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Genesis fans, it’s time to sit up and take notice. There
are any number of Genesis tribute bands out there. And there
bands such as The Watch who borrow stylistically from early
Genesis in the creation of their music. And then there is
Unifaun! Wow, I wasn’t prepared for this one. The band’s intentions
with this record were to “make the songs Genesis never recorded”,
and it accomplishes that task in spades. Listening to their
self titled debut release is both gloriously joyful and just
a little spooky. These guys are that good.***
So who is Unifaun? Well it’s two people really. Nad Sylvan
(vocals, guitar, bass, keys, drums) and Bonamici (keys, bass,
percussion). The two met on a forum for Genesis fans and for
the past four years have been working on the music created
here. What’s interesting is that these two guys make no apologies
for sounding like Genesis, which was the very point of their
efforts, to make the music that Genesis seemed to have drifted
away from.***
This is just an amazing CD. Unifaun captures the very
essence of Genesis creating 12 songs ranging anywhere from
two-and-a-half-minutes to fourteen and sounding like a disc
of music that Genesis itself made, had they not chosen to
forget about acoustic guitars and complex, quirky compositions.
I’m serious, as I sat listening to this record I was blown
away by the sounds I heard. There would be a keyboard passage
that would have fit perfectly on ‘Selling England…’ or a guitar
part right out of ‘Wind & Wuthering’ or a vocal part from
‘Lamb’ and so it goes. More than just sound LIKE Genesis,
each of these tracks really does sound like songs that should
have been on any of those albums. And what’s so neat is that
rather than just sounding like Genesis, these songs are so
well constructed and complex, both in terms of musicianship
and arrangement, that they sound as if the last few years
never happened and the original band just kept creating progressive
rock music. Not only do all the keyboards and guitars ring
true, so do the vocals. In fact Sylvan’s vocals manage to
capture the range of both Gabriel and Collins and even on
a couple tracks Marillion’s Fish. It’s so hard to pick favorite
tracks on this disc because they’re all so different and each
has so many sonic catch-points, a great Mellotron, a soft
flute like passage, piping Arp synth sound, ambient guitar
passages, it’s all there on display.***
The more I listen to Unifaun, the more I like it. The
songs are so varied with so many little bits going on; I can
keep listening to this disc for a long time. If you enjoy
the music of early Genesis, say from 1972-1980, from Foxtrot
to Duke you have GOT to get your hands on this disc. I’m serious
it’s like nothing you’ve heard before. Without question Unifaun
has become one of my favorites of 2008. It’s a brilliant CD
and I highly recommend***
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