Short Reviews [The Genesis - 2025 - "A Story By The Genesis"]

I am sure that if you find a review about this album anywhere you will see the following but given it is what got me interested enough to track down Will Twynham at Hand of Glory Records, I am definitely going to repeat it. One day he was browsing eBay and saw an old Hohner Cembalet for sale which had been painted matte black and had some missing keys. Also included was a clip of a home recording from the Seventies to show what the Cembalet sounded like, and Twynham decided to bid and won the auction for the princely sum of GBP 10. The seller, Chris Stokes, offered to deliver the keyboard and when chatting said he had more than 80 recordings from the Seventies which had never seen the light of day, plus a full concept album from 1968 if Will was interested. Needless to say that is what I am now listening to, from a band formed in 1966 by Lutonians Chris Stokes (keyboards and vocals) from The Mantis Set, Snip Turner (lead guitar) of local heroes Bryan and The Brunelles, Derek 'Jock' Carleton (guitar and vocals), Steve 'Siggi' Holmes (bass), and Mick Loughton (drums). After a brief spell as The Regency Five, they rebranded as Genesis (note, due to another band being somewhat more famous these days, this release has been changed from 'The Story' by Genesis to 'A Story' by The Genesis - interestingly this should have been released the year before 'From Genesis to Revelation' so would they have owned the name?). After an all-band trip to see The Jimi Hendrix Experience at an early show in Brixton they moved from soul to Stoke's originals, and soon after Holmes suggested a suite of connected songs with a story threaded through; or, as the local paper described it, 'a pop cantata'. Crafted by Holmes and keyboardist Stokes over the latter half of the year, it is a quasi-gothic tale of romantic misadventure culminating in murder, with philosophical reflections on the nature of existence itself! If this had been released when it had been recorded it would have come after 'S.F. Sorrow' and before 'Tommy', the two albums most widely recognised as being the initial rock operas, but sadly it was not to be. Until now. One issue with seeing stuff like this and then seeking it out is that it is always possible that this is one of those releases which never made it out for a reason, and while historically important, musically it is useless, but I am more than glad to confirm that with this album that is definitely not the case. Yes, it is incredibly dated, but it fully captures the feeling of the influences of the late Sixties, when anything was possible and bands were refusing to conform. I actually think this is a far more enjoyable album than 'From Genesis...' which appeared in 1969 (go on, be honest, how many times have you listened to it, even if you own it? I know I played it once, but it was a long time ago and never again). The Small Faces are an obvious psychedelic link with wonderful melodies, but the ending of 'Hate' shows this is far more than another happy go lucky band, but one with depth and darkness who is playing with melodies and definitely moving into prog rock while never losing all their mod roots and there are songs here which should have been hit singles. Apparently, this release was pulled together from the only two surviving copies of the recording, a later-generation cassette and a reel, which of course were at different speeds so had to be carefully brought together, but one can't hear the join. It sounds just like it is, an album from the late Sixties, but one would not guess its circumstances as one would expect this to be a newly discovered label release, not something which has been gathering dust in different attics. I certainly look forward to hearing more from Chris Stokes, as I believe Will is looking to put out more of his material, and rightly so as this is a delight and I can only imagine the other recordings will be fascinating. This may not be Genesis as you know it, but still a really enjoyable release from the dawn of prog/psych.