Van der Graaf Generator / Peter Hammill S& D, C or D?

Okay I put it right. This is some good shit. I wish Chaks was still here.

This is BANGIN'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fzhqfr9rcg

These guys are still total badasses

Sounds pretty good if a bit reminiscent of "You Really Got Me"...

On the album that track is just kicking tremendous quantities of ass. I just mailed my bruv about it, to the effect that the first 3 or 4 tracks are kind of angular and difficult and distancing, and then the rest of it is - "Every Bloody Emperor" aside - the best stuff they've come up with on this go round and up there with a lot of the 70s tunes.

Haven't listened to em yet but thought you guys might be interested in this
http://www.eggcityradio.com/?p=323

NICE! thanks for the link there.

been really diggin ph7 lately.

Thanks for the link! I'll put on ph7 now in tribute to my friend in the post above.

Courtesy of Spotify, I've just been handed pretty much their entire discography (sans first album) on a plate.

"Lemmings" is doing strange and beautiful things to my head.

Is that the one with weird sax riff?

One!

lol

I'm saving Godbluff for a bit later

oh shit that bit like 12 1/2 minutes into APOLK
oh shit
oh shit
oh shit

I listened to Pawn Hearts on the walk to work yesterday, it's pretty disorienting when you're trying to cross the road.

this album is a more convincingly-rendered and genuine clusterfuck than almost anything else i've ever heard

and the end of APOLK is *astounding*

Like, it should go on for another five minutes astounding.

Awesome Julian Cope review of PH: http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/766

From the footnotes to that review:

"... Mark Smith auditioned for Henry Cow"

... uhhhhh, what!??!?!??!

Also tried to pass himself off as Damo Suzuki.

That Julian Cope review is awesome, in a very Julian Cope way.

His Dagmar Krause was less convincing it seems (xp)

"... Mark Smith auditioned for Henry Cow"

I did not know this. I did know that Peter Hammill and Smith made tentative steps towards a collaboration at one point, both the other's work. Hammill I believe decide not, saying he disliked the jam session or something, perhaps not realising that Smith's idea of a jam session is to tell the musicians to get on with coming up with some tunes, going to the pub, then getting back to the studio before commencing to fuck everything up.

Having heard Pawn Hearts once through (and APOLK twice more, just to check I wasn't hallucinating), I'm on the Godbluff now. Will be enthusiastic of babble in just a sec.

'both the other's work'

needs an 'admiring' in there somewhere. Little synaptic failures becoming increasingly common in any attempt to express myself.

Counting down til "Scorched Earth" splatters Louis' brain all over again.

LOL

"As swift as any ARRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

A Motorhead/VdGG collabo in 1976 would've been something.

I'm not actually sure what happened during "Scorched Earth". But it was heavy. And real.

"Arrow" currently unfolding, slowly, slowly. I sense explosions in the offing.

Hmm. Good stuff so far, esp Scorched Earth, but this isn't quite touching Still Life or Pawn Hearts yet. It'll probably take a couple of listens (although dammit, PH got me first time...it's about 20x more truly insane and sonically all-over-the-place than I expected, and I expect a lot)

wtf ok lounge-salsa section

this is a great band. I need to crawl the solo Hammill albums at some point, years ago I randomly bought a copy of 'Patience' because of the Gabriel connection, and there were three songs on that record that I can still remember every word of.

but mainly posting to thank Turtles for linking that blog, which I give 5 stars for linking an mp3 of the complete director's commentary track to the film Zardoz

the last 3 minutes of "APOLK" are totally fucking incredible music

but mainly posting to thank Turtles for linking that blog, which I give 5 stars for linking an mp3 of the complete director's commentary track to the film Zardoz

― Milton Parker, Thursday, March 12, 2009 7:45 PM (2 days ago)

The blog is really great, he used to have one under the name of Post Punk Junk and a youtube series called Post Punk Junk
all really great stuff.

I still haven't had time to listen to the Van der Graaf Generator stuff
All I have of theirs is World Record and The Least We Can Do Is Wave, so i'm excited to hear this

I'm listening to the Zardoz commentary track now!

Arrow rocks so hard

Much as with Still Life, Godbluff seems to be getting better with repeat listens. Well, this is my second and it's clicking. Doubt it'll quite ascend the same heights but then SL is pretty much decade top-3 for the 70s for me, maybe even the very very best.

I like Still Life more than Godbluff, yeah, but I feel I understand parts of Godbluff a bit better now thanks to this rather good new-ish PH site:

http://peterhammill.com/phx/

:D oh man, that's an awesome performance, at least in the way they attack the song...I was transfixed! Banton's still got it big-time. Hammill too, at least vocally. I'll forgive the odd guitar slip-up (and the fact they slightly duff the "siiiiilence...crash" bit)...that was fucking rock...

That looseness is such a key part of what they do, I've got an unnecessary quantity of 70s bootlegs and they always had it, preferring to vamp and rock out than toddle thru reproductions of the album sound. You get a feeling with all of the albums that they're markers for the live sets.

I was flipping through classic rock radio today and thought for an instant I heard Peter Hammill's voice. I got really excited, then realized it was actually "Under Pressure". Total letdown.

i just got the 2005 remaster of "pawn hearts." my GOD is it an improvement on the late-80s cd. it's audible, for one, and you can hear more than one instrument at a time.

Did they reissue this on vinyl too? My old LP is pretty well played out...

A Place To Survive starts off a bit unpromisingly, then gets more awesome the more it goes on. Am thinking I might rather like World Record.

Masks is pretty great. Meurglys III is interesting. I *really* like the closing reggae jam/guitar solo. The first five minutes are superb! That bit about 3 minutes in needs to go on for wayyyy longer.

Unfortunately, the midsection is basically an attempt to be Pink Floyd followed by an attempt to be Still life, both of which fail (at least until the latter section starts shifting around gratifyingly in the 2 or so minutes before reggaeness).

The guitar changes the band's dynamic quite a bit.

Wondering starts a bit boringly but then becomes :O really lovely! Wow! What's happening?

As for When She Comes, it's ok but the hook seems ripped-off from another VDGG song, maybe Arrow.

I think Quiet Zone/Pleasure Dome is slightly better than this album, but this is by no means ungood.

As for When She Comes, it's ok but the hook seems ripped-off from another VDGG song, maybe Arrow.

Haha wait shit it's basically like a cross between La Rossa and Scorched Earth which are like my two favourite VDGG songs o_O

Present is GREAT!!

My 'favourite bands' roster is taking shape nicely.

Oh shit, get rid of 'In Babelsberg' (or at least cut it down to 2 or 3 minutes) and we're maybe talking one of the top 20 albums of this decade o_O

Like, I'd rank it almost alongside their 70's peaks. And this is on first listen.