Band: Unifaun

CD Title: “Unifaun”

Label: ProgRock Records

Label Website: www.progrockrecords.com

Release Date: 2008

Genesis fans, it’s time to sit up and take notice. There are any number of Genesis tribute bands out there. And there bands such as The Watch who borrow stylistically from early Genesis in the creation of their music. And then there is Unifaun! Wow, I wasn’t prepared for this one. The band’s intentions with this record were to “make the songs Genesis never recorded”, and it accomplishes that task in spades. Listening to their self titled debut release is both gloriously joyful and just a little spooky. These guys are that good.

So who is Unifaun? Well it’s two people really. Nad Sylvan (vocals, guitar, bass, keys, drums) and Bonamici (keys, bass, percussion). The two met on a forum for Genesis fans and for the past four years have been working on the music created here. What’s interesting is that these two guys make no apologies for sounding like Genesis, which was the very point of their efforts, to make the music that Genesis seemed to have drifted away from.

This is just an amazing CD. Unifaun captures the very essence of Genesis creating 12 songs ranging anywhere from two-and-a-half-minutes to fourteen and sounding like a disc of music that Genesis itself made, had they not chosen to forget about acoustic guitars and complex, quirky compositions. I’m serious, as I sat listening to this record I was blown away by the sounds I heard. There would be a keyboard passage that would have fit perfectly on ‘Selling England…’ or a guitar part right out of ‘Wind & Wuthering’ or a vocal part from ‘Lamb’ and so it goes. More than just sound LIKE Genesis, each of these tracks really does sound like songs that should have been on any of those albums. And what’s so neat is that rather than just sounding like Genesis, these songs are so well constructed and complex, both in terms of musicianship and arrangement, that they sound as if the last few years never happened and the original band just kept creating progressive rock music. Not only do all the keyboards and guitars ring true, so do the vocals. In fact Sylvan’s vocals manage to capture the range of both Gabriel and Collins and even on a couple tracks Marillion’s Fish. It’s so hard to pick favorite tracks on this disc because they’re all so different and each has so many sonic catch-points, a great Mellotron, a soft flute like passage, piping Arp synth sound, ambient guitar passages, it’s all there on display.

The more I listen to Unifaun, the more I like it. The songs are so varied with so many little bits going on; I can keep listening to this disc for a long time. If you enjoy the music of early Genesis, say from 1972-1980, from Foxtrot to Duke you have GOT to get your hands on this disc. I’m serious it’s like nothing you’ve heard before. Without question Unifaun has become one of my favorites of 2008. It’s a brilliant CD and I highly recommend it.