Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Dance On A Volcano (2007 Digital Remaster)
2. Entangled (2007 Digital Remaster)
3. Squonk (2007 Digital Remaster)
4. Mad Man Moon (2007 Digital Remaster)
5. Robbery, Assault And Battery (2007 Digital Remaster)
6. Ripples (2007 Digital Remaster)
7. A Trick Of The Tail (2007 Digital Remaster)
8. Los Endos (2007 Digital Remaster)

Disc 2:

1. Dance On A Volcano
2. Entangled
3. Squonk
4. Mad Man Moon
5. Robbery, Assault And Battery
6. Ripples
7. A Trick Of The Tail
8. Los Endos
9. Robbery, Assault And Battery (Promo Video)
10. Ripples (Promo Video)
11. A Trick Of The Tail (Promo Video)
12. A Trick Of The Tail: Reissues Interview 2007 (Video)
13. I Know What I Like (Live In Concert 1976 Video)
14. Fly On A Windshield (Live In Concert 1976 Video)
15. Carpet Crawler (Live In Concert 1976 Video)
16. Cinema Show (Live In Concert 1976 Video)
17. Entangled (Live In Concert 1976 Video)
18. Supper's Ready (Live In Concert 1976 Video)
19. Los Endos (Live In Concert 1976 Video)

Disc 3:

1. Eleventh Earl Of Mar (2007 Digital Remaster)
2. One For The Vine (2007 Digital Remaster)
3. Your Own Special Way (2007 Digital Remaster)
4. Wot Gorilla? (2007 Digital Remaster)
5. All In A Mouse's Night (2007 Digital Remaster)
6. Blood On The Rooftops (2007 Digital Remaster)
7. Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers (2007 Digital Remaster)
8. In That Quiet Earth (2007 Digital Remaster)
9. Afterglow (2007 Digital Remaster)

Disc 4:

1. Eleventh Earl Of Mar
2. One For The Vine
3. Your Own Special Way
4. Wot Gorilla?
5. All In A Mouse's Night
6. Blood On The Rooftops
7. Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers
8. In That Quiet Earth
9. Afterglow
10. Wind And Wuthering - Reissues Interview 2007 (Video)
11. U.S Television - Bootleg Video 1977 (Video)
12. Japanese Television - Bootleg Video 1977 (Video)

Disc 5:

1. Down And Out (2007 Digital Remaster)
2. Undertow (2007 Digital Remaster)
3. Ballad Of Big (2007 Digital Remaster)
4. Snowbound (2007 Digital Remaster)
5. Burning Rope (2007 Digital Remaster)
6. Deep In The Motherlode (2007 Digital Remaster)
7. Many Too Many (2007 Digital Remaster)
8. Scenes From A Night's Dream (2007 Digital Remaster)
9. Say It's Alright Joe (2007 Digital Remaster)
10. The Lady Lies (2007 Digital Remaster)
11. Follow You Follow Me (2007 Digital Remaster)

Disc 6:

1. Down And Out
2. Undertow
3. Ballad Of Big
4. Snowbound
5. Burning Rope
6. Deep In The Motherlode
7. Many Too Many
8. Scenes From A Night's Dream
9. Say It's Alright Joe
10. The Lady Lies
11. Follow You Follow Me
12. Many Too Many (Promo Video)
13. Follow You Follow Me (Promo Video)
14. And Then There Were Three - Reissues Interview 2007 (Video)
15. Three Dates With Genesis 1978 (Video)

Disc 7:

1. Behind The Lines (2007 Digital Remaster)
2. Duchess (2007 Digital Remaster)
3. Guide Vocal (2007 Digital Remaster)
4. Man Of Our Times (2007 Digital Remaster)
5. Misunderstanding (2007 Digital Remaster)
6. Heathaze (2007 Digital Remaster)
7. Turn It On Again (2007 Digital Remaster)
8. Alone Tonight (2007 Digital Remaster)
9. Cul-de-sac (2007 Digital Remaster)
10. Please Don't Ask (2007 Digital Remaster)
11. Duke's Travels (2007 Digital Remaster)
12. Duke's End (2007 Digital Remaster)

Disc 8:

1. Behind The Lines
2. Duchess
3. Guide Vocal
4. Man Of Our Times
5. Misunderstanding
6. Heathaze
7. Turn It On Again
8. Alone Tonight
9. Cul-de-sac
10. Please Don't Ask
11. Duke's Travels
12. Duke's End
13. Duchess (Promo Video)
14. Misunderstanding (Promo Video)
15. Turn It On Again (Promo Video)
16. Duke - Reissues Interview 2007 (Video)
17. Live At The Lyceum London 1980 (Video)

Disc 9:

1. Abacab (2007 Digital Remaster)
2. No Reply At All (2007 Digital Remaster)
3. Me And Sarah Jane (2007 Digital Remaster)
4. Keep It Dark (2007 Digital Remaster)
5. Dodo/Lurker (2007 Digital Remaster)
6. Who Dunnit? (2007 Digital Remaster)
7. Man On The Corner (2007 Digital Remaster)
8. Like It Or Not (2007 Digital Remaster)
9. Another Record (2007 Digital Remaster)

Disc 10:

1. Abacab
2. No Reply At All
3. Me And Sarah Jane
4. Keep It Dark
5. Dodo/Lurker
6. Who Dunnit?
7. Man On The Corner
8. Like It Or Not
9. Another Record
10. Abacab (Promo Video)
11. No Reply At All (Promo Video)
12. Keep It Dark (Promo Video)
13. Man On The Corner (Promo Video)
14. Abacab Reissues Interview (Video)

Disc 11:

1. Paperlate (2007 Digital Remaster)
2. Evidence Of Autumn (2007 Digital Remaster)
3. Pigeons (2007 Digital Remaster)
4. You Might Recall (2007 Digital Remaster)
5. Naminanu (2007 Digital Remaster)
6. Inside And Out (2007 Digital Remaster)
7. Vancouver (2007 Digital Remaster)
8. Me And Virgil (2007 Digital Remaster)
9. It's Yourself (2007 Digital Remaster)
10. Match Of The Day (2007 Digital Remaster)
11. Open Door (2007 Digital Remaster)
12. The Day The Light Went Out (2007 Digital Remaster)
13. Submarine (2007 Digital Remaster)

Disc 12:

1. Paperlate
2. Evidence Of Autumn
3. Pigeons
4. You Might Recall
5. Naminanu
6. Inside And Out
7. Vancouver
8. Me And Virgil
9. It's Yourself
10. Match Of The Day
11. Open Door
12. The Day The Light Went Out
13. Submarine
14. Paperlate (Promo Video)
15. Extra Tracks - Reissues Interview 2007 (Video)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8326 in Music
• Released on: 2007-04-02
• Number of discs: 12
• Formats: Box set, Enhanced, SACD, Hybrid SACD
• Dimensions: 2.35 pounds

Album Description
Please Note: Requires SACD-compatible hardware It doesn't need SACD compatible hardware. The Stereo CD element can be played on a standard CD player. The SACD 5.1 surround sound required a SACD-compatible hardware.

Customer Reviews

Excellent sound and presentation - extras: Not mindblowing.
Let me clarify one thing first: In terms of sound, the new 5.1 mixes are masterfully done. Putting in the new disc of Wind And Wuthering or Duke and cracking up the volume will completely blow you away. Personally, I was left with one big "wow" - it was certainly worth the full wait and every penny, but then, I *am* a hardcore fan, so that's hardly surprising.

As for the presentation of the discs, the box itself is beautifully done, albeit not very practical - I do have a lot of trouble getting the discs out of the box, having tried various solutions such as inserting things and turning the box up-side down and shaking it (the latter being my currently favoured approach).

The box-set comes with a special booklet which is quite beautifully done, but whoes content doesn't impress me that much. Basically, a Michael Watt tells us his oppinion on all the ablums and songs, and that's not very helpful to me. To what can I use the fact that he finds 'Submarine' to be going nowhere and 'Me And Virgil' to be a failed experiment, when they just happen to be two of my favorite Genesis B-sides? Nothing ...

But enought a bout the general properties, let me give a disc-by-disc analysis of the set.


- A TRICK OF THE TAIL -

The oldest album of the set, and one that has improved significantly in terms of sound. Also, this disc has the most generous offering of extras: As every disc, the promo videos from this album, that being Robbery, Assault and Battery, Ripples and A Trick of the Tail; hardly that interesting, bearing in mind that these same videos were recently released on the Video Show DVD. A re-isue interview with each band member about the general situation of the band at this time, and the songs of the album. The interviews are really nice, and offers a great insight in the band and the album. On the downside, I will mention that the interviews are only available in stereo sound, this is annoying if you prefer the 5.1 or DTS surround mixes, because the interviews will hardly be audible with you changing the audio settings of your amplifier to stereo mode.

The real gem here, however, is the *complete* In Concert 1976 footage. Though more or less inferior versions have circulated among the fans for some time, it is good finally to have this wonderful show released on DVD from official site. Again, the sound is only in stereo, but it does sound amazing, and the performance, including I Know What I Like, Fly On A Windshield, Carpet Crawlers, Cinema Show part II, Entangled, Supper's Ready parts 5, 6 and 7, and Los Endos, is excellent.

Finally, there are visuals from a tour programme from this time, which isn't that that interesting.


- WIND AND WUTHERING -

This was always one of my favorite albums, and the new mixes sound just beautiful - Eleventh Earl of Mar, One For The Vine, and Unquiet Slumbers for The Sleepers In That Quiet Earth particularly blew me away.

The extras on this disc is a real let down. The interviews are really nice, but the overdubbed bootleg videos from US and Japan television are for me completely worthless. I am particularly dissapointed with the band deciding only to include Video footage, and not Audio footage from this town - there are tons of important live recordings lying around from this time, and any offering from the band would have been greatly appreciated. Also, if they wanted only video footage, they could have included the Seconds Out promo footage from Dallas.


- AND THEN THERE WERE THREE ... -

This was always one of the less appreciated albums, but personally I like it quite a lot. Though not the most profound of the band's albums in terms of musical quality, it is a very coherent album, and the production is nice. It is also one of the few albums where most of the songs sound better on the album that they actually did live. The new surround mix of Down And Out was one I had particularly looked forward to.

The exrtas on this disc is a mixed bag of candies. I'm very pleased to see the Three Dates With Genesis documentary included, a 50 minutes documentary following the band - and the crew! - on tour. But again, the lack of video footage from this era meens that we are completely derived of live footage. This tour accompagnying this album is one of the "lost" Genesis tours, where only small remnants have been released, and it would have been really nice to have some more audio footage included here. The fans certainly would have appreciated it much more than the promo videos - again! - and the programme images.


- DUKE -

By many considered the best album of the era, and probably rightfully so. The music is amazing, and the new surround mix of Behind The Lines is breathtaking. And Heathaze, one of their most overlooked songs, sounds amazing!

The extras are very good - included is the "Old Grey Whistle Test" footage from Lyceum, London, sadly only including the songs Behind The Lines / Duchess / Guide Vocal / In The Cage / Slippermen / Afterglow / Dance On A Volcano / Los Endos, but still essential footage, and the quality is amazing. I guess one can ask for no more.


- ABACAB -

Not one of my favorite albums, the songs always sounded better live than on the disc, but ironically one that is treasured by the band as well as many fans. The extras for this disc are truly disspointing, only including the promo videos, the interview, and still from the tour programme. Even though it is probably too much to ask for, I cannot help but feel it would have been natural to use this opportunity to release the Three Sides Live video footage on DVD, like they did with the In Concert video on the Trick Of The Tail disc.


- BONUS DISC -

The disc includes all - ALL - the B-sides from this era. Yes, this time we get also Match Of The Day and Me And Virgil, thank you! [These tracks were left off Archive II because the band felt they were of inferior quality.] As an interesting note, it seems they have restored the original version of Submarine, instead of the doctored version included on Archives II due to damaged masters!

About the extras on the disc - again, one could have hoped they would have included some "special" treat for those who actually bought the box-set, but no, all we get is the same Paperlate footage (overdubbed) as on the Video Show DVD, and a - rather short - interview on the general procedure of preparing this boxset. Dissapointing.


OVERALL RATING: 9 / 10

An amazing treat for the ear, and a fairly generous offering of exrtas - even though it could have been more, it certainly could have been less, so I guess we should be satisfied. The next box covering the late era should be out this autumn, but I guess the thing we all REALLY anticipate is the release of the third box sometime next year, covering the early era. I can't wait to hear what the new mixes have made of Nursery Cryme - it promises to be mind-blowing!

Now it's all clear - if somewhat flat
As stated previously, there are a couple of minor gripes, ie. fiddly box that requires tipping and shaking to release the discs, and questionable extras.
But these are very minor gripes, far outweighed by the positives.
I do not have a surround sound system so cannot comment on the 5.1 mixes, but I can confirm that in the main the stereo remixes are a vast improvement on the originals.
I say 'in the main' because at times, particularly on 'Trick', the mixes do sound somewhat dynamically over-compressed. 'Trick' was always one of the more dynamic and punchy sounding albums, thanks to some finely recorded drums. But now the loud parts are quite compressed and don't quite blow you away quite as much as would be hoped in that regard. But this is possibly a result of the final mastering rather than Nick Davis's mixes - and these days most mastering engineers are obsessed with compressing mixes to the max to get the levels as loud as possible and to sound good for radio and MP3.

Throughout the set the biggest improvement is the clarity in Collins's vocal, which was often mixed too low and swamped in bad quality reverb (check out the original 'Eleventh Earl Of Marr' or much of 'And Then there Were Three' and compare).
Some of the backing vocals are now a little quite though: think of the beautiful 3 part harmonies on 'Entangled'. The new mix sets the 2 harmonies somewhat behind the lead vocal, whereas previously all 3 vocals were mixed more or less at the same level.

By and large though, once you have these new mixes you will never ever want to return to the original ones, such are the overall gains.

The DVD extras, I think, are great. As said previously, there are probably other things that could have gone on, but what we do have is fantastic. My favourite 'extra' is the 2007 interview split across the 6 discs, which shows the usually shy Tony Banks at his most eloquent, speaking passionately about each album. Nice contributions from Rutherford, Collins and Hackett also.

Not surprisingly, the 'Three Sides' concert footage has been left off the Abacab extras, but the reason for this is obvious: Three Sides Live will surely be remixed and reissued on both CD and DVD at some point, of that I have no doubt at all.

By the way, all the tracks are presented at their original length. If they were edited on the original vinyl, they are edited here (as a couple of tracks from And Then There Were Three were). But 'Submarine' is presented in full as it was on the original B-side. The only reason it was cut short on the Archive set was because the original master was damaged. But, as with all the other tracks (bar one) Nick Davis has gone back to the original multi-track tape (the pre-master) so there is no issue at all with that track's original damaged master.

Re-visit these great albums, enjoy the clarity, and enjoy the exras as a bonus. 9/10 (lost one point for the mega over-compression).

Oh........My..........God!!
If there is only one reason to blow your cash on SA-CD equipment, this is it. The feeling of S P A C E and CLARITY is utterly mind blowing.
There is no need to give a blow by blow account of each album `cos if you`re reading this you`re probably a Genesis fan anyway (plus I haven`t listened to all of `em yet!)
DON`T expect surround sound "wizz bang" guitar or keyboard from rear left to front right or any of that sort of foolery. These albums have been remixed with great taste and restraint. The rear channels just add to the whole feeling of space. Each song can now breathe, something they just couldn`t do on Genesis albums before now, as there just wasn`t "room" for the complex arrangements to shine. Each instrument can now clearly be heard (a boon for all you tribute bands!)
To wrap up, if you have a DVD or SA-CD player and 5.1 surround, and you`re a Genesis fan, you would be plain crazy not to invest in these brilliant albums, either as the box set or individually.