Worst Genesis clone

[Jeremy Bender]

I've been a Marillion fan from the get go, when I bought the Market Square Heroes single as a very pricey import. I was so starved for new prog at that point (1982) I just laughed at how blatant the Genesis-isms were. Of course, I then got Tales From The Lush Attic and that made Marillion sound like trail-blazing innovators in comparison. However, I went nuts for Twelfth Night right away, my first album for them was the LP of Live and Let Live, I still think that Sequences is a masterpiece. The expanded version of that album is terrific, nice to hear The Collector live.

I stuck with Marillion and now the h-era band is one of my favorite bands, regardless of genre. The run of albums that is Brave > Afraid Of Sunlight > This Strange Engine > Radiation > .com > Anoraknophobia > Marbles is still in rotation on my iPOd, I just wish they'd tour the US more.

[simon moon]

I like Babylon quite a bit. They did enough differently to make them more than just a clone.

I hate Citizen Cain! I own one of their CD's and find it laughable.

[bill g]

I would put BBT in this category. First we had the Selling England bt the Pound remake and now we have something that resembles Mike and the Mechanics.

?? I'm trying to imagine when Big Big Train ever sounded remotely close to either, and I'm coming up empty.

[Scrotum Scissor]

I have some other Swedish artists singing in their native language as well, like Johann Lindell and Stadion. Did Fläsket Brinner sing ing Swedish?

Only the first Fläsket album has any vox on it (one or two songs, IIRC); the second (double) one is purely instrumental but IMO one of the 10-or-so greatest Swedish rock albums ever made - like a semi-psychedelic "jam-band" take on Samla Mammas Manna!

It was far more usual for Swedish 70s acts to have lyrics in their native tongue than was the case in Norway or Denmark. Sweden had the rather infamous "Progg"-movement (note the double 'g'), which essentially denoted a specific cultural orientation with the artistic community, characterized by a politically leftist stance on everything creative; lyrics (language and content), organization (concert series, festivals and labels, for instance first Silence, later Musiknätet Waxholm), aesthetic "message" - it was all part of the striving for "human authenticity" or even "genuinity" and outspokenly anti-capitalist. The biggest Swedish pop/rock group of the entire 70s, Hoola Bandoola Band, was the cornerstone of this movement, but numerous progressive rock (proper) names were involved as well; Samla, Fläsket, Älgarnas Trädgård, Turid, Arbete och Fritid, Trettioåriga Kriget, Dimmornas Bro, Kebnekaise, Ragnarök...

[Shadow]

Phil Collins

[Kim Olesen]

I imagine that'll bring a lot of frowns around here, but since you broke the ice, I have to admit, I'm in the same boat. I actually liked them best when they were a Genesis clone.

Same here. They just don't reach me emotionally. And Genesis always did that. Both the Gabriel era and the Collins era (which was the one i discovered Genesis on)

[Yaman Aksu]

There may be hundreds of bands that sound (little or much) similar to Genesis (I guess depending on whom you ask) including neo-prog bands --- I've heard the music of maybe 30-40 of neo-prog bands and the number probably falls to 10 if I narrow it down to "listening to entirety of an album". And strangely this 10 doesn't include obvious neo-prog names like IQ and Twelfth Night. So, you can see that I enjoy neo-prog but haven't followed it closely at all --- in fact, in the 80s (and 90s), I didn't spend time on much neo-prog efforts from various bands because I felt (back then) they were rather sub-par to Marillion. Basically, in the area of neo-prog, I'd listen to mainly Marillion (and later, Genesis) and my time saved by not listening to many a neo-prog band would be spent on listening to non-prog bands basically, for example. *After* having listened to Marillion in the 80s, it wasn't until around 1991 that I heard the pre-80s Genesis (that they're compared to) pretty much for the first time. In other words, my love of 80s Marillion was born purely out of what it sounded like, free of comparisons to Genesis, since I didn't hear (pre-80s, non-Top40) Genesis until 1991. My first impression of Gabriel-era Genesis, in 1991, was that the production was less polished -- and the tunes were less song-like -- compared to 80s Marillion. The two bands (mostly their pre-90s efforts) are certainly in my top 5 of all prog --- and not because some criterion like 'one sounds like the other' -- they're each uniquely great.

As far as identifying some bands as Genesis 'clone' bands, well the definition of 'close' differs depending on whom you ask. Besides, as I wrote above, I'm not familiar with many neo-prog bands, which explains why I'm not familiar with any band that consistently sounds like (some/any era of) Genesis. But it's possible to name songs rather than songs. To give one example, Iluvatar's song "Indian Rain" definitely has the proto-neoprog sound ("keyboard soaked wall of sound supplemented by huge bass pedal") pioneered by Genesis songs like "Afterglow" but I would not call it a 'clone'. It's an influence.

Anyway, that's probably all from me on this thread folks…Not really a neo-prog expert.

[JIF]

I've been a Marillion fan from the get go, when I bought the Market Square Heroes single as a very pricey import. I was so starved for new prog at that point (1982) I just laughed at how blatant the Genesis-isms were. Of course, I then got Tales From The Lush Attic and that made Marillion sound like trail-blazing innovators in comparison. However, I went nuts for Twelfth Night right away, my first album for them was the LP of Live and Let Live, I still think that Sequences is a masterpiece. The expanded version of that album is terrific, nice to hear The Collector live.

I stuck with Marillion and now the h-era band is one of my favorite bands, regardless of genre. The run of albums that is Brave > Afraid Of Sunlight > This Strange Engine > Radiation > .com > Anoraknophobia > Marbles is still in rotation on my iPOd, I just wish they'd tour the US more.

I hear no Genesis influence in Twelfth Night, except in Geoff Mann's theatrical delivery.

[Jeremy Bender]

I hear no Genesis influence in Twelfth Night, except in Geoff Mann's theatrical delivery.

Listen to The Poet Sniffs A Flower, for one, that's clearly Genesis influenced.

[mellotron storm]

Deyss

This was the band that I first thought of after reading the opening post.

[JIF]

Listen to The Poet Sniffs A Flower, for one, that's clearly Genesis influenced.

Wow, one song. Actually, that song doesn't sound very Genesis influence, but it seem to serve the same function as Horizons from Foxtrot(it's an instrumental followed by an epic).

[Digital_Man]

I'm surprised nobody has said the band that did Abacab to Calling all stations.

[Digital_Man]

This was the band that I first thought of after reading the opening post.

Deyss were more of a Marillion clone though.

[JIF]

I'm surprised nobody has said the band that did Abacab to Calling all stations.

Hey, aren't you due at The Improv?

Deyss were more of a Marillion clone though.

Didn't this band also have a one named singer?

[Crystal Plumage]

OK, to all Neuschwanstein "haters" out there, what about this one?

[Toothyspook]

?? I'm trying to imagine when Big Big Train ever sounded remotely close to either, and I'm coming up empty.

Yet, without prompt, you knew what I meant

[Desdinova]

I've always enjoyed Babylon and Neuschwanstein, and have never thought of either as "clones" though there is clearly a great debt of influence. All bands have to start somewhere - Babylon morphed into Helicopter, who sounded nothing like Genesis. While IQ clearly have always looked back at Genesis, you can make the same case about IQ and Bowie, or IQ and the Sex Pistols. They've always kept it as part of the mix of originality and influence that shaped their career, just like any band. While BBT has recently had a bit of a Trespass or Nursery Cryme touch to their music, I think that might be more David Longdon than anyone from the original band, and it is hardly a significant part of their sound. I also still think the Unifaun CD is wonderful in it's playful reverence to Genesis - it's not like they are trying to hide it or take it too seriously.

I'll stick with the bands I can say nice stuff about. Not much of a fan of "worst" threads.

[spacefreak]

For me IQ's "Seven Stories Into Eight" is candidate for the worst Genesis-like work. But it is a demo...

[spacefreak]

Another I had a long time ago was Galadriel, Muttered Promises from and Endless Album, or something like that, which I remember really disliking and having some Genesis similarities.

Galadriel (Spain): very close to Kyrie Eleison in terms of quality. Tedious, uninteresting and poorly recorded/produced. Only for sympho completists.

[spacefreak]

Beware: I found Acrostichon to be very boring: a total snooze. They aren’t a complete clone of Genesis but there’s simply no spark or inspiration to their music. Very bland. I ditched it and do not regret it (also note that Muséa’s “professional” cover art is much worse than the original cover!).

I also think that the Twinkle label LP cover is way better than Musea's one. Isopoda's debut is for me a like-it-but-not-love-it album. On the contrary, their "Taking Root" 2nd effort is far more worse than "Acrostichon" i.m.o.

I seem to be the only one who does not loathe Sad Cypress with a passion

It has a certain charm that it is a kind of a guilty pleasure for me that makes me revisiting it almost annually. But frankly speaking, sometimes I cannot fully digest the corny factor.

[spacefreak]

Flyte, which is plowing the same field.

Flyte is an album I got rid of, upon first listen. A snoozefest to my ears.

[spacefreak]

I only have the second Dimornas Bro album.

I never liked "Mål". The debut is better.

[Cats On Glue]

I am a clone, I am not alone
Every fibre of my flesh and bone is identical to
the others
Everything I say is in the same tone as my test
tube brother's voice
And there's no choice between us, if you had ever
seen us you'd rejoice in your uniqueness
And consider every weakness something special of
your own
Being a clone I have no flaws to identify
Even this doggerel that pours from my pen
Has just been written by another twenty
telepathic men
Word for word it says
"Oh, for the wings of any bird other than a
battery hen".

[Sputnik]

I'm surprised nobody has said the band that did Abacab to Calling all stations.

IMO they sound nothing like Genesis.

[bill g]

Yet, without prompt, you knew what I meant

I only knew what you meant because you made it clear in your post. I only don't know which albums or songs sound like Selling England or M&TM. Of course I hear a Genesis influence with each BBT album (not really Selling England era though), but other influences too. I've never heard anything remotely close to M&TM in their music, but then there is a lot of M&TM I haven't heard admittedly. The first two albums I didn't relate well to, so didn't bother with anything since.