at least they did something absolutely innovative.

Daevid Allen (Soft Machine, Gong) and Solid Space perform a faithful version Visions of Angels even when the lead vocals are not comparable to Peter's in absolute, but the complex chorals that backup are really good.

As I said a good version but Allen and Solid Space don't offer us nothing new, only a correct performance that could have been done by any cover band, and that's not the job of a real artist who always have to give something from their own inspiration.

The next track is the legendary Return of the Giant Hogweed by Spirits Burning, another great version because they mix the Progressive atmosphere with elements of Hard Rock and a bit of Alternative or Indie, which sounds great Respectful and at the same time original version of this Genesis classic. Excellent guitar, keyboards and drum work, one of the best performances in the album.

Only to be absolutely honest, the production and engineering of this track sucks, the drum sounds almost as bad as in Nursery Cryme, but that's not the fault of the band or disqualifies Spirits Burning's excellent work, even when doesn't speaks well about the engineer and the guy in charge of the edition..

Dancing with a Moonlit Night is a very hard track to play, especially because nobody could do the "a capella" section with the same strength and soul as Peter Gabriel, so the Swedish band Darxtar suppressed the intro and play an electronic version, which for moments sounds like a dance mix. Even when it's not my cup of tea, I must admit it's adventurous and that means something.

The only weak point is the end, because the song stops abruptly as if the guys who produced the album were short of time, bad ending for a good track.

Please don't worry about Cinema Show by The Flower Kings, the instrumentation is not bad at all, but the vocals are horrendous, I thing this good band took the Tribute as a joke instead of as a challenge. Program your CD player to skip this song. Again the song has an abrupt ending (Two in a row is not casual, probably it's the edition guys fault).

Controlled Bleeding takes the listener by surprise with the strong entrance of Broadway Melody 1974, strange keyboards work but delightful at the same time, a bit repetitive and longer than the original, the vocals are well worked by the band, another good track.

The album ends with The Waiting Room by Architectural Metaphor, even when I don't like the original version, I think this kids went too far, the album should have ended in the previous track.

As I said before, the album is uneven, with excellent, good, mediocre and even awful versions all mixed, despite this fact I like the tribute and consider it worthy for Genesis fans who will quickly find which tracks to skip.

Rate this good album with 3 stars even when most bands that participate deserve. a higher rating, but because of two or three songs I can't give them more.

This is interesting - well at least for the first listen - but not necessarily all that great. Trouble is, for some of the songs, the bands try to mimic exactly what Genesis originally recorded. Now, nobody is going to top the original, so the parody is only good for the advances in recording and technology. At the other extreme, some of the bands take the songs and throw them out into gastly tangeants. The most vivid case is In the Beginning, which is ruined here by Mother Gong, and features a hip-hop / trance beat and goofy female vocals.

There are a couple of decent versions, most notably The Carpet Crawlers (by The Strawb's John Ford) and The Return of the Giant Hogweed, but I don't think that necessarily makes the album worth buying.

The 1990s saw a resurgence in progressive rock and part of that trend was a series of tribute albums covering many of the greats of the 1970s. The Magna Carta label effectively used this as a marketing tool to introduce listeners to new bands signed under their label. For many listeners, this generated enough curiosity to seek out original works by those bands. Some of them turned out to be great, some not so. In 1998, Purple Pyramid (a division of Cleopatra) chose to bring in a mix consisting of artists from that had their starts in the 1960s and 1970s and some newer artists to cover a number of classic Genesis compositions on The Fox Lies Down.

The first track is a nicely done version of Can Utility and the Coastliners by Brand X II (featuring John Goodsall, Doug Lunn, Nick D'Virgilio and Al Salas). They don't really break any new ground here as the original is still much better than this. Still, it's accurately done and an enjoyable listen. The next track is sort of a modernized version of Carpet Crawlers performed by John Ford (of Strawbs fame). About the most noticeable difference is the overwhelming snare drum which is higher in the mix than it should be. The drums are mechanical sounding so I suspect drum machines are at work here. It's nowhere near as good as the original. Things look up much more on Patrick Moraz and Ronnie Ciago's cover of Los Endos. Although true to the sound of Genesis, this sounds much more refreshing than the original and Moraz provides a masterful performance, although he sounds more like Emerson than himself in his playing style.

The fourth track features a cover of Your Own Special Way by veteran prog bassist/vocalist John Wetton. Unfortunately Wetton went the way of pop rock back when he joined Asia in the 1980s and it appears he hasn't come back to his prog roots. Perhaps that's because Your Own Special Way at best was a pop prog number. All Wetton does here is that he makes this into more of a ballad than it should be. If what Wetton wanted to do was make something appealing for doctor's offices and American bi-level shopping malls, he succeeded. For me, I'd rather skip this sappy nonsense. Next, Mother Gong covers In the Beginning, a song that appeared on Genesis' debut back in 1969. This is even worst than Wetton's cover. It turns what was an average 1960s psychedelic pop song into a techno/hip-hop throbbing waste of time filled with ghost-like sounds and the mediocre speaking vocals of Gilli Smyth which feel completely out of place.

Daevid Allen and Solid Space cover Visions of Angels. No new ground is broken on this performance as they perform this wonderful song almost note-for-note. It still doesn't compare to the original as the vocals are substandard. How can you compete with Peter Gabriel anyway? Still, an enjoyable listen. Spirits Burning attempts to breathe new life into Return of the Giant Hogweed on the next track. Although they do this, I'm not sure I like the direction they went. It sounds like a mix of harder prog and psychedelic/alternative rock. Parts of this song are done very nicely (like the instrumental section around the 3:00 mark), but the remainder seems sloppy, mediocre, and occasionally out of tune. Still, it's an admirable attempt.

Next, Darxtar covers Dancing with the Moonlit Knight. This performance is a lot more adventurous than the other tracks on this tribute album. A good chunk of Darxtar's performance is instrumental as the vocals are sparingly used and play more of a background role to the instrumentation. They do a nice job on this song making it sound almost nothing like the original. The biggest problem I have with this song is the mechanical drumming, which I suspect is from drum machines or some sort of programmed job. The ending is poorly done as it just drops off abruptly.

The famous Flower Kings from Sweden come on board to perform Cinema Show. True to the talent of this amazing band, their performance is exceptional and as energetic as their own original music is. There are some slight differences, but overall they stick with the original almost note-for-note, so nothing groundbreaking here. The keyboard solos are strictly following Banks' work on the original. Unfortunately as we get into the best part of the song (the long keyboard solo section), it abruptly fades out. What the heck?

Next, Controlled Bleeding performs Broadway Melody of 1974. This is really nicely done. It's longer than the original, but keeps the performance closely note-for-note. The instrumentation almost sounds like an effort from a neo prog band (although Controlled Bleeding is more of an experimental band), but the vocals are clearly different and heavily processed. One of the better tracks on this tribute.

The final track is a cover of The Waiting Room by Architectural Metaphor. Having a psychedelic band cover a psychedelic wipeout only seems fitting. Although I guess it seems pointless comparing who did the better wipeout, I still prefer the original over this. Hackett is clearly the better guitarist, even in wipeout mode. A weird ending to a weird album.

The Fox Lies Down is a respectable attempt at covering Genesis' classic period. As I suspected, some of the songs come close, most of them are no better than mediocre, and some are just awful. Still, I got enough enjoyment out of this to want to keep this CD in my collection. Overall good, but hardly essential at all. Three stars.

Nice tribute.

"It was the guy with a flower round his face which did it. That, or the guy with a fox for a head. Or the one dressed up as Britannia?or maybe even the shapeless mass of bumps, stumps and slurpy noises which appeared midway through the Lamb's liedown and called itself Slipperman"

Those are Dave Thompson's words, and I wanted to start this review with that because it is evident that a band that big, like Genesis, was (and is) the inspiration of a lot of musicians who share music of quality. Of course, one way to thank the amazing work created by our idols is to pay tribute to them. Now, when you see the line-up included in this album called "The Fox Lies Down: A Tribute to Genesis" then you'll understand that this is not a simple band, it is one of the most representative and biggest ones in progressive rock history.

It was curious how I got this album, because I didn't know about its existence, so I once was lurking in a second hand store and all of a sudden saw the title, I immediately took it, and while reading the line-up I did not hesitate and bought it for a really cheap price. Despite here is a mixture of artists and styles, all of them put their grain of sand and added a personal touch to the music, creating diverse and interesting covers of some of the most successful and well recognized Genesis' songs.

Bands and artists such as Brand X, John Wetton, Mother Gong, Daevid Allen, The Flower Kings or Patrick Moraz can be heard here, all of them, as I said above, creating a Genesis song but with their own style. So here you will listen mostly to symphonic prog songs, but also jazz and psychedelic ones, the variety of sound is pretty rich and charming.

The album features eleven songs and a total time of 63 minutes. My favorite moments are "The Carpet Crawlers" by John Ford of the Strawbs; "In the Beginning" by Mother Gong; "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" by Spirits Burning, and "Broadway Melody of 1974" by Controlled Bleeding. Overall I consider this is a pretty good tribute, though it has its lows, like John Wetton's cover of "Your Own Special Way" or "Visions of Angels" by Daevid Allen. Of course it is subjective, so you better listen to them and make your own opinion.

The album is recommendable without a doubt, not really unforgettable, but if you have the chance, but it. My final grade will be three stars.

Enjoy it!