Today I wanted to mention a group of musicians who deserve some wider recognition: The Watch. These Italian progsters have been around for years (at least fifteen, as far as I know), making a brand of symphonic rock that bears a very strong resemblance to early Genesis. The sound they recreate seems to be straight out of the '70-'73 period of Genesis, back when Peter Gabriel was their front-man and Phil Collins was behind the drum kit. In spite of an Italian accent, Simone Rossetti, lead singer of The Watch, sounds uncannily like Gabriel did back then. The resemblance can be quite eerie at times. They have also been compared to neo-prog bands like IQ, though personally I don't see much similarity.
Back in February of this year The Watch released their new album, which is called Planet Earth? All of their previous albums (and there have been four, although the band changed names and lineups after their debut) have shared a sound similar to this one, drawing heavily on British 70's prog-rock for inspiration, and Planet Earth? is no exception in this regard. What is interesting though, is that there are moments that sound nothing like Genesis (or IQ) -- they sound like something else.
They've gotten very good at doing what they do (sounding like Genesis), but they don't have the same sense of song structure or melody -- and to be fair, no one does. What makes The Watch interesting is the melancholy air that permeates so much of their music. There is very little in the way of brightness or whimsicality, which is a far cry from the band they're purported to be a clone of. For example, the middle section of the track The World Inside, with its oddly-metered guitar and keyboard interplay, does not sound like something Genesis would've done. About the only similarity would be the piano and organ arpeggios played there, but the syncopation used there has more in common with a group like Van Der Graaf Generator, or perhaps some of the more dissonant Swedish bands in this genre like Anglagard. This contrasts nicely with the song's more melodic piano-driven first half. It's probably my favorite from this CD.
Also worth noting is the beautiful cover artwork, by Spencer Bowden. I'm not sure what the point of it is, but it appears to be a guitar and mellotron (there may be more instruments, but I can't see any) with Earth-like terrain formed around them. It caught my attention right away, and is one of the neatest album covers I've seen in a while. Bowden has also done the artwork for The Watch's last album, Primitive, as well as Beardfish's most recent CD Destined Solitaire. Both are very cool.
The Watch get some flak for allegedly not being very original, and while I can understand, they are far from being a clone. Their music has a dark, complex nature that differs from a lot of the bands that they're said to be mimicking. That said, there are also moments of brightness that punctuate the music from time to time, which keeps things interesting. They excel at creating a foreboding atmosphere in their music (there are some surprisingly gothic sounding mellotrons used on the new CD), and at creating a variety of sonic textures. The analog synths and acoustic guitars add a lush quality to their music, which contrasts sharply with the more angular or sinister passages. You can be sure that many songs will twist and turn in unpredictable ways, never sticking to tried-and-true chord progressions or a verse-chorus-verse structure. This is the spirit in which music was being made a long time ago, and The Watch deserve some credit for keeping that flame alive.
Other standout tracks are Welcome To Your Life, Something Wrong, and Earth. You can listen to samples from all three of them on the band's website, and I highly recommend that you check them out. Who knows? You might like what you hear!
(Note: Scroll down on their main page and you'll find the links to the song samples.)
The Watch
http://www.thewatchmusic.net/
