The Watch – Planet Earth?

I found this CD during a concert at "De Boerderij" Zoetermeer, the Netherlands 17th mar 2017. Only the cover of the booklet is changed compared with the one listed here. Now the frontpage is a photo of the musicians. It's rachter confusing. And what to do in Discogs?

Perhaps the most maligned form of prog seems to be groups that totally go out of their way to clone another band's sound. In the case of this Italian band, it's Gabriel-era Genesis. Most people figure you're better off listening to the real thing. The Watch are hardly the first. how Starcastle were being accused of being Yes copycats and Triumvirat being ELP copycats. Even bands accused of being Genesis clones go back as far as the 1970s, with the Austrian group Kyrie Eleison (even the cover to their The Fountain Beyond the Sunrise imitates Paul Whitehead's style, right down to the chess pieces) and the German group Neuschwanstein. And in the 1980s, Marillion was accused of that too, given Fish sounded like Gabriel and Steve Rothery's guitar playing was similar to Hackett's. But if you don't mind a band trying to copy another band's sound, you won't have problems with The Watch. It also needs to be pointed out that they double up as a Genesis tribute band and had played plenty of Genesis songs live. While a band like ReGenesis spends their whole career as a Genesis tribute band, at least these guys can come up with their own compositions, in the Genesis style, naturally.

The Watch seems to be Simone Rossetti's project as the band seems to have a changing lineup. Planet Earth? shows them still cloning that Genesis sound, you can't get around that. They use plenty of analog keyboards, the Mellotron being one of them (I love the cover artwork, which shows a Mellotron, the artwork sure clobbers Vacuum big time). Through these songs, you can treat yourself with a game, that is, "Spot the Genesis song or age they're borrowing from". Simone Rosetti does his best Peter Gabriel, and the keyboardist his Tony Banks. Notice songs that will remind you of "The Lamia", "The Cinema Show", even "Entangled".

No, the music is in no danger at beating Genesis in quality, no one will say, "The Watch is even better than Gabriel-era Genesis", on the other hand they still do a good job at recreating that Genesis sound. Of course no one will say this is full of original ideas. But if the music is done well, I have no problem with it.