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

They do Plague of Lighthouse Keepers and Gog from what I hear, pretty cool!

Like some others, I've become a much bigger fan of his solo material. I'm going to be listening to Over soon and I'm excited by its reputation.
There really isn't a whole lot here about his 80s/90s/00s solo albums, is anyone here that comprehensive on him? The reviews I've read of those are very divided.

omg

that might have been the perfect gig. open with brilliant recent song (over the hill, performed to stunning heights of intensity), proceed with unhallowed and yet superb material from latter day and mid-period, mostly from solo records (amongst which my introduction to 'flight', fucking hell), and then end with the hits :D

including a 'childlike faith...' encore :D :D

also I genuinely could not believe how brilliant they were, despite them being a close 2nd behind cardiacs in my all time roster

three men made that chaos, that confluence. three men who've been rocking that existential horror groove for 45 years

i was in the front row, four metres from hammill

fuck

Third time I've seen them, Hammill still can't play gtr, wouldn't have it any other way. Shame there's no sax though.
"Arrow" would be good for the next tour.

I guess I really should have seen them.

Over is far more varied than I had imagined from looking at the cover, I thought it would all be soft and weary stuff. "Time Heals" is incredible. I think it's really funny in the first song when he says "your excuses are so crappy", because it really contrasts with his usual eloquence. The bonus track version of "Autumn" is amazing. Really great album.

I like how the first song is basically Hammill telling himself to stop being dramatic, and in the second he's saying that they would have been miserable in the long run anyway. And THEN come all the depressing, world-weary breakup songs.

I've been really into The Future Now and ph7 lately. Funny that as the Steve Howes, Keith Emersons, John Wettons, and Tony Bankses of the world started to go AOR and mainstream, Hammill only went deeper into his own world.

Over is my favourite PH/VdGG album out of the whole lot of them. He never bettered it.

Just listened to Over twice, then Modern and A Louse Is Not A Home too. He did all this and VdGG in his fucking twenties.

A Louse Is Not A Home is every bit as good as any VdGG song

^still this

in fact, if you're drifting through, here it is in its miraculous entirety. A songwriting pinnacle of sorts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwZ_tOZB1Qo

I'm trying to listen to World Record. Such a loose & unfocused album compared to virtually everything that came before. With a serious fucking edit-job it could have recaptured the incredible brilliance of the previous 3 records (4 if you count The Silent Corner). Here are my problems with it:

- The opening few seconds. Prissy Regency clarinets poncing around. Since when has a VDGG album opened up with meek filigree?
- The rest of When She Comes. A clear candidate for their worst-ever song. Reprises one of Scorched Earth's riffs without any of the punch whatsoever. Urgh.
- The fact A Place To Survive starts really really strong and then jams around *not going anywhere* for about 5 minutes at the end
- No problems with Masks. It's a fucking demon.
- Right, my biggest problem here. Meurglys III. None of it is bad music at all. The closing reggae jam is kinda groovy. But it completely deflates the momentum of the opening 12 minutes, which if isolated might be some of the best 12 minutes in the band's history, up there with that video I just posted and Man-Erg and all that jazz. Edit function sorely lacking. I'm listening to this song now and it's one of the most terrifying & spectacular demonstrations of their narrative mastery*. With a massive anti-climax.
- Wondering is nice and all but it's how Yes should be ending their albums, not VDGG. Feels a bit sickly-sweet.

They'd just released a solid run of the best music ever made, which should hopefully put these criticisms into context. You may wish to defend World Record, of course. Or simply agree with me that TQZ/TPD fortunately dropped by to kick its arse :D

*Hmm. On returning it's a bit disjointed and some of the sections go on a bit. But each section is very, very good.

I listened to Godbluff recently again. I love a lot of parts of that album but I still dont agree that it is sharing top spaces at the Hammill canon.
I dont need albums to be totally albumy but sometimes it seems like it needs a bit more of something. I know they wanted a live sound on this, but I think certain elements would have been better if they were accentuated/highlighted more.

My last thought on World Record was, "this is better than I remembered", so there's that

For me, Godbluff has the length of an album but the gravitas and scope of a very, very good EP. Its four pieces are superb but Still Life is more powerful, more wondrous (for me)

Songs lengths are dragged out a bit on "Godbluff", I assume in order to fill out the album but not as grotesquely as on "Meurglys III", what were Pete and the boys thinking with that reggae bit? I hate the last track on "Godbluff" too.

I disagree with all that. Godbluff is perfect!!

Vital - Live is the one that's been blowing me away lately. I only really knew of that album from the WRC, who pretty much unanimously hated it.

there's nothing *wrong* with godbluff at all, but i find it a more minor document than pwn <3s, silent corner or still life - and the final track is definitely the weakest (despite exultant TONIIIIIGHT BEEEEEFORE YOU LAY DOWN bit). if 'a louse is not a home' had rounded off that album it'd be just as good as pwn or still

Don't get me wrong btw, I still think Godbluff is one of their better albums

At the risk of inducing an embolism or somesuch in imago, the whole 2nd side of Still Life leaves me cold

:o

The least-brilliant track is My Room, sure, but but but but

but

Did I ever tell you I've got a signed copy of that album? I bought in a bargain bin for £1! Signed by Nic Potter, so someone else is missing, poss. Hugh Banton?

I know I'm in the minority, but I adore World Record and listen to it more than Godbluff (but not more than Still Life or most of Peter Hammil's solo albums).

some fantastic stuff suddenly on Youtube

Hammill plays a gig up a mountain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=406Yy0gbcVI

BBC doc i'd never heard of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd7dCGpJkMQ

Yeah those are great. I knew about that gig in the Dolomites, was debating whether to fly over for it but reason prevailed.

new album comes out next week. it's getting pretty good reviews...lots of "best of the reformation albums"-type claims, which is very good. I'm pretty pumped. lets go

ooh link me some reviews

this is like the best year for music ever

http://www.vandergraafgenerator.co.uk/donotdisturb.htm
http://www.goldminemag.com/blogs/spin-cycle-blogs/reviews-van-der-graaf-generator-rob-clarke-wooltones-year-country-anthony-phillips-brinsley-schwarz-oodles-interviews

really stoked. these guys are the best

ty, this seems like it'll be something

opening track started really promisingly but there was just a really horrible slow distortion-guitar bit to ruin the flow. i hope the album doesn't have many more of such impositions - they've been ruining nu-era vdgg imo

nah sorry this is shit

well i like it. but i liked their last one too.

last one was solid, this is not there at all

godbluff came on immediately afterwards and it's frankly embarrassing

i'm really not hearing whatever it is you dislike so much in this record. i put on godbluff and he can't sing like he could in 1975, but that was pretty obvious already.

this is leaden, plodding - the changes don't work - the guitar is awful - the melodies are turgid - it's got none of the old wild magic - probably time to pack it in

hammill's always been an awful guitarist, but i can tolerate it better here than i can on "world record". honestly they do sound like they're about to pack it in, particularly if you listen to that last track, but to me they're going out on a high note. it doesn't have that old wild magic- forty years is a long time- but it's got a magic all its own. about as good as "prog rock" gets in 2016, imo.

only just dipping my toe in but imago is v wrong, there is some great stuff on this album. "Aloof" sounds horribly produced and doesn't work very well but, y'know, try listening to the rest of the album?

"Aloft", obv. you know what i mean.

I bought and listened to the whole thing! I will definitely return to it a few times, but the initial impression wasn't good. Also, every reunion has at least one stunner (Every Bloody Emperor, Over The Hill, Your Time Starts Now) and I can't detect what this album's high point is. I guess Almost The Words seemed like it might be decent.

i do find them more akin to Hammill's solo records when Jackson's not there tbf

maybe not, scratch that. i like some of what's happening musically more than the songwriting i guess, but Hammill's solo stuff is frequently a bit thin on hooks too so

it's nice to hear vdgg taking on the bacharach/david songbook but honestly "bunsho" sticks with me probably more than "your time starts now" does.

the post-jaxon records are for me some weird middle ground behind the older band and his solo stuff. reminds me of nothing more than stuff like "skeletons of songs". i love "skeletons of songs".

I'm not entirely convinced by any of the post-Jackson records but I think this is the best of the three so far. Thought the last one was fairly underwhelming.

3rd listen and it's sitting better with me as a whole, in fact i think it might be rather legit good

I'm enjoying Sitting Targets v much rn. Got a post punky thing going on.

Yeah that's a great record! I feel like it's really overlooked.

https://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/down-a-different-river/van-der-graaf-generator-things-went-bit-mad-108028