Early Recordings Show Genesis’ Humor

***GENESIS

“Archive 1967-1975”

Atlantic

Of all the groups from the much-maligned school of progressive rock, Genesis was the one that took itself least seriously. In the early years of the band, when Peter Gabriel was the lead singer and Phil Collins an artful, jazzy drummer, the group’s alternately pastoral and epic sound-scapes were enriched by a wicked, morbid sense of humor.

This first of two expected Genesis boxed sets is devoted to the Gabriel years, before the musical emphasis was placed on poppy Top 10 singles, and is for devoted fans only. Newcomers to Genesis should first visit albums such as “Foxtrot” and “Selling England by the Pound,” on which the band demonstrated a clarity of vision and a desire to experiment that is mostly absent from today’s pop.

The main problem here is that not much archival material from that era deserves to be unearthed. One exception is “Twilight Alehouse,” a ferocious B-side from 1973 that is a mini-epic, revealing the relentless lyrical imagination of the band.

A live rendering of “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway,” occupying discs 1 and 2, showcases the band’s most ambitious effort and the last to feature Gabriel. Combining angular instrumentals with dreamy rock anthems such as the gorgeous “Carpet Crawlers,” “Lamb” casts its spell in a sort of subliminal way, luring you to its particular universe of darkness and alienation with each listen.

Interestingly, it is almost impossible to tell that “It,” the last track from “Lamb,” has been completely rerecorded. (The tape ran out during the original recording session.) Twenty years later, Gabriel’s voice sounds as poignant as it did then.

Disc 3 offers an assortment of goods, from an alternate mix of the majestic “Watcher of the Skies” to rollicking live versions of “Dancing With the Moonlit Knight” and the 20-minute “Supper’s Ready,” plus an early lead vocal by Collins on the gentle, unassuming “More Fool Me.”

Disc 4 is that infamous one in all boxed sets that you might listen to once in your entire life. A curiosity at best, it includes all sorts of late-’60s early demos and radio performances that don’t even hint at the creative grandeur that would follow a few years later.

The lavish booklet included in the package forsakes the usual letters of praise by established rock critics for more of a scrapbook feel. The many snapshots and casual comments from various survivors could awaken nostalgia even in those who weren’t alive when the dinosaurs of progressive rock roamed the Earth.

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*** 1/2 King Crimson, “Absent Lovers,” Discipline. During its third incarnation between 1981 and ‘84, the eccentric, chameleon-like King Crimson was made up of Robert Fripp on guitar, Adrian Belew on vocals and guitar, Tony Levin on bass and stick and Bill Bruford on acoustic and electronic drums.

Together, these disparate musical personalities perfected the art of two pop subgenres: cerebral, arty heavy metal and Beatle-esque, Indian-tinged ballads, many examples of which can be found on the two discs in this riveting and disquieting live album.

The show was mostly based on material from 1981’s “Discipline,” 1982’s “Beat” and 1984’s “Three of a Perfect Pair”--albums that all sounded shockingly ahead of their time when they were released. By today’s standards, and compared to the “double trio” version of Crimson that Fripp would form in 1994, it appears charmingly tame.

Included are touches of ambient and guitar minimalism, absurdist lyrics and the use of abstract noise as an added textural element. Fripp’s copious, obsessive-compulsive liner notes are a joy to read, and the first disc includes computer-enhanced material with samples from dozens of Crimson-related solo releases.

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