Using the postmodern torch music of Portishead as a foundation, Lamb spin out into new sonic territories on their eponymous debut album. The group sports a heavier techno influence, incorporating the buzzing rhythms of drum'n'bass into their music in particular, yet they cut their modernistic electronic influences with a dark sense of melodicism. Most of the album is devoted to jazzy songs that are broken apart by Andy Barlow's synthesizers and sampler and are anchored by Louise Rhodes' seductive vocals, which prevent the electronics from becoming cold. It's sophisticated urban music, one that's miles away from the avant-garde sensibilities of Tricky and the haunted romanticism of Portishead, or even the pop leanings of Sneaker Pimps and the soul-inflected grooves of Morcheeba…
What happens when you take a master of progressive rock and an accomplished Nashville producer engineer, and put them together with a host of top-flight Nashville session players to reinterpret one of the most revered 70s prog double-albums? In the case of Spock s Beard drummer Nick D'Virgilio and producer engineer Mark Hornsby, you get Rewiring Genesis A Tribute To The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, and it's fantastic. While the original featured layers of classic synthesizers (ARP, Mellotron, etc.), there's none of that fake string or choir stuff going on here. Besides rock guitar, bass, and Nick's great drumming (and tasteful lead vocal work), The Lamb is filled with real strings, huge vocal arrangements, horn sections, and even some accordion! Clearly, it's not attempting to simply re-record the classic, it's a fresh and beautiful sounding reinterpretation.
One of rock's more elaborate, beguiling and strangely rewarding concept albums, this double-vinyl classic stars the ever-theatrical Peter Gabriel as Rael, a Puerto Rican street punk who descends into the New York underground to experience a series of surreal adventures. ("It seemed that prancing around in fairyland was rapidly becoming obsolete," Gabriel explained to his biographer.) Bassist Mike Rutherford, however, wanted to base the band's last album with Gabriel, who'd announced his intention to leave Genesis, on Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince.
Given all the overt literary references of Selling England by the Pound, along with their taste for epic suites such as "Supper's Ready," it was only a matter of time before Genesis attempted a full-fledged concept album, and 1974's The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was a massive rock opera: the winding, wielding story of a Puerto Rican hustler name Rael making his way in New York City. Peter Gabriel made some tentative moves toward developing this story into a movie with William Friedkin but it never took off, perhaps it's just as well; even with the lengthy libretto included with the album, the story never makes sense…
Anhidema presents the third journey into the Underworld, The Lamb's Book Of Life. A new musical journey which accompany you through the darkness towards the light. You will find yourself within a dark woods where your straight pathway will be lost. You will stand before a dark cave, where the voice will say: "Come in". You will see unseen. 21 musical masterpieces will guide you on your way to Hell and Heaven. You will see no sun , no stars , no clouds. But an innocent Lamb, standing before you, looking as if it had been slain. The world will be unseen to you because you will see everything with your inner eye.
Paul Lamb is a British blues harmonica player and bandleader. He has had a four-decade long career as a blues harmonicist and bandleader, with fans around the world. Lamb’s initial interest in blues came from listening to John Mayall’s records; he then discovered the music of Sonny Terry, in whose style he thoroughly immersed himself for 12 years. He played in folk clubs and in 1975 was successful in a harmonica championship held in Germany. Around 1980, he began playing amplified harmonica, initially in Walter Horton’s style, and as a member of the Blues Burglars he recorded for the Red Lightnin’ label in 1986.