Anthony Phillips - The Archive Collection Volume One (1998)

This double-CD collection, assembled from demos going as far back as 1969 and all the way up to 1990, has its interesting and beautiful moments, but is really intended for hardcore fans. Consisting of old solo demo tracks (including a few, like "Take This Heart," on which Phillips plays piano), alternate mixes, demo-rehearsals for early albums like Wise After the Event, and pieces of Phillips' music for film and television, it's inconsistent, even in comparison with the various Private Parts and Pieces collections, striking alternate moods and shifting between too many musical genres for the casual listener. Genesis fans will be amazed at the content of a 1969 demo recording called "F Sharp," in which the passage that later became the opening section of "The Musical Box" from Nursery Cryme shows up, part of a body of work that also includes the original demo version of "The Geese and the Ghost." The rest is mostly very pleasant, occasionally interesting material, including early versions of songs like "Which Way the Wind Blows," beautiful instrumentals (including one Mellotron showcase, "Hunt Song"), and superb classical guitar pieces ("Study In G"). The disc closes with some of Phillips' more recent pop- and new age-oriented material, which is different from the rest but doesn't add significantly to the value. The first pressings of Archive Collection include a 20-minute bonus CD with other early demos, judged to be interesting but not quite good enough to make the cut for the main disc -- these are melodic, well-played Genesis-era pieces by Phillips and Mike Rutherford, of moderate interest to most and considerable importance to fans of the band. Oh, and King Crimson fans may want to note the presence of Michael Giles on "Holy Deadlock," in its demo version from the Sides album.