TWILIGHT

The Night Watch were a talented Italian band which are mainly known for drawing on Genesis - a lot of their compositions draw heavily from classic-period Genesis from their pastoral period, Simone Rossetti sounds uncannily like Peter Gabriel on vocals (with the occasional Fish moment), and Francesco Zago plays uncannily like Steve Hackett at times.

At the same time, their sound drifts just far away enough from classic Genesis to write them off as a mere clone; Giovanni Alessi's keyboard work is more reminiscent to my ears of Mark Kelly's in Marillion than Tony Banks' playing in Genesis, and occasionally the band as a whole breaks off into an intense instrumental section reminiscent of the darker moments of early King Crimson. Overall, in fact the album is somewhat darker and more hard rocking than anything produced by Genesis.

The Night Watch are mostly known these days for launching the prog career of Rossetti - with an entirely new line-up, he would go on to continue the band's legacy in The Watch. But at the same time, I think this lone album by the group makes its own special contribution to neo-prog and will go down well with symphonic fans eager to hear what happens when the massed rock armies of King Crimson go trampling through the pastoral landscapes of Genesis.