ANTHONY PHILLIPS & ENRIQUE BERRO GARCIA: PRIVATE PARTS & PIECES III - ANTIQUES

This is his third classic and acoustic guitar oriented album. Mostly there are only guitars! It is a very mellow and peaceful album. The ensemble is not very rhythmic, and the speed involved is often low, so that one can appreciate each note played. I do not think it is very accessible. Here again, you can constantly hear Phillips' fingers rub the strings, which may be annoying for some. Some tracks have an increased notes flow, while others have many pauses. The best track is the one with the special guest guitarist Enrique Barro Garcia: he plays a bluesy ethereal electric guitar while Phillips plays a rhythmic acoustic guitar note by note. Phillips uses sometimes a good 12-string acoustic guitar.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Dear Antony is quite mixing the genres with his «Private Parts». Gently acoustic with the first one, he mixed it with some great symphonic style for the second lap. The third leg is again totally acoustic and even if it denotes some musical skills (which is just normal), I have to admit that I am not impressed with this work.

This album is fully instrumental and there is almost no guest to support Anthony in this work (only one backup guitar player). I guess that there are people to appreciate this sort of album, but I don't belong to these ones.

I have had the same problem with several Hackett's works though. It's normal that these guys want to create something different while being on their own; but it is also normal to like this move quite moderately.

Some fine melody here and there, but that's not really enough to make this one a good album. In my books, only two stars are legitimate: I can't help. I do prefer while Anthony is surrounded by more of his prog friends.

I played this album till its grooves had no more music left in them when this first came out--such beautiful melodies and moods came out of this duo. This one stands next to "Field Day" and "The Geese and the Ghost" as my all-time favorite Ant albums (though I love his work on "Trespass," Mike Rutherford's "Smallcreep's Day," Camel's "The Single Factor," as well as on his own "1984" and "Slow Dance"). I don't know the story of how Ant and Enrique Barro Garcia met and decided to compose and play with one another, but I love Enrique for bringing out the serious composer and performer in Ant--everything else between "Geese" and now always felt a bit tongue-in-cheek--loads of fun and many interesting though disjointed songs and melodic hooks, but nothing really displaying Ant's mastery much less commitment to any sort of musical idiom. Ant created--and still creates--music that is totally and uniquely Ant's.

1. "Motherforest" (1:55) two guitars harmonizing pure Beauty. (5/5)

2. "Hurlingham Suite" (11:15) (17.25/20): - I Ivied Castles (4:44) two beautiful guitars playing in perfect harmony with and off of each other. Full of Ant's quirky, unexpected chord and key changes. (8.75/10) - II Frosted Windows (2:25) slow progression of a thousand chords. (4.25/5) - III Bandido (2:46) aggression from acoustic guitars! Aggression with sublime fills and runs. Careful" Virtuosity on display! (4.5/5) - IV Church Bells At Sunset (1:20) gorgeous pastoral melodies. (4.75/5)

3. "Suite In D Minor" (8:27) (18.25/20): - I Whirlpools - fast arpeggiated chords on nylon string guitars (4.25/5) - II Cobblestones - slower arpeggi with one guitar doing more lead melody making on the higher end. (4.75/5) - III Catacombs - multiple guitar picked chord progressions with electric and acoustic guitars soloing in L & R channels à la Stephen Stills and Neil Young. Great tension build and release. Amazing! (5/5)

4. "Danse Nude" (1:31) reversed acoustic guitars! Brilliant! (4.5/5)

5. "Esperansa" (2:02) multiple picked 12-string chords with electric guitar soloing gently over the top. (4.5/5)

6. "Elegy" (3:28) plaintive 12-string strums forming a "classic" tear-jerker, joined by Enrique's beautifully toned and touched Spanish nylon string guitar. (9.25/10) 7. "Otto's Face" (4:23) more "classic"-feeling motifs performed with arpeggi on nylon and steel string companions. What a show by Enrique on his Spanish nylon string. Definitely an Ant classic. (9/10)

8. "Sand Dunes" (8:24) is this what the angels play in heaven? Only Ant can think/imagine these chord progressions. And such a heart-wrencher! And then 12-string takes over the foundation in the third minute. This is not what we were expecting! Such amazing dynamics from two guitars--singing such a mood-shifting song. One of Ant's all-time best. Reminds me of my favorite Christmas album of all-time: Jean-Pierre Rampal, Michel Legrand, and Alexandre Lagoya's Pastorlaes de Noël. (20/20)

9. "Old Wives Tales" (4:46) How can so much beauty come from one album! Nylon and steel companions both singing their beautiful love songs in perfect harmony. (9.5/10)

A/five stars; A masterpiece of progressive rock music in the folk/symphonic vein.

Just another collection of antiques and curios

After having left Genesis in 1970 after the release of Trespass (and being replaced by Steve Hackett), nothing at all was heard from Anthony "Ant" Phillips for the next seven years. But when his first solo album The Geese And The Ghost finally appeared in 1977, Ant suddenly became very prolific and began releasing at least one new album each year. In conjunction with the release of his third proper album Sides, he launched the long running Private Parts & Pieces-series. A second instalment in the series, subtitled Back To The Pavilion, appeared in 1980, and in 1982 came this third album, subtitled Antiques. Actually, this one is not really a private project but rather a team effort. Ant made this album together with someone named Enrique Berro Garcia.

Like the first Private Parts & Pieces album, the present one is very strongly focused on acoustic guitars with little else being heard at all. Indeed, both Ant and Garcia are guitar players and many of these pieces are guitar duets. Toward the end of the three part Suite In D Minor some electric guitar can be heard which comes as a relief to bored ears, but there are no drums, keyboards, or vocals on this album. While I think this album is more pleasant than, and thus an improvement over, the first Private Parts & Pieces album, it is not up to par with the more diverse Private Parts & Pieces II. This is mellow and unchallenging background music and as such it is pleasant, but it is not suited for listening. It is worth hearing once or maybe even twice, but it is simply too monotonous and one-dimensional to be of any lasting interest. And, of course, it has nothing to do with progressive Rock, as it is neither progressive nor Rock.

Recommended only to Ant's fans and the devoted followers of the Private Parts & Pieces-series in particular

The first of the three albums recorded by Phillips with the Argentinian classical guitarist Quique Berro-Garcia has still the mood of the acoustic parts of The Geese and the Ghost but being almost made of just two classical guitars, with few exceptions, appears to be more classical oriented. It's clear since the first track that, if I'm not wrong, has some J.S. Bach inside. The second track, an instrumental suite of about 12 minutes, contains classical inspired parts but also some fast passages which remind to Astor Piazzolla, clearly influenced by Quique.

Fully Genesis inspired, instead, is the 3rd track: "Suite in D Minor" on which Quique plays a nice clean electric guitar with some bluesy vibes. Unfortunately, Anthony can't avoid inserting tapes played reverted which I honestly find annoying. There's not even a Satanic message inside... Back to the pastoral version of Genesis and we are already in the B side (excuse me, but I have the vynil). Esperansa first, and Elegy have the pastoral mood that Genesis have quite lost after Trespass. In particular, Elegy features Ant at the 12-strings and again Quique at the electric. I think Ennio Morricone would have liked it.

The album proceeds with the happier "Otto's Face" and "Sand Dunes", another mini-suite very typical of Ant's sound of these times but a bit boring. The closer "Old Wives Tales" arrives too late. It's a good track, but after Sand Dunes I'm usually too tired to fully appreciate it.

So, not a bad album and very interesting for who likes classical and acoustic guitars. You have to, as it's almost everything you can find here. Good inside its genre.