Genesis founding member Tony Banks will be releasing his first ever box set celebrating his solo work. A Chord Too Far is a deluxe 4 CD set comprising 48 songs and pieces, all personally selected by Tony. Many tracks have been remixed exclusively for this collection and have been drawn from his seven solo and two orchestral albums.
A Chord Too Far includes four previously unreleased tracks, three of which are keyboard demos of his orchestral suites, with the fourth being a piece originally written for the album Still. This lavish box set also features a 60 page with an exclusive interview with Tony Banks. It is set to release on July 31st 2015.
A Chord Too Far Track list:
Disc One:
1. Rebirth
2. At the Edge of Night
3. Walls of Sound
4. Lion of Symmetry (with Toyah Willcox)
5. The More I Hide It
6. Shortcut to Somewhere (with Fish)
7. The Waters of Lethe
8. I Wanna Change the Score (with Nik Kershaw)
9. Water Out of Wine
10. Something to Live For
11. By You
12. Never Let Me Know
13. Thirty Three's
Disc Two:
1. Charity Balls
2. An Island in the Darkness
3. The Border
4. Lucky Me
5. Another Murder of a Day (with Fish)
6. Moving Under
7. Still It Takes Me by Surprise
8. Red Day on Blue Street (with Nik Kershaw)
9. After the Lie
10. Redwing
Disc Three:
1. Queen of Darkness
2. A Piece of You
3. Big Man
4. Angel Face
5. This Is Love
6. I’ll Be Waiting
7. Back to Back
8. For a While
9. Throwback
10. You Call This Victory (with Jim Diamond)
11. And the Wheels Keep Turning
12. You
13. The Final Curtain
Disc Four:
1. Blade
2. Black Down
3. Siren
4. Earthlight
5. From the Undertow
6. Spring Tide (Demo – Previously Unreleased)
7. Neap Tide (Demo – Previously Unreleased)
8. City of Gold (Demo – Previously Unreleased)
9. The Chase
10. Kit
11. Poppet (Previously Unreleased)
12. The Wicked Lady
The box set cover is by Fred Aristidès, one of France's greatest comic book artists, and is taken the 3rd book is his Philemon series, named The Wild Piano. Coincidentally, Fred's book came out in September 1968, at the exact same time that Genesis started recording what was to become their first album.
You can pre-order here at Cherry Red Records.
The big news yesterday on the intertubes was an announcement on the Genesis Facebook page asking us to: "stay tuned for some exciting Genesis news here tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s our new logo."
OK, so the new "logo", which is really a new record cover, is visually interesting in that the letters of the band's name are used to make a face appear in the shadows. Speculation abounded on what this great news would be: a new studio record? (could be), a new tour? (less likely), a series of shows with the classic line-up? (dream on!).
This morning when the news finally came to light, that the "exciting news" was the release of a 3-CD compilation titled R-Kive, the disappointment was palpable, and so was the sarcasm. What are we to make of this?
First off, the good news:
Spanning an incredible 42 years, R-Kive is a new 3-CD, 37-track set that documents the band’s history in the most comprehensive way yet. Compiled by the band themselves via a process of collaboration and elimination, R-Kive takes an in-depth, chronological journey through the catalogue and - for the first time ever for a Genesis collection - includes three personally chosen selections from the solo careers of Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, and Mike Rutherford / Mike + The Mechanics.
So, the songs were chosen by the band members themselves, which explains some interesting choices. Each member chose three songs from their solo career to add to this compilation. Peter Gabriel selected Solsbury Hill, Biko,... and Signal to Noise from Up, but not Sledgehammer. Phil Collins, who's had a lot of singles, chose the obligatory In the Air Tonight, Easy Lover, and... Wake-Up Call from Testify, not his most successful album. As for Mike Rutherford, he eschewed his own solo work, especially the excellent Smallcreep's Day for songs from Mike + The Mechanics: Silent Running, The Living Years, and Over My Shoulder. Do you see a pattern?
Next up Tony Banks chose For a While from A Curious Feeling, Red Day on Blue Street from Still and Siren from Six. And last but not least, Steve Hackett, who is the only member who is still going strong both releasing new music and touring, chose A Tower Struck Down, for Voyage of the Acolyte, Every Day from Spectral Mornings, and Nomads from Out of the Tunnel's Mouth.
What these choices all have in common is that they all follow the same pattern: 1st song from 1st album, 2nd song from middle period or second hit, and 3rd song from last studio album of original material to come out.
In a sense it is their first career-spanning compilation ever, and is a perfect complement to the anticipated TV documentary that will be seen early next year.
But...
But it is completely useless to most fans, who already have all the albums including the other compilations (the die-hard fans), or have the important albums (most fans). The big let-down is that no new material (live or otherwise) is included. I know a lot of people, myself included, who would have bought it just to get Compression, the B-Side to Mike Rutherford's Working In Line single, on CD.
At least the press release had this good news:
The release of R-Kive will be followed by the accompanying reunion documentary Genesis: Together and Apart which will be broadcast by the BBC in early October. An accompanying DVD, Sum of the Parts will also be issued by Eagle Rock on November 17th (November 18th in North America).
Now THAT's the news I wanted to hear. But we'll have to wait for more about the Sum of the Parts DVD.
In 2007 and 2008, all Genesis albums were released as CD/DVD sets. The CDs contained remastered songs and the DVDs had the whole album in 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS Surround Sound, plus added visual bonuses (interviews, etc.).
Some of the titles are becoming unavailable, and others were only available with the box sets. But this year Universal will rerelease all Genesis albums on the Pure Audio Blu-ray format. Each Blu-ray will contain the music only, there are no visual extras.
Pure Audio Blu-ray is a normal Blu-ray, so it can be played on all Blu-ray players. Nevertheless, it can be played as a CD, which means you do not have to use your television to enjoy the disc or browse through menus before you can start the music.
The first release will be Selling England by the Pound.
