Peter Gabriel-Security(1982)

In post punk Britain in the late 70s, there was a main move away from the punk ideal to bands that seem to incorparate their influences. In this instance you had Bauhaus who gained success with Ziggy Stardust as an example. With punk there was a move to sort of dismiss everything that went before 1976 as not really relevant. In the early 80s there was not many bands that were aspiring to be Genesis , except if you count Marillion. Genesis were seen as slightly self indlugent in the early 80s, it wasnt until the Phil Collins solo success that Genesis suddendly becae hip again. In hidsight I find some of early Genesis really powerful especially tracks like ' Dance of the moonlight Knight'and 'Fly on the windshield'. When you listen to the genesis back catalogue you can see there is more themes and structure to their albums, it almost with hidsight there is an inevtably that Gabriel was going to leave Genesis. Peter Gabriel seemed at the height of punk to be collabarating with Eno and Fripp who were part of their respective bands (Roxy Music, and King crimson), but where Peter Gabriel succeeded at this time was to develop a more edgy sound. It had starkness in the production and the output. You can hear the glimpses of what was to come in tracks early on like "HEre comes the Flood'. By early 1980 and with the success of Pater gabriel 3. Peter seemed to get more into world musics and also had fairlight which truly meant that his sound had a modern feel. Rather than create a slick sound his sounds were almost tribal and sparse. With the Security album in 1982 it only has one really truly stand out track in terms of commerciality which is 'I Have the Touch'. The rest of the album has the nature of experimentalism. The album starts with "Rythmn of The Heat', this is probably one of the best constructed songs on the album it starts eiree and the builds up in atmosphere. Probably the other highlight is 'San Jacinto ' which has a real searing vocal , it has been played live numerous times since. The other tracks like 'Family and the fishing net' is abstract it reminds me of David Bowie's "Sons of silent age, 'Lay your hands on me ' deals with healing by touch. The album ends with Wallflower which features heavy percussive sounds. Many of the songs feature in the New Blood concerts in a orchestral setting, which gives the songs added depth. I think when the first Peter Gabriel albums came out they set the way forward for solo artists to remain their fan bases whlst at the same time moving their sounds forward. Peter Gabriel was a visonary i n terms of humantarism issues, production(real World studios) and is in my huble opinion right up there with David Bowie in terms of music as an art form.