The Gods - Genesis 1968

The Gods' debut album was the sound of a band capturing the transition of British psychedelia into more ostentatious progressive hard rock. Ken Hensley's heavy Hammond organ was the center of their sound, and both that and the sometimes overbearing vibrato vocals pointed toward the less psychedelic sounds he and drummer Lee Kerslake would pursue in Uriah Heep. Genesis is undoubtedly lighter than Uriah Heep, though, often employing characteristically late-'60s British vocal harmonies. Some tunes, like "Candles Getting Shorter" and "Radio Show," even skirt a pop-soul sensibility. But the songs weren't terribly memorable, though they were segued together by brief odd'n'goofy instrumental bits at the end of tracks in keeping with the modus operandi of the psychedelic era. The Mellotron in "I Never Know" does rather remind one of the way the instrument was used onKing Crimson's first album, though King Crimson inserted it into much better material. The CD reissue on Repertoire adds both sides of their first two singles (from 1968 and 1969) as bonus tracks; these are slightly more pop in feel than their album, including one of the most obscure '60s covers of an obscureBeatles song, "Hey Bulldog." AMG.

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