"A Quest for Prog" is a series of 50 Progressive Rock reviews to be written over a year. The band selection is taken from the book in the first post on this blog. And the albums I am reviewing is based on the highest user ratings for each band on Progarchives.com.
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel (aka “Peter Gabriel 3” or “Melt”) (1980)
Produced by Steve Lillywhite & Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel – Vocals, Piano, Synthesizer, Bass synthesizer & Percussion
Kate Bush – Backing Vocals ("No Self Control", "Games Without Frontiers", "I Don't Remember" & "Not One Of Us")
Jerry Marotta – Drums & Percussion
Larry Fast – Synthesizer & Bass synthesizer
Robert Fripp – Guitar ("No self control", "I Don't Remember" & "Not One of Us")
John Giblin – Bass
Dave Gregory – Guitar
Tony Levin – Chapman Stick ("I Don't Remember")
Phil Collins – Drums & Percussion ("Intruder", "No Self Control", "Family Snapshot" & "Biko")
Dick Morrissey – Saxophone
Morris Pert – Percussion
David Rhodes – Guitar & Backing Vocals
Paul Weller – Guitar ("And Through the Wire")
Dave Ferguson – Screeches ("Biko")
Track listing:
Side one:
01. Intruder (4:54)
02. No Self Control (3:55)
03. Start (1:21)
04. I Don't Remember (4:41)
05. Family Snapshot (4:28)
06. And Through the Wire (5:00)
Side two:
01. Games Without Frontiers (4:06)
02. Not One of Us (5:22)
03. Lead a Normal Life (4:14)
04. Biko (7:32)
Released in 1980 “Peter Gabriel” is the third solo album by English artist Peter Gabriel. Peter started his carrier in Progressive Rock originator Genesis and released six albums with the band before leaving to begin a solo career. His first 4 solo albums were all self titled and explored more electronic and stripped back types of music. The 80’s were a particularly successful period for Peter sparked by his single “Sledgehammer” being picked up by MTV. His most recent releases have returned to a minimal approached similar to his first solo period.
The album begins the unnerving “Intruder”. This track is creepy with an almost muted and unemotional pallet that moves along on an industrial groove. The song features sampled screams and guitar scratching alongside a very minimal vocal from Peter. The song opens up slightly when there are actions being played out in the lyrics which add to the unsettling nature of the song. Think a darker version of “Lullaby” by the Cure.
The next tune “No Self Control” is a lighting mood in some respects but is still quite a dark tune. The song sounds like Tubeway Army and the lighter side of Nine Inch Nails. It is a very percussive song with Tribal Toms and Marimbas. It’s an interesting tune best way to describe it is a discordant pop song.
The short tune “Start” is next. It’s a cheesy Keyboard and Sax number that really isn’t all that interesting and is more an intro for “I Don't Remember”.
“I Don't Remember” is a much more fun prospect. This track is an upbeat new wave kind of track that sits on a nice funk bass line. Musically this is a fairly straight forward track that get’s it’s colour from the vocal effects. Ok track but not as strong as the first two tracks.
The next track “Family Snapshot” is an odd track. It has quite a prominent pop production but feel like it has almost been slowed to give it a grinding deep feel. The song has good movement and strong melodies with some interesting instrumentation on the backing track. Peter’s vocals are quite low and feature allot of processing.
The last song on this side is “And Through the Wire”. This track reminded me of 70’s Bowie the of Glam Rock stuff he was doing. There is a New Wave feel in the mix. The song goes from a stripped back verses which features some interesting changes in time to a strong commercial chorus. An alright track but it does drag due to its length.
“Games Without Frontiers” starts the second side off. The song is quite electronic and features some really strong keyboard playing. Peters vocals a soulful and quite high in places. Nice tune that is let down by a weak chorus.
“Not One of Us” is next and is an idea taken too far. The melodies are strong and it features a big almost rock chorus. But it does drag at its length. This is mostly due to the muted backing which struggles to keep the song interesting.
Next is the World/Electronic “Lead a Normal Life”. This song has a nice mix of keyboards and African percussion most prominently Marimba. The song has a real Kraftwerk feel to it and at time is very dark in the same vein as album opener “Intruder.
The last song is probably the most minimal but well known of all of the tracks on this album “Biko”. The song is topped and tailed with African field recordings. The backing is a simply gated drum and guitar with what sounds like bagpipes. All of the variation in the tune is from Peters vocals which are really strong on this song. It’s an interesting tune that doesn’t seem to drag even though it is 7 minutes long.
This isn’t a Prog album but more of Krautrock kind of album. In that the German bands in that scene were less about wild instrumentation but taking music to unusual places. The album does miss in a few places but hit’s in allot of other places. Well worth checking out with Peters other self titled albums.
6/10
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