- Discover more great music in our Proper Music store, and read about the very best of Proper Music's latest and forthcoming releases in Properganda Issue 19 (online flash version).
Genesis fan? Explore our brand new Genesis shop.
Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
To be honest, I haven't actually listened to the live album "There are Many Sides to the Night" very much because I don't know all the songs on it but the studio album "Guitar Noir" is amazing. It opens with "Sierra Quemada" which is (in my opinion) one of the best tracks Steve Hackett has ever written. The album also has several other great tracks that stand out like "There are many sides to the night" which is contemplative and beautiful, "In the Heart of the City" which is troubled and dark and "Dark as the Grave". As that last title may suggest, this album is quite dark in places but is still beautiful. Full Marks from me.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
For me there is only one really good track on here and that's Sierra Quemada, which is worth the price of the album, so i'm not complaining. The others are weak and a little dated, by that I mean compared to voyage of the acolyte and spectral mornings, which I don't think will ever date. The bonus cd has some delightful acoustic guitar , which is nice to listen to when in that sort of mood. Overall, a satisfied customer.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Mixed feelings about this combination
22 Feb 2006
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
These two recordings represent two very different sides to Steve Hackett, and being a two-fer, a good deal if you are adding to your Hackett collection. Steve is an extremely talented musician, guitarist and composer. However, if you're new to Steve, you probably should invest in some of his other recordings. For the classical side, Momentum or A Midsummer's Nights Dream are studio recordings and more substantial (if you like live recordings, try his live CD/DVD from Hungary). On the rock side, the choices are some early Hackett (Please Don't Touch, Spectral Mornings, etc), or very recent recordings (like To Watch The Storms or Darktown). Guitar Noir, while interesting and full of some great guitar work, is from a Hackett period of very high production, lots of synthesis and way too much reverb. Other recordings in this period are "Feedback 86" and the supergroup GTR. Music from this period sounds too "produced" and artificial for my tastes. The rock recordings mentioned above have better compositions and are more musical. Certainly Hackett's recent classical and rock recordings show a maturity, spirit and compositional ability well beyond these recordings.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Gifted guitarist and composer
12 Nov 2005
Format:Audio CD
This a Snapper Recall 2-cd set.And represents two distinctly different facets of Steve Hackett's great repertoire. This is most accessible to those less familiar with Hackett's work, and for the more discerning fan "truly essential." "Guitar Noir" explores themes of "dark recesses of the human mind."The Guitar work can be enchanting and lifting at one moment and hypnotic the next. Hackett's vocals play a stronger part,creating a very nice texture. IMHO sounds like David Gilmour or Bryan Josh vocally. His harmonica playing is superb. The second disc "There are many sides to the night"is in total contrast to the first disc. Hackett plays solo and with the accompaniment of Julian Colbeck on keys. An "unplugged" performance. Recorded live in Palermo,Sicily in 1994, this is a great introduction to Hackett's classical recorded works. He plays a nylon-string guitar that conjures up a light,beautiful and often romantic sound. I have always felt there is a majesty and clarity to Hackett's playing, and that shines through here. Hackett also plays Giuliani,Vivaldi,and Morricone with his style and consumate musicianship.Steve Hackett, to this day, continues to create evocative, sophisticated and perfectly crafted music. In conclusion, these recordings are a testament to Steve Hacketts great skills and devotion to his art. Of course, you may already have these individual albums,therefore, making this purchase redundant. If you don't, hit "buy now" and you will be rewarded. Peace.
"In The Heart of the City" worth the price of admission alone!
2 Jan 2010
Format:Audio CD
Place this CD in your system, turn the sucker up, and wait till the end of the second verse of "In the Heart of the City", when the power and beauty of the drums and bass come in to kick everything into gear! Gorgeous! Like someone else said about one of the songs on one of his other albums, I too would buy the album just on the strength of this one song! There's interesting vocal harmonies during the chorus, and nice production. But there's much much more. Steve's voice isn't bad, kind of reminding me of a cross between Roger Waters and John Wetton (who, incidentelly, does a nice job on Steve's album, "Genesis Revisited"). And like probably every Steve Hackett album, there's at least one of those ominous, eerie, semi-heavy pieces, this time being the great creepy "Vampyre With a Healthy Appetite", again begging to be played LOUD! Steve even manages to throw in a Paul Butterfield-like Harmonica solo, and later, a magnificently arranged killer guitar solo, that deserves to be called a classic, ending off the song.
There's a good deal of variety here, and on the second disc we have a nice live acoustic set with Steve playing lovely classical guitar, later accompanied by keyboard, even doing a nice job on blues harp once again (harmonica, for non-musicians who might not be familiar with that term), a great lengthy set, except for one song that has an unusually simple (for Steve) ascending three chord progression, that almost sounds like a filler.
But overall, this two-disc set is a great statement of what Steve was doing in the early '90s, and like most Steve Hackett albums you get much more than you would from a lot of other artists. And the absurd low price!! I hope he's going to release the much adored "Darktown" with another album, in the same way, since it seems to be unavailable.
There's a good deal of variety here, and on the second disc we have a nice live acoustic set with Steve playing lovely classical guitar, later accompanied by keyboard, even doing a nice job on blues harp once again (harmonica, for non-musicians who might not be familiar with that term), a great lengthy set, except for one song that has an unusually simple (for Steve) ascending three chord progression, that almost sounds like a filler.
But overall, this two-disc set is a great statement of what Steve was doing in the early '90s, and like most Steve Hackett albums you get much more than you would from a lot of other artists. And the absurd low price!! I hope he's going to release the much adored "Darktown" with another album, in the same way, since it seems to be unavailable.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
