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

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duh, him, he, hugh banton worked for the organ manufacturer himself, during the bands 72'-'76 hiatus

it amuses me somehow that johnny rotten would claim any positive influence on his vocal style from anyone, let alone that he claimed hammill, a semi-retired prog rock band's head meglomaniac -- if the sex pistols et. al. hadn't come along, maybe we'd look back on prog rock quite differently

george gosset (gegoss), Monday, 7 October 2002 12:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Killer" is the sort of song that leaves me frustrated and ambivalent. There is something really good there, but in its case, it is all wrapped up with something else that I find a turn-off. I am left with a feeling of "This has a lot of potential." But it's a little late for it too just have potential. (In the case of that song there is also the near-nostalgia factor of its reminding me of when I used to listen to it a lot in high school and college.)

I do like those organ sounds. It seems that more could be done with those particular prog. textures, but then I'm sure there are other things which work with similar sounds but which I just haven't heard.

I would really like to like this music, since it does offer some distinctive sounds, but mostly it doesn't work together as a whole for me.

Rockist Scientist, Monday, 7 October 2002 13:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

I've just gotten the box via mp3 and might give it a listen at work tomorrow. Unfortunately the box doesn't have the one Pete Hammill song I've always wanted to hear the original of -- "Vision." Marc Almond covered it on his second solo album, and it's turned into one of his standards, regularly in his live sets from then to now. His performance is incredibly powerful and heartfelt, and I've torn myself up over the lyrics more than once when thinking about things that might have been (and maybe should have been?). So I've always wanted to hear the original, like I said -- one day.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 7 October 2002 15:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers" is awesome.

sundar subramanian, Monday, 7 October 2002 19:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

Van Der Graaf Generator are for the most part just about flawless IMO. I mean, you have this band who consist of a singer who thinks he is Roderick Usher, a deranged saxophonist who wants to be Roland Kirk, and who delights in playing 2 saxaphones at once through a fuzzbox, a church organist and one of the best rock drummers ever, WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT? I don't think VDGG were flawed by bombast. ELP, perhaps, yes, but not VDGG.
I would say that "H to He Who Am the Only One", "Pawn Hearts", "Godbluff" and "Still Life". The live album "Vital" is, I think, pretty poor - also, it's quite unrepresentative of the band's "classic" lne up as it doesn't have David Jaxon on it, except as a guest on 1 track. The BBC sessions CD, "Maida Vale" is a pretty good intro as well, if U don't want to go for thee expense of the box set. search the first four that I mentioned anyway, and given that you occasionally see "Vital" for, like 2.99 in HMV's sale bin, I can't even complain about that too much. As for Peter Hammill's solo w3rk, I would probably start w/ "Nadir's Big Chance", "In Camera", "The Future Now" and ". You have probably guessed that for me Peter Hammill and Van Der Graaf are TH33 FuX!Ng SH!T. To me they inhabit this place that very few musicians even fucking know about let alone reach. Probably only Magazine and Popol Vuh "do it" for me like hammill & vdgg do. So classic. Hammill was rowr in his younger days as well.


if anyone has a spare copy of "The Long Hello volume 1" on zomart CD theyd like to sell me BTW, contact me off list. I have lost my copy, & want another one bad, like.

N0RM4N PH4Y, Monday, 7 October 2002 20:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

My favorites are "Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other", "Pawn Hearts" and "Godbluff". I think the first side of the latter two is probably the best they ever did. I think "H to He" is overrated. "Killer" has a great riff, but pretty silly lyrics.
"Refugees" is my favorite song by them. There's a great single version of it on the Virgin compilation "I Prophecy Disaster".

Solo Hammill? I like "A Black Box" quite a lot, was disappointed by "Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night". Some of his later albums, like "Fireships" and "Out of Water" are okay...

Joe (Joe), Monday, 7 October 2002 21:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

vdgg: still life.
ph: a black box, out of water. plus some people think that his "love songs" album is a good place to start. *and* it's got vision on it! ;)

cecilia, Tuesday, 8 October 2002 02:28 (twenty-one years ago) link

Thank you! Finally, the info I needed. :-)

Currently listening to that there box set right now. And very good it is too. The keyboardist is agreeably nuts, but I think the sax guy is even more so.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 15:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

haha Cecilia - I wuz right!

the one prog/ex-prog band/dude I can't seem to shake, even though I haven't listened to for years
when I did, top LP picks:

Van Der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts, Godbluff, Still Life and The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome (which anticipates postpunk)

Peter Hammill - Nadir's Big Chance and The Future Now
(though there's interesting tracks scattered throughout his albums)

lovely record I still do throw on:
The Long Hello - The Long Hello 1973 instrumental 'solo' album featuring most of the band without Hammill
anyone know if Long Hello Vol.2 is any good?

Paul (scifisoul), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 16:16 (twenty-one years ago) link

the only song I've really REALLY liked is "Refugees" which is wonderfully pompous and genuinely melancholy.

dog latin, Tuesday, 8 October 2002 18:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

one month passes...
Came across this picture of them nowadays (l-r: Hugh Banton, Peter Hammill, David Jackson, Guy Evans):

http://students.washington.edu/joemcg/vdggnow.jpg

Joe (Joe), Saturday, 9 November 2002 05:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Hmmm...

http://students.washington.edu/joemcg/vgddnow.jpg

Joe (Joe), Saturday, 9 November 2002 05:04 (twenty-one years ago) link

Okay, one more try, and if not, sorry I give up:

http://students.washington.edu/joemcg/public_html/vgddnow.jpg

Joe (Joe), Saturday, 9 November 2002 05:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

Aargh! Okay, if you still are REALLY that curious, go to:

www.progressiveears.com

click on "Photos" then "Musician's photos" then "Van Der Graaf Generator nowadays"

Joe (Joe), Saturday, 9 November 2002 05:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

three months pass...
the more i listen to the VddG songs on albums "H to .." and "Still Life" the more they seem to hold water as overall fragments of one big song each per album, and i now think this may be the bands strength -- that each album emerged from various concentrated sessions, with components spread across the songs, making a given song on it's own less inspiring than the album experiences, even though they're _not_ concept albums as much as seamlesslessly integrated fragments of an overall musical feeling in each case

cf: "Godbluff" and "Pawn Hearts"; more traditionl sets of long prog songs, "World Record" seemingly a collection of lesser musical bits and pieces

anyway i think their musical logic is as compelling in its own way as 2x-youth period sonic youth, or mid-period Roxy Music if rocking out ten minutes per song -- am just investigating Hammill side projects at this stage, and i don't know about "Least we can do ..",
"Vital", "Aeresol .." and "Quite Zone.." yet -- nice that there's still plenty of material to eat through

george gosset (gegoss), Sunday, 9 February 2003 11:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

Geez... VDGG 'Afterwards' = best song evah?

I'm having trouble with this right now. I want to love this song so much. Want to proclaim it the greatest forgotten/failed/alternate uni pop great. Anyone else know it? Anyone have the first VDGG?

Mr. Diamond (diamond), Sunday, 9 February 2003 12:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

VDGG is the type of band that I really like, but
do not blame anyone in the slightest for hating.
Also, most of their songs (especially in their mid to
later period) could have worked better as
instrumentals - Hammill's lyrics are only occasionally
interesting; his voice is decent but after the first
two albums he rarely bothered to SING - he just
yelled and ranted, like a small, raging version of
David Bowie.

P.S: Another non-comformist opinion: they only really
got good starting with _Godbluff_. Better drumming,
better songs.

Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Monday, 10 February 2003 02:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think I like Peter Hammill even when I don't like him, but I saw a video recording of a performance of his in the 90's, and really noticed his tendency to speed up the rhythm of a line and make a growling jump right off the side of the music towards the end for dramatic effect. He did it so often, I could barely let myself hear the songs. I wish he'd reign that sort of thing in a bit, because I think it hurts the songs - just the lyrics could carry tons of what I'm guessing he's getting at when he does that. I don't know.

tom (other), Monday, 10 February 2003 04:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

six months pass...
wow, i love this shit! it reminds me of bowie totally (and also dog man star i guess, and roy budd to an extent). house with no door has that sunderland 4.30am vibe, edge of town, the other people place reprised this for lakeshore MI business maybe.

harsh dawns to come

gareth (gareth), Thursday, 14 August 2003 22:19 (twenty years ago) link

well, it'a august now, and so with a few more months listening i think i'm agreeing with Squirrel_Police that Godbluff is a staggering demonstration of power

'sleepwalkers' is too pompous (yet somehow that suits the ceremonial bullshit of 'gentlemen's' warfare, 'arrow' so catchy that i've maybe made myself sick of it, 'undercover man' intiguing and leaving me wanting more, 'scorched earth' an absolute gem, with its two harmonic threads merging very sneakily leaving me going "how did that happen ? will have to listen to part of it again" -- my favourite VdGG song

this was their 'comeback' album -- why was this not embraced as the smarter improved side one of led zep iv ? -- more intelligently heavy than the truly pretentious competitors 'the who' -- more coherent lyrically than bowie

i suppose the misanthropic snarl of hammill simply put people off, no matter what the lyrics were about or what the band did -- i have to agree with rock-sci that they _are_ heavily flawed -- what a pity -- a rock band with saxaphones and organ and lyrics (and songs, not 'prog' jams) was just what popular music needed, not more guitars

george gosset (gegoss), Thursday, 14 August 2003 22:47 (twenty years ago) link

eight months pass...
but where to go from here? i thought audience house on the hill but not sure

gareth (gareth), Saturday, 17 April 2004 17:57 (twenty years ago) link

Oh this is great great great! I used to have songs I taped off the radio from Hamill 20 years ago that I liked and yet I never got back around to investigating him or VDGG. Thank you for pointing me this way! I would have totally forgotten on my own, I think.

bimble (bimble), Sunday, 18 April 2004 05:48 (twenty years ago) link

according to this, the albums ARE being remastered by Virgin,so, hopefully, someday.

anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Sunday, 18 April 2004 16:25 (twenty years ago) link

Best wishes to Peter Hammill , I'm glad he's recovering well from his coronary.

Colin McPhee, Thursday, 29 April 2004 20:02 (nineteen years ago) link

I recently acquired a bunch more of his solo albums, but still have to work my way through them. His debut, Fools Mate, is quite great. Completely Van Der Graaf Generator in sound and feel, but the songs are much more down to earth. Hammill tones down (at least on the songs I've heard so far) the bombastic/arch-concept/nihilistic-angst of the tride and true VdGG albums (a plus, in my book).

Now, have to give Skin and X My Heart a play...

Joe (Joe), Friday, 30 April 2004 01:06 (nineteen years ago) link

Is this compilation a good introduction? Here is the track listing.


Van Der Graaf Generator: An Introduction
1. Darkness (11/11)
2. Refugees
3. Killer
4. Theme 1
5. Man-Erg
6. Sleepwalkers
7. Still Life
8. When She Comes
9. Sphinx In The Face

earlnash, Friday, 30 April 2004 08:40 (nineteen years ago) link

Fool's Mate seconded, my favourite of the three Hammill solo records I have. Also really like the first VDGG album, Aerosol Grey Machine, which walks the dividing line between psych and prog. Hadn't heard anything about the coronary, hope the bloke's up and at 'em again soon.

NickB (NickB), Friday, 30 April 2004 08:55 (nineteen years ago) link

one year passes...
Hah, the bloke was fucking VERY up & at 'em!!

I picked up the 1st set of 3 reissues "the least we can do is wave to each other", "H to he who am the only one" & "pawn hearts". Great mastering job, nice packaging/notes. One of the bonus tracks (on "h to he..." is this thing called "squid1/squid2/octopus" good grief it's mighty. deranged mix of fucked up free jazz & demented doomy church organ, heavy and as gothic as fuck!! it's 15m long too...

Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 4 June 2005 11:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Have you heard the new album? I haven't, but really want to. Also, I didn't know about those reissues - extra songs sounds great!

Pangolino 2, Saturday, 4 June 2005 16:42 (eighteen years ago) link

Good to see the classics remastered! I simply can't keep up/save money for all the reissued goodness these days.

Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Saturday, 4 June 2005 16:52 (eighteen years ago) link

Is that "Octopus" thing related to the track on Aerosol Grey Machine with (I think) the same name?

Jetlag Willy (noodle vague), Sunday, 5 June 2005 09:05 (eighteen years ago) link

so what are the long-lost second album of Pawn Hearts tracks like?

kyle (akmonday), Sunday, 5 June 2005 21:17 (eighteen years ago) link

two months pass...
Those VDGG reissues are $25 each! Anyone find them cheaper?

As far as solo, I have Hammill's Nadir's Big Chance and Over. I could get The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage, and The Future Now for $8 each at alldirect.com, but since those versions came out in 1990, I'm afraid remasters will pop up soon. Anyone got info on that?

A.S. Van Dorston (Fastnbulbous), Sunday, 4 September 2005 08:15 (eighteen years ago) link

Those VDGG reissues are $25 each! Anyone find them cheaper?

As far as solo, I have Hammill's Nadir's Big Chance and Over. I could get The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage, and The Future Now for $8 each at alldirect.com, but since those versions came out in 1990, I'm afraid remasters will pop up soon. Anyone got info on that?

A.S. Van Dorston (Fastnbulbous), Sunday, 4 September 2005 08:15 (eighteen years ago) link

i haven't seen them cheaper, no, and so I've only bought Pawn Hearts, but the improvement in sound quality was really worth it. I'll pick up the others as money permits

kyle (akmonday), Sunday, 4 September 2005 08:21 (eighteen years ago) link

Hammill's solo debut, "Fool's Mate" is a very fine record, indeed. Kind of like a pop Roy Harper; and "Child" is a song to truly send shivers down your spine. There's a smattering of music-hall in a few of the songs, as well as a brilliant final number, which is rather cheery, yet turns agonisingly dark, ending on a sustained, droning guitar chord.

Tom May (Tom May), Sunday, 4 September 2005 13:19 (eighteen years ago) link

I think the final chord (which is also the opening chord of the album) is played by a keyboard of some kind. Fool's Mate is a great introduction to Hammill's solo work, tho more playful than a lot of his later stuff.

I Ain't No Addict, Whoever Heard of a Junkie as Old as Me? (noodle vague), Sunday, 4 September 2005 14:02 (eighteen years ago) link

Looks like on amazon.co.uk, Fool's Mate also got the reissue treatment, but not any of the other solo albums. If CD Wow would start carrying them, I'd consider gettingthem all.

Fastnbulbous (Fastnbulbous), Sunday, 4 September 2005 14:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Could be a synthesizer of some sort, I suppose, though the sound is close to a guitar.

I'm sure others will get the re-issue treatment in due course - to be hoped for, anyway.

Tom May (Tom May), Sunday, 4 September 2005 14:39 (eighteen years ago) link

The re-releases are coming in batches, fairly chronologically I think. You can check Sofa Sound for more info.

I Ain't No Addict, Whoever Heard of a Junkie as Old as Me? (noodle vague), Sunday, 4 September 2005 14:42 (eighteen years ago) link

I was recently sent a copy of The Future Now, which is really enjoyable.

Sundar (sundar), Sunday, 4 September 2005 14:43 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm still waiting on FOPP selling them for £7.

Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Sunday, 4 September 2005 14:56 (eighteen years ago) link

Just noticed these are available at Netflix:

Inside Van Der Graaf Generator (2005)
Progressive rock pioneers Van Der Graaf Generator opened doors for groups including Genesis and Pink Floyd and remains one of the most influential yet unappreciated bands of the genre. This inside look features rare archival performance footage, plus critical reviews and in-depth analysis of the band by former Van der Graaf members Judge Smith, Nic Potter and David Jackson, as well as a team of prominent music critics and rock journalists.

Van Der Graaf Generator: Godbluff Live (2004)
Recorded on September 27th, 1975, prog rock legends Van Der Graaf Generator take to the stage to deliver some astounding rock sounds. Recorded on a tour of France, the show concentrates on the "Godbluff" album.

Fastnbulbous (Fastnbulbous), Sunday, 4 September 2005 17:22 (eighteen years ago) link

The recent reissues are gonna be Americanized by Astralwerks/Caroline in October or thereabouts, for substantially less money. I'm holding off.

pdf (Phil Freeman), Sunday, 4 September 2005 17:43 (eighteen years ago) link

I always thaought the sound at the opening and closing of Fool's Mate was a sine wave generator of some sort (maybe a synth).

And on a side note, I have a VHS of a VDGG tribute band called Van Der Graf Jr. that was shot at Barnsdall Park's auditorium, where today's Arthurfest is occuring.

nickn (nickn), Sunday, 4 September 2005 17:58 (eighteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...
I reviewed the first batch of Astralwerks-distributed reissues to come out on October 4.

Fastnbulbous (Fastnbulbous), Monday, 19 September 2005 11:13 (eighteen years ago) link

The recent reissues are gonna be Americanized by Astralwerks/Caroline in October or thereabouts, for substantially less money.

No Americanization just a sweeter bulk import deal, according to Artist-shop. I'll be sitting next to Phil in the waiting room.

doug watson (solid air), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:08 (eighteen years ago) link

Peter Hammill - Nadir's Big Chance
I gotta get that one. I heard the title track on a MOJO comp and it sounded great.

k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:13 (eighteen years ago) link

four months pass...
World Record. Lovin this album. The drum sound is pretty amazing.
This is a good press release:
http://www.vandergraafgenerator.co.uk/pawnhearts/vdgg_pressrelease.jpg

shadeball (chaki), Friday, 10 February 2006 11:20 (eighteen years ago) link

Wonder what's happened with the Peter Hammill Charisma solo albums after Fool's Mate? I thought they were due for re-issue too.

Deluxe (Damian), Friday, 10 February 2006 13:23 (eighteen years ago) link

Also I haven't listened to Present in a minute man I forgot how great this record is

chr1sb3singer, Monday, 23 January 2023 20:40 (one year ago) link

ten months pass...

Fuckin hell A Black Box is amaaaaazing isn't it

imago, Monday, 18 December 2023 18:46 (four months ago) link

three weeks pass...

I'm listening to samples of his 2023 remake of his 1988 album In a Foreign Town, and I'm afraid his voice is in very rough shape. His tone, range, and pitch are all worse for wear; there were points when I could have mistaken him for modern-day Roger Waters. I believe he smoked for many years but quit a while ago.
I saw him a few times fifteen years ago and his voice had held up very well till then; obviously 60 is not 75, and he is still delivering the sense of the songs, but it's humbling to hear this (inevitable?) decay, highlighted on songs he first recorded 35 years ago.

Halfway there but for you, Friday, 12 January 2024 18:07 (three months ago) link

I wouldn't say he's anywhere near as bad as Waters. I agree he's starting to sound his age a bit but his voice has still held up a lot better than some of his contemporaries. tbh I'm not sure why he decided to re-record these two. I guess they do sound less plastic but removing Jackson's sax parts is a bummer.

frogbs, Friday, 12 January 2024 21:14 (three months ago) link

the whole relationship with Jaxon has been a mystery for forever

have to admit i've not been attentive to Peter's work for ages, i hope he's free to do whatever takes his fancy for as long as he's around, but i feel like ever since the heart attack whatever happens is just a bonus

craning to be leather (Noodle Vague), Friday, 12 January 2024 21:18 (three months ago) link

yeah it's bizarre especially given the whole point of the reunion was the realization that they weren't gonna be around forever. I mean I respect them for not making it public like a lot of bands do but it feels like there's still a lot of bad blood there for whatever reason.

I haven't really kept up with him either, though I remember his mid-00's albums being pretty good. I liked the album he did with Isildur's Bane called "In Amazonia"...there's another one out there but I haven't heard it yet. as brilliant as Hammill is I never found him to be totally engaging as a solo artist. feel like he needs other musicians around him to truly bring out his best. hence why the mid-70s albums which featured the VdGG lineup were my favorite. as I suspect they are for most people. the K-group stuff is quite good too. but yea the albums where it's just him with a guitar and synthesizers....I mean yeah the dude writes great tunes, but his voice has such power, he needs more than that.

frogbs, Friday, 12 January 2024 21:30 (three months ago) link

btw I am guessing probably none of you have heard of Isildur's Bane, but I will point out one of their early albums has a nude male ass on the cover, so their bona fides are legit

frogbs, Friday, 12 January 2024 21:34 (three months ago) link

yeah maybe K-Group is as close as we get to Hammill outside of VDGG. it doesn't even matter to me, maybe it matters more to him. a lot of the public reasons for VDGG breaking up were purely practical/financial but you wonder if there's other things going on in private and that's ok, they can stay private, not my business

craning to be leather (Noodle Vague), Friday, 12 January 2024 21:42 (three months ago) link

i have not heard Isildur's Bane frogbs but god loves a Tolk ref

craning to be leather (Noodle Vague), Friday, 12 January 2024 21:42 (three months ago) link

wait is the nude male ass a "ring" reference 😮😔

mark s, Friday, 12 January 2024 21:49 (three months ago) link

yeah it's bizarre especially given the whole point of the reunion was the realization that they weren't gonna be around forever. I mean I respect them for not making it public like a lot of bands do but it feels like there's still a lot of bad blood there for whatever reason.

:woman_shrugging: i mean none of my fucking business. just because they worked together for a long time doesn't put personal details like that within my scope as a fan.

btw I am guessing probably none of you have heard of Isildur's Bane, but I will point out one of their early albums has a nude male ass on the cover, so their bona fides are legit

― frogbs, Friday, January 12, 2024 1:34 PM (twenty-five seconds ago)

_never heard of isildur's bane_? the third act on the bill on day one of NEARFest in 2002? you _wound_ me, friend. do you think i am wholly ignorant of scandinavian prog? i have heard every single artist named in the Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock, even that ones which do not actually exist. my friend, i am so enthusiastic about prog that i boof prog every single day. and here you suggest i do not know isildur's bane!

i admit that i've never actually _heard_ isildur's bane before, though. i'm listening to a compilation called "lost eggs", because the title is a heckin' mood. the first track is really bad. the seventh track is twenty seconds of synthesizer fart noises. tracks 3-6 are legit tho.

i'd also never seen the cover of "sea reflections" damn that is a fantastically terrible '80s private-press rock album cover. the artist, catharina rysten, has a swedish wikipedia page tho. so the naked guy is standing in water staring at a UFO which is beaming up a saxophone?

ass is probably not a "ring" reference although one of the tracks on the album is entitled "Bilbo"

Kate (rushomancy), Friday, 12 January 2024 21:52 (three months ago) link

i don't think you can truly love any of the VDGG people without having tolerance for very questionable aesthetic decisions and in that spirit i hope they all carry on for eternity

craning to be leather (Noodle Vague), Friday, 12 January 2024 21:55 (three months ago) link

I had heard that Jackson was let go because he had signed off on, or otherwise participated in, some European VDGG concert or documentary DVD that the others didn't want officially validated; and/or that he was not making himself available for agreed-upon schedules around recording and touring.

Nothing salacious hidden in the paragraph above, just didn't want to accidentally make any revelations for those who don't want to know.

Halfway there but for you, Friday, 12 January 2024 22:07 (three months ago) link

the fact that they were billed above Echolyn is a crime if you ask me! that 2002 lineup is pretty dire but the years after looked pretty good!!

I have heard some of their 80's records, they are hilariously bad, but also kinda fun. from what I've heard of their 90's stuff (the "Mind" records) they definitely got better but they're good in sort of in the way the Flower Kings are, they seem to love to pump out hour-plus CDs with like 10 minutes of good stuff on them

on the records they did with Hammill it sounds like they're trying to ape VdGG and IMO they do a pretty good job of it. no organ or sax but they get the doom riffing right!

frogbs, Friday, 12 January 2024 22:07 (three months ago) link

fwiw I did hear some rumours about the situation with Jaxon, nothing controversial but more a question of commitment and creative ambitions.

xpost

where did the times go (Matt #2), Friday, 12 January 2024 22:08 (three months ago) link

do you mean K-Group? honestly never realised that existed beyond a PH backing band

and without going into all the contradictions that i might argue later, i figure Peter's failingest failing is he doesn't care very much about how his music *sounds*, or idk i'm not saying that right but he feels like a "message over context" guy more than any other

craning to be leather (Noodle Vague), Friday, 12 January 2024 22:11 (three months ago) link

yeah big problem for him from like the mid-80s throughout most of the 90's, I think his albums from like 1998 on sound a bit punchier and more interesting but even still a lot of them feel like the last 40 years of Todd Rundgren, where they sound more like demos than a finished product

the VdGG remasters he did in 2005 were pretty awful too, totally brickwalled and blown out. I've heard the recent remasters were a lot better but for some reason the vinyl reissues don't use them. I got a copy of The Least We Can Do... and it sounds horrible, just like every other edition of it I've heard.

currently listening to the other album with Isildur's Bane, called In Disequilibrium. not sure where the actual 'songs' are but still it's pretty interesting, moreso than the reformed VdGG albums I guess. Hammill sounds good on it too, even though this was recorded only a few years ago.

frogbs, Friday, 12 January 2024 22:20 (three months ago) link

"Every Bloody Emperor" is arguably the best thing they ever wrote which just makes me sad about all the other reunion stuff

craning to be leather (Noodle Vague), Friday, 12 January 2024 22:22 (three months ago) link

and without going into all the contradictions that i might argue later, i figure Peter's failingest failing is he doesn't care very much about how his music *sounds*

Seems to be an issue with a few prog musicians, I had a solo album by the guy from Univers Zero that sounded like it was being played on a cheap Korg factory strings preset. Totally unlistenable.

where did the times go (Matt #2), Friday, 12 January 2024 22:26 (three months ago) link

I've noticed that with some full bands as well, specifically in the neo-prog stuff that isn't IQ or Marillion, or some of the various imitators from the 90s like Glass Hammer or Citizen Cain. the musicians sound like they're up to the task but there's no power in the music - ugly guitar sounds, cheap keyboards, drums that sound so thin it's hard to believe they're actually real. I agree, it's basically unlistenable, even if the music itself is good

frogbs, Friday, 12 January 2024 22:32 (three months ago) link

Halfway there pretty much has it right with regard to Jackson’s dismissal from the group in 2006. Hammill hasn't gone into the gory details but he hasn't exactly made a secret of the reasons either, he addressed the issue with some frankness in a 2007 newsletter.

lord of the rongs (anagram), Friday, 12 January 2024 22:33 (three months ago) link

I like the reunion albums. They don’t all feel indispensable but there are great things on each.

I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Saturday, 13 January 2024 01:26 (three months ago) link

Peter's failingest failing is he doesn't care very much about how his music *sounds*, or idk i'm not saying that right but he feels like a "message over context" guy more than any other

...

I've noticed that with some full bands as well, specifically in the neo-prog stuff that isn't IQ or Marillion, or some of the various imitators from the 90s like Glass Hammer or Citizen Cain. the musicians sound like they're up to the task but there's no power in the music - ugly guitar sounds, cheap keyboards, drums that sound so thin it's hard to believe they're actually real. I agree, it's basically unlistenable, even if the music itself is good

I reviewed their 2016 album and yeah, that was exactly the problem.

Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Saturday, 13 January 2024 02:40 (three months ago) link

I've noticed that with some full bands as well, specifically in the neo-prog stuff that isn't IQ or Marillion, or some of the various imitators from the 90s like Glass Hammer or Citizen Cain. the musicians sound like they're up to the task but there's no power in the music - ugly guitar sounds, cheap keyboards, drums that sound so thin it's hard to believe they're actually real. I agree, it's basically unlistenable, even if the music itself is good

― frogbs

it can cut both ways. i mean, the lowrey is just about the cheapest, shittiest, most obnoxious organ i can think of. i swear to god i sometimes think a stylophone has a more mellifluous tone. doesn't keep soft machine from being all-time.

you're right, though, that a lot of prog focuses on CONTENT to the exclusion of form. '80s frank zappa might be the apotheosis of this. i know this is a man who valorizes ugliness, but there are far better ways to be ugly than the way those fucking '80s albums sound. zappa isn't abrasive, he's just demonstrating a more advanced version of the profound timbral bad taste exhibited by emerson, lake, and palmer.

in general, though, i think prog's often-questionable aesthetic decisions* constitute a great deal of its appeal. so much of gentle giant's music is completely antithetical to...

i don't know _how_ to describe gentle giant, other than to say "WHY THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE HETEROSEXUAL?!?!?!?!?". gentle giant's music would be _so_ much better if it was _queer_. prog rock got put down all the time for being fey and mincing like those were bad things. there's so much queerness in prog rock. keith emerson in his leather-boy getup thrusting his knife into his keyboard repeatedly. everything ever produced by genesis between 1971 and 1974. kevin ayers' eyeliner. peter hammill's over-the-top theatricality. _synthesizers_, oh my god, combine synthesizers, kink, and communism and you have transfem culture. even when jethro tull lucked into having a trans woman in their band, there was nothing remotely trans about them _musically_, despite their being fronted by a panto flautist in an oversized codpiece. prog bands kept putting artwork of wonderfully callipygean men on their album covers and have consistently been trying to "no homo" those creative decisions ever since. This shit ought to be the APEX of queer culture, but damn near everybody involved in this shit was disgustingly heterosexual. (shout-outs to bob drake, though. thank christ for bob drake.)

* (i'm listening to _facelift_ now and woo boy it is a BONANZA on that front... someone once postulated that the master tapes were soaked in bongwater for six weeks before being pressed to vinyl, and honestly, i find this theory plausible)

Kate (rushomancy), Saturday, 13 January 2024 04:41 (three months ago) link

ELP are incredibly hetero, have you not seen the cover of Love Beach?

frogbs, Saturday, 13 January 2024 18:00 (three months ago) link

I believe Robert John Godfrey is gay and when I saw The Enid in 2013 I guessed their singer might be too based on the way they were joking around.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 13 January 2024 18:33 (three months ago) link

From 1968 to 1971 Godfrey became resident musical director with Barclay James Harvest,[2] making musical contributions to early recordings which established their full, orchestral style of rock music. The relationship fell apart and accounts differ as to why.[3][4] Godfrey is gay, and claimed this was one reason he was fired from BJH. "It was the band’s girlfriends who forced the issue," he told Classic Rock magazine. "They were from the Lancashire/Yorkshire area and couldn’t handle the idea of a gay man like me with a plummy accent."[5]

Bulky Pee Pants (Tom D.), Saturday, 13 January 2024 18:38 (three months ago) link

Still have never fully engaged with The Enid, I think they have the same disregard for sonics I moaned about up there, but Godfrey being gay a) doesn't surprise me and b) makes me want to have yet another try at digging their scene which has always felt removed from the boring normativity of a lot of the Prog boys

craning to be leather (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 13 January 2024 18:49 (three months ago) link

I love their first two albums but haven't kept up, some of their more recent bigger orchestral music sounded incredible.

I've got a feeling Carmen weren't all straight. All I can say for sure is that David Clark Allen is a sexual anthropologist and well known fetish photographer/author.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 13 January 2024 18:56 (three months ago) link

In many cases I guess prog musicians really genuinely like "ugly" sounds and I think it's part of what makes the genre interesting, even rewarding and it's hard to say if it's a disregard for sonics. Kind of reminds me of seeing Garth Hudson in Last Waltz, loving all these ugly keyboard sounds he's making.
However, prog and metal definitely has a problem with overpolishing and there has to be some kind of aesthetic deafness involved in that. And yeah sometimes the keyboards and guitars sound just too ugly.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 13 January 2024 19:07 (three months ago) link

The word "message" suggests lyrics to me and I don't think prog has ever prioritized lyrics to the extent of diminishing the music.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 13 January 2024 19:09 (three months ago) link

Trying to think of the best examples of awesomely ugly vs ugly-ugly.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 13 January 2024 19:11 (three months ago) link

I definitely don't want to delimit "good" sounds from bad, it's definitely not that simple, I guess I'm thinking about ugliness in the service of interesting versus ugliness as inattention to what music can be

craning to be leather (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 13 January 2024 19:21 (three months ago) link

RJG is a sociopath and his account of quitting BJH is bullshit, as is everything else he's ever said about anything. But yes The Enid are about the one overtly gay prog band, shame it has to be that guy really.

where did the times go (Matt #2), Saturday, 13 January 2024 19:56 (three months ago) link

I know Godfrey tried unsuccessfully to sue Barclay James Harvest not too many years ago; I also remember him making the quizzical statement that the Enid were loved at punk clubs because they were so "un-punk" that they were actually perceived as punk, or words to that effect.

Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 13 January 2024 20:02 (three months ago) link

I tried getting into them because Voivod spoks so reverentially about them but it was hard since they were so damn prolific.

I still have a couple things on the shelves.

Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Saturday, 13 January 2024 21:39 (three months ago) link

I like plenty of Voivod and that shout totally makes sense but aren't we talking about another band too interesting to get appropriate respect from their genre peers?

craning to be leather (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 13 January 2024 22:32 (three months ago) link

Yeah and I guess Voivod is somewhat prolific too but the difference is I was along the whole time for Voivod and came in late to Van der Graaf Generator.

Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Saturday, 13 January 2024 22:46 (three months ago) link

I know Godfrey tried unsuccessfully to sue Barclay James Harvest not too many years ago; I also remember him making the quizzical statement that the Enid were loved at punk clubs because they were so "un-punk" that they were actually perceived as punk, or words to that effect.

― Halfway there but for you

yeah greg lake made the same claim about ELP. see: rick wakeman's "i'm so straight i'm a weirdo". which is _almost_ right. the truth is that being straight is just fucking weird. i mean fundamentally ok a lot of the time, don't get me wrong, but _weird_.

ELP are incredibly hetero, have you not seen the cover of Love Beach?

― frogbs

just don't ask d3n1s3 sh4rp3 about carl palmer

i definitely need to check out carmen, a lot of this stuff is like... niche symphonic and symphonic has never really been my jam. also definitely interested in david clark allen's fetish art lol.

but yes The Enid are about the one overtly gay prog band, shame it has to be that guy really.

― where did the times go (Matt #2)

i mean that's kind of queer shit in general, though... being queer means you go through a lot of shit that cishets don't and that fucks a person up, queer pioneers tend to be kinda fucked up people. if you look at a lot of the people trans people like me try to reclaim as trans, they're kinda awful. elagabalus? terrible, fucked-up person. ed wood? incredibly bad filmmaker and racist drunk. doesn't excuse it, but there's this desire for queer pioneers to be like tom hanks in _philadelphia_, which to me, from what i've seen of that movie and its legitimacy narrative, it kinda distorts a lot of what makes queer people _queer_.

i guess that's the other thing, just being queer doesn't make a person's work queer. i heard dee palmer's solo album just because i wanted to hear what kind of music she would make. i don't hear anything queer at all in it. it's just kind of an ordinary prog record. which is good! i defend that strongly. trans people don't have to make "trans music", like, our entire lives aren't about being trans.

anyway i'm gonna have to listen to their stuff but given that one of their best-known records is "aerie faerie nonsense", yeahhhh that sounds pretty queer. didn't stand out because faeries are _standard in prog_ except it's usually invoked by cishets for some reason? just... to me they're missing out on the best shit about this stuff.

Kate (rushomancy), Sunday, 14 January 2024 16:27 (three months ago) link

I get what you're saying but I think you have to separate queerness from sexuality somehow, because prog music is pretty nonsexual as a whole to me. and when it does get horny it always comes off very weird. imo "Ladies of the Road" is worse than just a filler track, it almost ruins the band's entire image (though tbf Crimson was kind of falling apart there anyway). its not just a sex thing either, when prog bands sing about any sort of normal thing (see Triumvirat's concept album about getting laid off at the factory) it just comes off strange to me

there is a modern prog band called The Tangent that sorta pulls it off though, mainly because you just know the dude is an IT worker doing this in his spare time

frogbs, Sunday, 14 January 2024 16:40 (three months ago) link

"when prog bands sing about any sort of normal thing (see Triumvirat's concept album about getting laid off at the factory) it just comes off strange to me"

surely that's good?

I think Fandangos In Space by Carmen is an essential prog album, just amazing. On David Clark Allen's blog he writes about new flamenco bands.

I always thought the faeries and other fantasy cliches weren't that prevalent in prog but just appear more than in most rock genres. Same with power metal, I expected epic fantasy full time but a lot of the songs are about the things anyone sings about.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 14 January 2024 16:47 (three months ago) link

That Gentle Giant album "Three Friends" sounds like a pretty normal mundane story.

Bulky Pee Pants (Tom D.), Sunday, 14 January 2024 16:59 (three months ago) link

it is about a gay ogre orgy

I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Sunday, 14 January 2024 17:59 (three months ago) link

Troll Throuple

I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Sunday, 14 January 2024 18:00 (three months ago) link

I get what you're saying but I think you have to separate queerness from sexuality somehow, because prog music is pretty nonsexual as a whole to me. and when it does get horny it always comes off very weird. imo "Ladies of the Road" is worse than just a filler track, it almost ruins the band's entire image (though tbf Crimson was kind of falling apart there anyway). its not just a sex thing either, when prog bands sing about any sort of normal thing (see Triumvirat's concept album about getting laid off at the factory) it just comes off strange to me

there is a modern prog band called The Tangent that sorta pulls it off though, mainly because you just know the dude is an IT worker doing this in his spare time

― frogbs

King Crimson's image is really interesting to me! I think they're a very... like not musically complex, but _personally_ complex band. The image of King Crimson often doesn't accord with the reality. That's what I found so fascinating about the recent King Crimson documentary. It really delves into that.

This idea of King Crimson as this non-sexual, intellectual, cerebral band is, as far as I can tell, completely divorced from the reality. The impression I get from Fripp's statements about this period is that he was pretty much a huge slut. "Ladies of the Road" isn't even their first paean to groupies - "Cadence and Cascade" is also on that theme. In the "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" period there were a fair few references to analingus, as well.

I definitely do... I mean I don't differentiate queerness from sexuality in an _absolute_ sense. My gender identity isn't the same thing as my sexual identity. (My sexual identity is one that I've seen described as "WTFSexual", as in "What even is sex?" I'm not asking that ironically. I genuinely do not know what "sex" is supposed to be.)

I guess when I talk about queerness and the lack thereof I look at it kind of along the same lines as Natalie Reed's "Null HypotheCis". The default reading for me of prog isn't asexual or non-gendered. It's cisgender, heterosexual music, whether it's _explicitly_ sexual or not. There are a lot of implicit assumptions in there, things that aren't even noticeable to cishets but just don't track with my own experience and understanding. I mean, look, I don't want to get too sociologist here, but the music of, say, Magma, which is propulsive, repetitive music that drives towards an explosive finale... I'll just say that it _parallels_ normative cis male sexuality. I understand the appeal of that kind of sex. It's not the way I do things. That's not to say that Magma's music is explicitly sexual music or that music is all about sex or whatever whatever. There's just a level of resonance with cis male sexuality that's just _there_, it's congruent in a way where the presence or absence of congruence isn't even a question. And to me, I feel that incongruence pretty strongly.

A lot of what I like about prog rock is what I've seen referred to as "padding", as being "aimless". King Crimson talks of their name being evocative of a "man with an aim". I'm a woman and to the extent that I have an aim, it's mostly to live in and embody the moment. (Which, actually, is King Crimson's aim too... we get along a lot better than the name might suggest!)

Prog rock songs can be very long and while they do tend to eventually get where they're going, it's a long, often scenic trip. They don't get in and out within two minutes. Which, again, I'm not condemning. I think that's pretty cool, having that quick hardcore blast of energy. When I think about myself, how I express myself, that's not how I do things. If I arrive at a conclusion at all, it's almost by accident. That's the feeling I get from my favorite prog - oh, that actually makes sense? I didn't expect that to make sense, I thought we were just wandering around aimlessly. When I do stuff that's... _maybe_ sex? Anyway, that's kind of how I go about things. I'm very fond of the "fuck around and find out" approach.

And there's a sort of tension between that sort of structural _queerness_ I find in prog with the way so much of it is cishet coded. That's kind of what I mean when I talk about music not being queer, I don't necessarily mean explicitly, I mean sometimes people's queerness informs their work, the way cishet people's cishet-ness informs their work. Honestly maybe that's why Palmer's album disappointed me... it's missing any kind of implicit sense of gender or sexual identity whatsoever. It's just kind of _there_.

Kate (rushomancy), Sunday, 14 January 2024 18:26 (three months ago) link

That Gentle Giant album "Three Friends" sounds like a pretty normal mundane story.

― Bulky Pee Pants (Tom D.), Sunday, January 14, 2024 8:59 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

it is about a gay ogre orgy

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm)

six of one, half a dozen of the other

Kate (rushomancy), Sunday, 14 January 2024 18:28 (three months ago) link


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