Security Project - Contact album review

Fourth live album of Gabriel songs reimagined, this time with a feminine touch

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Security Project - Contact album artwork

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Although this US-based collective’s reworking of Peter Gabriel solo material (and the odd Genesis fave) has already earned them a solid following and been captured on three US live recordings, this time around their sound is augmented by the curiously androgynous sounding vocals of Happy Rhodes. In truth, however, the band still don’t transcend the tribute band’s perennial malaise – suffering in comparison to the original. On Lead A Normal Life, Rhodes’ standard-issue vocal lacks the vulnerability and character Gabriel’s fragile warble lends it, replacing it with an ill-fitting warmth. No Self Control benefits from Trey Gunn’s angular guitar spiking up the intro, but Rhodes’ vocal doesn’t offer the contrast between lines that Gabriel gave it, arguably losing the bipolar feel of the piece. Likewise, Intruder offers none of the creepy menace of the take you’ll know from Melt. Sometimes their instrumental invention shines through, which means Rhythm Of The Heat is one track that does work. Jerry Marotta’s tribal-style drumming and some subtle ethnic arrangements make for a stark and affecting soundscape that really offers something a little different

Johnny Sharp
Johnny Sharp

Johnny is a regular contributor to Prog and Classic Rock magazines, both online and in print. Johnny is a highly experienced and versatile music writer whose tastes range from prog and hard rock to R’n’B, funk, folk and blues. He has written about music professionally for 30 years, surviving the Britpop wars at the NME in the 90s (under the hard-to-shake teenage nickname Johnny Cigarettes) before branching out to newspapers such as The Guardian and The Independent and magazines such as Uncut, Record Collector and, of course, Prog and Classic Rock.