Genesis - 'Selling England By the Pound' (Atlantic)

Forgot I Had This Department: Yeah, I have a Genesis record, and of course I like some Genesis, because they are good records that you can find in charity shops for very cheap. But I don't like them that much - even a cursory glance at the A through F's of this gauntlet will show my prog tastes tend to stay away from the bigger names and likewise from medieval and fantasy-leaning lyrics. Genesis were always just right in the middle of it all for me; I greatly prefer them to Yes or ELP or things like that, but don't enjoy them as much as I enjoy King Crimson. This record has some airy-faery stuff (mostly in the opening track, which is called, wonderfully, 'Dancing with the Moonlit Knight' -- and has some nice flutes and bells) but the real reason I have this record, honestly, is the song 'More Fool Me'. It's a cute little throwaway love song at the end of side one, and it's sung by Phil Collins in an affable, genteel croon instead of Gabriel's bombast. I wouldn't profess to know the entire Genesis catalogue or even much beyond this and Foxtrot and the 80s MTV hits, but it's undoubtedly my favourite Genesis song. If I remembered that I owned this record (which I don't, usually, unless an alphabetical blog-revue forces me to confront my accumulation), then surely I would pull it out occasionally just to hear that song. The rest of the vinyl is scarcely played, at least by my stylii. Though now, on a mandatory listen, it's clearly Genesis doing what they did best. There's some searing guitar solos (though they aren't as broken or blistering as, say, Area) and some epic key changes and some Mellotron and a very English feel to it overall.  'The Battle of Epping Forest' is a lengthy narrative about contemporary British unrest, which is an achievement in its own by putting street gangs into the usual medieval epic aspirations of 70s British progressive rock, but the song goes on forever (even to me) and I find it a bit unmemorable overall beyond it's conceit. This is going to go to the sell pile (or the give-away pile) not because I dislike it, but because I have too many records and can't justify keeping this for one song which I could just listen to via YouTube when I get a hankerin' for it.

Gato Barbieri and Dollar Brand - 'Confluence' (Arista)

For some reason I've always been really unfair towards Arista records, a label that I associate with the bottom of the barrel (weird Lou Reed albums, Barry Manilow, Milli Vanilli). These mid-70's Black Lion/Freedom series releases are generally worth hearing and there are a few gems (this record being one of them, and Braxton kicked out a few killer releases too) but the graphic design and liner notes feel like something the music has to struggle to overcome. This series of duets was actually recorded in Milan during March, 1968 though the record was issued in 1975. With great phrases like "the pianist had rejected apartheid, but not the Christian hymnal" and "Confluence, the flowing together of two or more streams, becomes confluence, the combined stream formed by conjunction" you know you are in for a treat. (The notes were written by Robert Palmer). This record is split between Brand's compositions on side 1 and Barbieri's on side 2. Barbieri's 'To Elsa' is a beast quite unlike In Search of the Mystery, opening with a chunky Brand piano solo and then being followed by a tenor sax solo by Gato - really the opposite of 'confluence', but it's beastly in a brainy way (especially the piano part). Brand's pieces pick a point between traditional spiritual/African folksong and super disjointed avant-jazz stylings, and Barbieri meets him with equally cold Gestalt sax lines. When Brand switches to cello it seems to flow a bit better, but the interruptions and angles are what make the piano/sax duets so good. The final track, 'Eighty First Street', features a piano line lifted straight off Meredith Monk's Dolmen Music. It rolls along with Gato getting back into his pimp-dogg mode before it all comes crumbling down into a pile of melting ice cream.