Review Summary: This is quite unusual for Phillips. It shows his versatility.
“1984” is the sixth studio album of Anthony Phillips that was released in 1984. The line up on the album is Anthony Phillips, but the album also had the participation of Morris Pert, Richard Scott, Chris David and Anita David.
Some consider Anthony Phillips one of the unsung heroes of prog rock music. A major influence on Genesis’ classic early sound, his sudden departure from the band was regarded as a major blow in much the same way as Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett. Phillips cited several reasons for his decision including, the stage fright, the ill health and the disillusionment with the band’s collective work. It would take almost seven years for his debut “The Geese And The Ghost” to be materialised. In addition to writing the album, he spent the intervening years studying composition, orchestration and piano. By 1980 Phillips had released four solo studio albums and had a fifth one being readied for release. As none of his previous albums had set the world alight, Phillips started playing around with synthesizers, an instrument that he had not fully explored on his previous studio albums. The final result of that exploration was “1984”.
The art cover of the album shows a picture of a small cage, which is probably a reference to Winston’s cage, affixed to his face, cited on the “1984” book. “1984” is a world-famous novel, written in 1949 by George Orwell, an English writer and journalist. “1984” is a literary political fiction novel of the social fiction sub-genre. In the story, the individual is always subordinate to the date and to the Party, which manipulates and controls humanity. The principal protagonist Winston Smith is a civil servant who works in the Ministry of Truth and is responsible for revising historical facts and changing them in order to perpetuate the Party and its big leader, the Big Brother. Many of the terms and concepts used on “1984” like Big Brother and Orwellian became contemporary, and are related to propaganda, lies and manipulation.
A completely electronic, instrumental keyboard album recorded by a rock guitarist, “1984” remains quite a peculiarity. Even amongst his fans, this album continues splitting opinions. Consisting of four connected pieces, the album is both musical and sonic, an excellent piece. The sheer creativity of the music is dynamic and even listening to it all these years after it remains to me an excellent proposal. I’m still taken aback by its adventurous qualities and depth. “1984” represents a career highlight and one of the most unique pieces of music in Anthony Phillips illustrious discography.
All the keyboards are analogue synths that seem to be played in real time without a sequencer, accompanied by a drum machine, analogue again. There are lots of gorgeous melodies on this album and the compositions are progressive and diversified. The whole album appears to be very compact, really. There is also a little guitar and percussion. There is a Mellotron here too. There are no lyrics but there’s a little bit of vocals done on vocoder. All the music must have been composed on keyboards because this doesn’t sound like something a guitarist would write. This is an impressive thing.
About the tracks, “Prelude ‘84” is a mix of chord progressions influenced by Tony Banks and some Rick Wakeman’s like flourishes. Towards the end of the piece, a guitar with a bit of crook starts. This is a track with some really nice and beautiful passages. “1984, Part 1”, begins with keyboard chords accompanied by some embellishments and underlaid by the rhythm machine. This is interrupted by some bombastic transitions, then to go into a synthesizer solo, then a driving theme is initiated letting Phillips not fall asleep, topics and moods are constantly being changed. “1984, Part 2”, the cheerful arpeggio tones, which begin with a quick rhythm, are reminiscent of Mike Oldfield’s instrumental pieces. It sounds similar to “1984, Part 1”. It isn’t strange because both are parts of the same track. “Anthem 1984” is an atmospheric sad looking theme, as if Anthony Phillips were already seeing all humanity in the Orwellian’s cage. This short keyboard number is characterized by a wide keyboard sound that makes this piece sounds like a “hymn-like”.
Conclusion: “1984” is completely different from “The Geese And The Ghost” and “Wise After The Event”. “The Geese And The Ghost” is a very beautiful and almost an acoustic classic album clearly influenced by the medieval era and its music flows together as a continuous piece. It represents a real trip back in the history of time. “Wise After The Event” is essentially an album composed with a collection of beautiful guitar tracks. But, surprisingly, on “1984” all music was totally composed for keyboard instruments. Everybody knows that Phillips is a brilliant guitarist, especially on classical guitar. His previous albums were mostly acoustic guitar based. However, “1984” is totally dominated by synthesizers, apart from some percussion played by Pert. Then, we were also able to know that Phillips is also a brilliant keyboardist. So, “1984” is an excellent album, where the sound of the keyboards is floating, rhythmic and melodic. The album is very melodic and harmonious and confirms that Phillips is also a great songwriter. This is a great addition to your collection.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
