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).
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Thursday, 14 November 2013 15:09 (ten years ago) link
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
― arid banter (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 21:11 (nine years ago) link
Yeah those are great. I knew about that gig in the Dolomites, was debating whether to fly over for it but reason prevailed.
― goth colouring book (anagram), Thursday, 12 June 2014 07:07 (nine years ago) link
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
― frogbs, Friday, 23 September 2016 13:02 (seven years ago) link
ooh link me some reviews
― imago, Friday, 23 September 2016 13:02 (seven years ago) link
this is like the best year for music ever
― imago, Friday, 23 September 2016 13:03 (seven years ago) link
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
― frogbs, Friday, 23 September 2016 13:07 (seven years ago) link
ty, this seems like it'll be something
― imago, Friday, 23 September 2016 19:21 (seven years ago) link
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
― imago, Saturday, 1 October 2016 17:35 (seven years ago) link
nah sorry this is shit
― imago, Saturday, 1 October 2016 18:04 (seven years ago) link
well i like it. but i liked their last one too.
― a confederacy of lampreys (rushomancy), Saturday, 1 October 2016 18:21 (seven years ago) link
last one was solid, this is not there at all
― imago, Saturday, 1 October 2016 18:25 (seven years ago) link
godbluff came on immediately afterwards and it's frankly embarrassing
― imago, Saturday, 1 October 2016 18:33 (seven years ago) link
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.
― a confederacy of lampreys (rushomancy), Saturday, 1 October 2016 19:16 (seven years ago) link
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
― imago, Saturday, 1 October 2016 19:28 (seven years ago) link
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.
― a confederacy of lampreys (rushomancy), Saturday, 1 October 2016 20:10 (seven years ago) link
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?
― don't even see how this was a duck (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 2 October 2016 09:47 (seven years ago) link
"Aloft", obv. you know what i mean.
― don't even see how this was a duck (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 2 October 2016 09:48 (seven years ago) link
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.
― imago, Sunday, 2 October 2016 09:52 (seven years ago) link
i do find them more akin to Hammill's solo records when Jackson's not there tbf
― don't even see how this was a duck (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 2 October 2016 09:58 (seven years ago) link
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
― don't even see how this was a duck (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 2 October 2016 10:00 (seven years ago) link
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".
― a confederacy of lampreys (rushomancy), Sunday, 2 October 2016 11:50 (seven years ago) link
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.
― heaven parker (anagram), Sunday, 2 October 2016 13:02 (seven years ago) link
3rd listen and it's sitting better with me as a whole, in fact i think it might be rather legit good
― don't even see how this was a duck (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 2 October 2016 18:11 (seven years ago) link
I'm enjoying Sitting Targets v much rn. Got a post punky thing going on.
― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 11 July 2017 19:47 (six years ago) link
Yeah that's a great record! I feel like it's really overlooked.
― akm, Wednesday, 12 July 2017 04:35 (six years ago) link
https://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/down-a-different-river/van-der-graaf-generator-things-went-bit-mad-108028
― reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, 3 November 2018 02:08 (five years ago) link
Good interview
― imago, Saturday, 3 November 2018 12:35 (five years ago) link
Amazing footage of them performing "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" (all 24 minutes!) on Belgian TV in 1972:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asPDvjUYFy4
― grawlix (unperson), Monday, 5 November 2018 14:51 (five years ago) link
Wow
― The nexus of the crisis (Sund4r), Monday, 5 November 2018 16:25 (five years ago) link
I love that clip. Hammill's toast the camera at the end. :)
― jmm, Monday, 5 November 2018 16:31 (five years ago) link
Happy 70th big guy :)
― frogbs, Monday, 5 November 2018 21:28 (five years ago) link
Fun fact: Peter Hammill guested onstage with The Stranglers in 1980... there's a version of 'Tank' that has Hammill on vocals and Robert Fripp on guitar.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Monday, 5 November 2018 22:02 (five years ago) link
As for VDGG, of course I rate everything from the first LP up to World Record highly.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Monday, 5 November 2018 22:03 (five years ago) link
whoa, HB dude haha
― imago, Monday, 5 November 2018 22:17 (five years ago) link
Yes, Hugh Banton dude.
― Alma Kirby (Tom D.), Monday, 5 November 2018 22:41 (five years ago) link
this could turn into an "is your child texting about Van Der Graaf Generator" meme quickly
― Scam jam, thank you ma’am (Sparkle Motion), Tuesday, 6 November 2018 03:41 (five years ago) link
My wife who, in general, is very tolerant of whatever noise I'm blaring around the house (the Fall, P Ubu, "Lulu", skronk-jazz, etc) but VDGG is on the strict "no play list", haha
― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 6 November 2018 18:19 (five years ago) link
only halfway through it but this collaboration album with Isildur's Bane is pretty awesome and not at all what I expected
― frogbs, Thursday, 16 May 2019 15:28 (four years ago) link
how so?
― imago, Thursday, 16 May 2019 15:36 (four years ago) link
I haven't heard a note from Isildur's Bane but I kinda assumed they were just another neo-prog band (I just looked 'em up...they're not), so I was pretty surprised by how modern and chaotic it sounds. Plus it's odd to hear Hammill's voice processed like this. My only gripe is that it's not produced very well.
― frogbs, Thursday, 16 May 2019 16:03 (four years ago) link
am going to have to break down and buy this since it doesn't seem to be on streaming services.
― akm, Thursday, 16 May 2019 18:48 (four years ago) link
A few UK gigs for VdGG just announced, with European dates to come. This may well be the last VdGG tour, so interested parties should make efforts to attend.
― van dyke parks generator (anagram), Wednesday, 25 September 2019 05:21 (four years ago) link
The vers of "Still Life" on Vital is so good
― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 14 April 2020 18:36 (four years ago) link
Man, Flight (from 'A Black Box') is sooo damn great.
― Maresn3st, Friday, 15 May 2020 21:33 (three years ago) link
Flight was my first experience with Peter Hammill. Hadn't yet witnessed VdGG although I knew the name from the Chrysalis inner sleeves on my Genesis lps. A Black Box had just been released and a campus radio programmer decided to play its entire second side. I remember being blown away by just that single listen for a few days afterward. Wished I'd taped it b/c the album was import only in Canada and not easily found. It took me another year before I could locate a copy and hear it again. In the interim, I'd picked up a couple of other Hammill solos from the same era (The Future Now, pH7) but none brought the same effect.
A Black Box is still my favourite of his, alongside Sitting Targets and This.
― doug watson, Saturday, 16 May 2020 11:34 (three years ago) link
FSOL and paul weller, too???
https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/the-amorphous-androgynous-and-peter-hammill/we-persuade-ourselves-we-are-immortal
― reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, 31 October 2020 21:56 (three years ago) link
Interested to know how this turns out.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 1 November 2020 00:16 (three years ago) link
A really interesting Swedish TV performance with PH in '74 has just surfaced, some fans opted to buy the license to the footage after being given the nod by the man himself - who says he cannot remember doing it - to share on FB.
https://fb.watch/4bzKWtk4Hu/
― Maresn3st, Friday, 12 March 2021 20:58 (three years ago) link
Swiss actually
― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Friday, 12 March 2021 21:19 (three years ago) link