10097 - ROLLING STONE - 50 GREATEST PROG ROCK ALBUMS OF ALL TIME, DISC 26 - VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR - PAWN HEARTS (1971)

Compilation By Jon Dolan, Dan Epstein, Reed Fischer, Richard Gehr, Brandon Geist, Kory Grow, Will Hermes, Ryan Reed, Jon Weiderhorn (rolling stone)

For close to a half century, prog has been the breeding ground for rock's most out-there, outsized and outlandish ideas: Thick-as-a-brick concept albums, an early embrace of synthesizers, overly complicated time signatures, Tolkienesque fantasies, travails from future days and scenes from a memory. In celebration of Rush's first Rolling Stone cover story, here's the best of the deliciously decadent genre that the punks failed to kill.

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VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR
''PAWN HEARTS''
OCTOBER 1971
65:20

1 Lemmings (Including Cog) (Peter Hammill) 11:37
2 Man Erg (Peter Hammill) 10:20
3 A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers (Hugh Banton, Guy Evans, David Jackson, Peter Hammill) 23:02
a.Eyewitness" (2:25)
b.Pictures/Lighthouse" (Hammill, Banton) (3:10)
c.Eyewitness" (0:54)
d.S.H.M." (1:57)
e.Presence of the Night" (3:51)
f.Kosmos Tours" (Evans) (1:17)
g.(Custard's) Last Stand" (2:48)
h.The Clot Thickens" (Hammill, Banton, Evans, Jackson) (2:51)
i.Land's End (Sineline)" (Jackson) (2:01)
j.We Go Now" (Jackson, Banton) (1:51)"
4 Theme One (Bonus Original Mix) (Peter Hammill) 03:10
5 W (Bonus First Version) (Peter Hammill) 05:03
6 Angle Of Incidents (Bonus) (Guy Evans) 04:44
7 Ponker's Theme (Bonus) 01:24
8 Diminutions (Bonus) (Hugh Banton) 05:58

Hugh Banton – Hammond E & C, Farfisa Professional organs, piano, mellotron, ARP synthesizer, bass pedals, bass guitar, psychedelic razor, vocals
Guy Evans – drums, tympani, percussion, piano
Peter Hammill – lead vocals, acoustic and slide guitar, electric piano, piano
David Jackson – tenor, alto, and soprano saxophones, flute, vocals
Additional personnel:
Robert Fripp – electric guitar

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ABOUT THE ALBUM/WIKIPEDIA

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REVIEW/AMG
By Bruce Eder
Van Der Graaf Generator's third album, Pawn Hearts was also its second most popular; at one time this record was a major King Crimson cult item due to the presence of Robert Fripp on guitar, but Pawn Hearts has more to offer than that. The opening track, "Lemmings," calls to mind early Gentle Giant, with its eerie vocal passages (including harmonies) set up against extended sax, keyboard, and guitar-driven instrumental passages, and also with its weird keyboard and percussion interlude, though this band is also much more contemporary in its focus than Gentle Giant. Peter Hammill vocalizes in a more traditional way on "Man-Erg," against shimmering organ swells and Guy Evans' very expressive drumming, before the song goes off on a tangent by way of David Jackson's saxes and some really weird time signatures -- plus some very pretty acoustic and electric guitar work by Hammill himself and Fripp. The monumental "Plague of Lighthouse Keepers," taking up an entire side of the LP, shows the same kind of innovation that characterized Crimson's first two albums, but without the discipline and restraint needed to make the music manageable. The punning titles of the individual sections of this piece (which may have been done for the same reason that Crimson gave those little subtitles to its early extended tracks, to protect the full royalties for the composer) only add to the confusion. As for the piece itself, it features enough virtuoso posturing by everyone (especially drummer Guy Evans) to fill an Emerson, Lake & Palmer album of the same era, with a little more subtlety and some time wasted between the interludes. The 23-minute conceptual work could easily have been trimmed to, say, 18 or 19 minutes without any major sacrifices, which doesn't mean that what's here is bad, just not as concise as it might've been. But the almost operatic intensity of the singing and the overall performance also carries you past the stretches that don't absolutely need to be here. The band was trying for something midway between King Crimson and Genesis, and came out closer to the former, at least instrumentally. Hammill's vocals are impassioned and involving, almost like an acting performance, similar to Peter Gabriel's singing with Genesis, but the lack of any obviously cohesive ideas in the lyrics makes this more obscure and obtuse than any Genesis release.

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BIOGRAPHY/AMG
By Jason Ankeny
An eye-opening trip to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury during the summer of 1967 inspired British-born drummer Chris Judge Smith to compose a list of possible names for the rock group he wished to form. Upon his return to Manchester University, he began performing with singer/songwriter Peter Hammill and keyboardist Nick Peame; employing one of the names from Judge Smith's list, the band dubbed itself Van der Graaf Generator (after a machine which creates static electricity), eventually earning an intense cult following as one of the era's preeminent art rock groups.

Despite the early involvement of Judge Smith and Peame, the group found true success as a vehicle for Hammill, whose dark, existentialist lyrics made him the focus of considerable attention. After the release of the 1968 single "People You Were Going To," Judge Smith left Van der Graaf Generator, which by then consisted of Hammill, keyboardist Hugh Banton, bassist Keith Ellis and drummer Guy Evans. The group soon split, and in 1968 Hammill entered the studio, ostensibly to record a solo album; however, he ultimately called in his ex-bandmates for assistance, and when The Aerosol Grey Machine appeared, it did so under the Van der Graaf Generator name.

Although Ellis was replaced by Nic Potter and woodwind player David Jackson, the reconstituted group continued on for 1969's Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other. After 1970's H to He, Who Am the Only One, Potter departed; the Generator recorded one more LP, 1971's Pawn Hearts, before Hammill left for a solo career, putting an end to the group. After five solo efforts, however, Hammill again re-formed Van der Graaf Generator in 1975 for Godbluff. Following a pair of 1976 albums, Still Life and World Record, Banton and Jackson exited; as simply Van der Graaf, the band recorded The Quiet Zone with new violinist Graham Smith. After a 1978 live set, Vital, the group officially disbanded, although most members made appearances on Hammill's subsequent solo records.

Twice during the '90s, Van der Graaf reunited for one-off gigs, and in 2005 released a reunion album, Present. Without Jackson, the trio of Hammill, Banton, and Evans recorded Trisector, which appeared in 2008. They appeared in concert frequently during 2009, and released another studio album, A Grounding in Numbers, in 2011. An album of studio jams and outtakes, titled ALT, followed one year later.

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BIOGRAPHY/WIKIPEDIA

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WEBSITE

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8797 - VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR - MERLIN ATMOS: LIVE PERFORMANCES 2013 (DELUXE EDITION), DISC TWO (2015)

VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR
''MERLIN ATMOS: LIVE PERFORMANCES 2013 (DELUXE EDITION), DISC TWO"
FEBRUARY 2 1015
141:32

DISC ONE (70:46)
1 Flight 21:26
2 Lifetime 05:09
3 All That Before 07:44
4 Bunsho 05:47
5 A Plague of Lighthouse-keepers 24:03
6 Gog 06:35

DISC TWO (70:46)
1 Interference Patterns 04:23
2 Over the Hill 12:31
3 Your Time Starts Now 04:13
4 Scorched Earth 10:10
5 Meurglys III, the Songwriter's Guild 15:18
6 Man-Erg 11:36
7 Childlike Faith in Childhood's End 12:33

Hugh Banton/organ, bass pedals;
Guy Evans/drums, percussion;
Peter Hamill/piano, guitar, vox.

REVIEW
By JOHN KELMAN
Van Der Graaf Generator: Van der Graaf Generator: Merlin Atmos (Deluxe Edition)
For a group that has released only three studio albums since reforming in 2005 after a quarter-century hiatus—longer when considering the "classic" lineup with singer/pianist/guitarist Peter Hammill, keyboardist Hugh Banton and drummer Guy Evans was last heard on World Record (Charisma, 1976), and forgetting about 2012's atypical ALT (Esoteric), an album of improvisation-driven instrumentals—Van der Graaf Generator sure has released a lot of live albums in the past few years.

Since the spectacular Real Time (Fie!, 2007)—which documented the group's comeback tour on the heels of its first studio record of the new millennium, Present (Charisma, 2005), and the only pair of records to feature the fully manned classic lineup with soon-to- depart saxophonist/flautist David Jackson—VdGG has released no fewer than two additional live recordings, one each after their subsequent studio albums as a leaner but strangely more effective trio: Live at the Paradiso (Voiceprint, 2009), in support of Trisector (Virgin, 2008); and the CD/DVD set Live at Metropolis Studios (Salvo, 2012), behind the release of A Grounding in Numbers (Esoteric, 2011), the group's best studio album since reforming (though Trisector comes a very close second).

So, with no new studio release since A Grounding in Numbers, why Merlin Atmos, a live album culled from VdGG's 2013 tour and curiously released as both a single-disc edition (with an even more reduced one-LP vinyl edition) and a deluxe two-disc set? Especially since all but two tracks have shown up on Live at the Paradiso and/or Live at Metropolis Studios?

Well, the answer lies in those two tracks, both running in excess of 20 minutes and, therefore, being perfect for the single-LP version while, at the same time, worthy of inclusion in longer CD editions featuring additional material. The first, "Flight," occupied the entire second side of Hammill's 1980 solo album A Black Box (Charisma) and, while Evans played it live with Hammill's K-group back in the day, this is the first time that Banton (and VdGG) has performed the piece. An epic worthy of the VdGG treatment, it shines a spotlight on just how different the material Hammill wrote for his solo albums was—which began while VdGG was together with 1971's Fool's Mate (Charisma) and has continued throughout the decades to last year's career-defining ...All That Might Have Been (Fie!)—to music he composed with VdGG in mind, and just how important Banton is to defining the Van der Graaf sound.

Having seen VdGG in 2009 at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, if it wasn't clear before just what a force of nature Banton is, it became instantly clear then, as he constantly shifted tones and textures with his keyboards while, at the same time, fulfilling the role of bassist with his feet and demonstrating what has been largely unappreciated virtuosity with his hands. Organists who self- accompany with bass pedals are hardly novel, but few are also tasked with meeting the diverse textural responsibilities demanded of Banton, and while his role is largely relegated to organist on the nearly 22-minute "Flight," the demands are almost exponentially increased for the other epic included on Merlin Atmos: "A Plague of Lighthouse-keepers," perhaps VdGG's finest moment from its finest record, Pawn Hearts (Charisma, 1971), and a piece the group had only performed once before for Belgian television in 1972.

So complex is this multipart suite with its numerous meter and tempo changes—along with Banton's most significant exploration of both mellotron and synthesizer (a personally modified organ was his usual instrument of choice)—that the television performance was, in fact, recorded in two halves and, like the album version that was recorded in even more discrete segments, spliced together in post-production.

And so, beyond "Flight"—performed with more of the nightmarish elements that so defined VdGG back in the day—this version of "Lighthouse-keepers" represents the first time the group has ever figured out how to perform the piece in its entirety live, and trumps the Belgian television version thanks to modern technology allowing Banton to more accurately reproduce many of the sounds from its far broader sonic palette.

Hammill's voice is still as capable of melodramatic sweeps as it ever was, and if his range has been somewhat reduced by age his lower register is even stronger than ever—and his ability to effortlessly shift from singing to near-spoken word particularly effective—making it possible to forgive the fact that live, he is a voice alone rather than the oft-times multiple layers he would resort to in the studio. He managed to retain his reputation when the rawer elements of Punk began to signal the demise for at least some classic progressive bands in the mid-to-late-'70s, with The Sex Pistols' John Lydon a longtime fan, and for good reason: few singers in any subgenre of rock music have ever demonstrated the emotional breadth, haunting fragility and visceral rawness of Hammill's vocal delivery. And if he is a more than capable pianist who can handle the complex, two-keyboard interlocking "Interference Patterns" which opens the second disc, Bonus Atmos, after playing electric guitar for decades, Hammill has still managed not to lose his unfettered rawness on the instrument... so unschooled— sometimes so on the verge of being out-of-tune—that few but Hammill could make it work...but he does.

Evans is an unsung progressive rock hero who has only become better with age; now equally disposed towards locking into a groove when required, he is still just as capable of the energetic bursts of thunderous power and almost elegant sense of swing that have so defined him from the very beginning.

And so, Merlin Atmos' primary raison d'être is most certainly "Flight" and "A Plague of Lighthouse-keepers"—the latter building to such a relentless climax of nightmare-inducing chaos that it's almost impossible to believe it's just three people playing—but there's plenty to recommend with the rest of the material, even though this is not the first time any of it has been performed since VdGG reduced to a trio. Bulletin boards are already alight with complaints about the sound of the second, bonus disc, but one look at the production information and it all makes sense.

Banton mixed the main disc that, in addition to "Flight" and "Lighthouse- keepers," includes perhaps the group's most incendiary look at "Gog"—first heard on Hammill's 1974 solo album In Camera (Charisma)—along with music from Trisector (a particularly fiery "All That Before" and "Lifetime") and Grounding (a similarly nuclear "Bunsho"). With the keyboardist's perfectionist tendencies, it's no surprise that it's a cleaner, sleeker mix.

Hammill assembled and mixed the bonus disc, which more fully covers the group's entire career, culling music from all but its first three '70s Charisma albums— ranging from Pawn Hearts ("Man-Erg") and 1975's Godbluff ("Scorched Earth," in a new and perfect segue from A Grounding's "Your Time Starts Now") to 1976's Still Life ("Childlike Faith in Childhood's End") and, from later the same year, World Record ("Meurglys III, The Songwriter's Guild")—in addition to music from Trisector ("Interference Patterns" and the mini-epic, "Over the Hill"). Given Hammill's personal predilections, it's no surprise that his mix is rawer, dirtier and less polished.

Taken as a whole, Merlin Atmos not only finds the current Van der Graaf Generator gaining strength and power, it finds the group demonstrating previously unheard confidence as it tackles not one but two extremely challenging long- form compositions, including one that is, for many fans, its creative zenith. Still, with studio records like A Grounding in Numbers and now sweeping live albums like Merlin Atmos, it's clear that these three musicians in their mid-sixties are as distanced from "dinosaur" categorization as the recently revived King Crimson—and if nobody knows what the future holds, one thing is certain: their best years are far from behind them.

OFFICIAL SITE

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8796 - VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR - MERLIN ATMOS: LIVE PERFORMANCES 2013 (DELUXE EDITION), DISC ONE (2015)

VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR
''MERLIN ATMOS: LIVE PERFORMANCES 2013 (DELUXE EDITION), DISC ONE"
FEBRUARY 2 1015
141:32

DISC ONE (70:46)
1 Flight 21:26
2 Lifetime 05:09
3 All That Before 07:44
4 Bunsho 05:47
5 A Plague of Lighthouse-keepers 24:03
6 Gog 06:35

DISC TWO (70:46)
1 Interference Patterns 04:23
2 Over the Hill 12:31
3 Your Time Starts Now 04:13
4 Scorched Earth 10:10
5 Meurglys III, the Songwriter's Guild 15:18
6 Man-Erg 11:36
7 Childlike Faith in Childhood's End 12:33

Hugh Banton/organ, bass pedals;
Guy Evans/drums, percussion;
Peter Hamill/piano, guitar, vox.

REVIEW
By JOHN KELMAN
Van Der Graaf Generator: Van der Graaf Generator: Merlin Atmos (Deluxe Edition)
For a group that has released only three studio albums since reforming in 2005 after a quarter-century hiatus—longer when considering the "classic" lineup with singer/pianist/guitarist Peter Hammill, keyboardist Hugh Banton and drummer Guy Evans was last heard on World Record (Charisma, 1976), and forgetting about 2012's atypical ALT (Esoteric), an album of improvisation-driven instrumentals—Van der Graaf Generator sure has released a lot of live albums in the past few years.

Since the spectacular Real Time (Fie!, 2007)—which documented the group's comeback tour on the heels of its first studio record of the new millennium, Present (Charisma, 2005), and the only pair of records to feature the fully manned classic lineup with soon-to- depart saxophonist/flautist David Jackson—VdGG has released no fewer than two additional live recordings, one each after their subsequent studio albums as a leaner but strangely more effective trio: Live at the Paradiso (Voiceprint, 2009), in support of Trisector (Virgin, 2008); and the CD/DVD set Live at Metropolis Studios (Salvo, 2012), behind the release of A Grounding in Numbers (Esoteric, 2011), the group's best studio album since reforming (though Trisector comes a very close second).

So, with no new studio release since A Grounding in Numbers, why Merlin Atmos, a live album culled from VdGG's 2013 tour and curiously released as both a single-disc edition (with an even more reduced one-LP vinyl edition) and a deluxe two-disc set? Especially since all but two tracks have shown up on Live at the Paradiso and/or Live at Metropolis Studios?

Well, the answer lies in those two tracks, both running in excess of 20 minutes and, therefore, being perfect for the single-LP version while, at the same time, worthy of inclusion in longer CD editions featuring additional material. The first, "Flight," occupied the entire second side of Hammill's 1980 solo album A Black Box (Charisma) and, while Evans played it live with Hammill's K-group back in the day, this is the first time that Banton (and VdGG) has performed the piece. An epic worthy of the VdGG treatment, it shines a spotlight on just how different the material Hammill wrote for his solo albums was—which began while VdGG was together with 1971's Fool's Mate (Charisma) and has continued throughout the decades to last year's career-defining ...All That Might Have Been (Fie!)—to music he composed with VdGG in mind, and just how important Banton is to defining the Van der Graaf sound.

Having seen VdGG in 2009 at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, if it wasn't clear before just what a force of nature Banton is, it became instantly clear then, as he constantly shifted tones and textures with his keyboards while, at the same time, fulfilling the role of bassist with his feet and demonstrating what has been largely unappreciated virtuosity with his hands. Organists who self- accompany with bass pedals are hardly novel, but few are also tasked with meeting the diverse textural responsibilities demanded of Banton, and while his role is largely relegated to organist on the nearly 22-minute "Flight," the demands are almost exponentially increased for the other epic included on Merlin Atmos: "A Plague of Lighthouse-keepers," perhaps VdGG's finest moment from its finest record, Pawn Hearts (Charisma, 1971), and a piece the group had only performed once before for Belgian television in 1972.

So complex is this multipart suite with its numerous meter and tempo changes—along with Banton's most significant exploration of both mellotron and synthesizer (a personally modified organ was his usual instrument of choice)—that the television performance was, in fact, recorded in two halves and, like the album version that was recorded in even more discrete segments, spliced together in post-production.

And so, beyond "Flight"—performed with more of the nightmarish elements that so defined VdGG back in the day—this version of "Lighthouse-keepers" represents the first time the group has ever figured out how to perform the piece in its entirety live, and trumps the Belgian television version thanks to modern technology allowing Banton to more accurately reproduce many of the sounds from its far broader sonic palette.

Hammill's voice is still as capable of melodramatic sweeps as it ever was, and if his range has been somewhat reduced by age his lower register is even stronger than ever—and his ability to effortlessly shift from singing to near-spoken word particularly effective—making it possible to forgive the fact that live, he is a voice alone rather than the oft-times multiple layers he would resort to in the studio. He managed to retain his reputation when the rawer elements of Punk began to signal the demise for at least some classic progressive bands in the mid-to-late-'70s, with The Sex Pistols' John Lydon a longtime fan, and for good reason: few singers in any subgenre of rock music have ever demonstrated the emotional breadth, haunting fragility and visceral rawness of Hammill's vocal delivery. And if he is a more than capable pianist who can handle the complex, two-keyboard interlocking "Interference Patterns" which opens the second disc, Bonus Atmos, after playing electric guitar for decades, Hammill has still managed not to lose his unfettered rawness on the instrument... so unschooled— sometimes so on the verge of being out-of-tune—that few but Hammill could make it work...but he does.

Evans is an unsung progressive rock hero who has only become better with age; now equally disposed towards locking into a groove when required, he is still just as capable of the energetic bursts of thunderous power and almost elegant sense of swing that have so defined him from the very beginning.

And so, Merlin Atmos' primary raison d'être is most certainly "Flight" and "A Plague of Lighthouse-keepers"—the latter building to such a relentless climax of nightmare-inducing chaos that it's almost impossible to believe it's just three people playing—but there's plenty to recommend with the rest of the material, even though this is not the first time any of it has been performed since VdGG reduced to a trio. Bulletin boards are already alight with complaints about the sound of the second, bonus disc, but one look at the production information and it all makes sense.

Banton mixed the main disc that, in addition to "Flight" and "Lighthouse- keepers," includes perhaps the group's most incendiary look at "Gog"—first heard on Hammill's 1974 solo album In Camera (Charisma)—along with music from Trisector (a particularly fiery "All That Before" and "Lifetime") and Grounding (a similarly nuclear "Bunsho"). With the keyboardist's perfectionist tendencies, it's no surprise that it's a cleaner, sleeker mix.

Hammill assembled and mixed the bonus disc, which more fully covers the group's entire career, culling music from all but its first three '70s Charisma albums— ranging from Pawn Hearts ("Man-Erg") and 1975's Godbluff ("Scorched Earth," in a new and perfect segue from A Grounding's "Your Time Starts Now") to 1976's Still Life ("Childlike Faith in Childhood's End") and, from later the same year, World Record ("Meurglys III, The Songwriter's Guild")—in addition to music from Trisector ("Interference Patterns" and the mini-epic, "Over the Hill"). Given Hammill's personal predilections, it's no surprise that his mix is rawer, dirtier and less polished.

Taken as a whole, Merlin Atmos not only finds the current Van der Graaf Generator gaining strength and power, it finds the group demonstrating previously unheard confidence as it tackles not one but two extremely challenging long- form compositions, including one that is, for many fans, its creative zenith. Still, with studio records like A Grounding in Numbers and now sweeping live albums like Merlin Atmos, it's clear that these three musicians in their mid-sixties are as distanced from "dinosaur" categorization as the recently revived King Crimson—and if nobody knows what the future holds, one thing is certain: their best years are far from behind them.

OFFICIAL SITE

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4582 - VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR Recorded Live In Concert At Metropolis Studios, London, Disc Two (2012)

VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR
''RECORDED LIVE IN CONCERT AT METROPOLIS STUDIOS, LONDON, DISC TWO''
AUGUST 7 2012
86:35

DISC ONE
1/Interference Patterns/4:22
2/Nutter Alert/5:35
3/Your Time Starts Now/4:25
4/Lemmings/14:26
5/Lifetime/5:24
6/Bunsho/5:38
7/Childlike Faith/12:16

DISC TWO
1/Mr. Sands/5:22
2/Over the Hill/12:21
3/We Are Not Here/4:54
4/Man-Erg/11:52
All Tracis By Peter Hammill

Peter Hammill/Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards
Hugh Banton/Keyboards, Organ, Bass
Guy Evans/Drums

BIOGRAPHY
by Jason Ankeny
An eye-opening trip to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury during the summer of 1967 inspired British-born drummer Chris Judge Smith to compose a list of possible names for the rock group he wished to form. Upon his return to Manchester University, he began performing with singer/songwriter Peter Hammill and keyboardist Nick Peame; employing one of the names from Judge Smith's list, the band dubbed itself Van der Graaf Generator (after a machine which creates static electricity), eventually earning an intense cult following as one of the era's preeminent art rock groups.
Despite the early involvement of Judge Smith and Peame, the group found true success as a vehicle for Hammill, whose dark, existentialist lyrics made him the focus of considerable attention. After the release of the 1968 single "People You Were Going To," Judge Smith left Van der Graaf Generator, which by then consisted of Hammill, keyboardist Hugh Banton, bassist Keith Ellis and drummer Guy Evans. The group soon split, and in 1968 Hammill entered the studio, ostensibly to record a solo album; however, he ultimately called in his ex-bandmates for assistance, and when The Aerosol Grey Machine appeared, it did so under the Van der Graaf Generator name.
Although Ellis was replaced by Nic Potter and woodwind player David Jackson, the reconstituted group continued on for 1969's Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other. After 1970's H to He, Who Am the Only One, Potter departed; the Generator recorded one more LP, 1971's Pawn Hearts, before Hammill left for a solo career, putting an end to the group. After five solo efforts, however, Hammill again re-formed Van der Graaf Generator in 1975 for Godbluff. Following a pair of 1976 albums, Still Life and World Record, Banton and Jackson exited; as simply Van der Graaf, the band recorded The Quiet Zone with new violinist Graham Smith. After a 1978 live set, Vital, the group officially disbanded, although most members made appearances on Hammill's subsequent solo records.
Twice during the '90s, Van der Graaf reunited for one-off gigs, and in 2005 released a reunion album, Present. Without Jackson, the trio of Hammill, Banton, and Evans recorded Trisector, which appeared in 2008. They appeared in concert frequently during 2009, and released another studio album, A Grounding in Numbers, in 2011. An album of studio jams and outtakes, titled ALT, followed one year later.
DoWnLoAd

4581 - VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR Recorded Live In Concert At Metropolis Studios, London, Disc One (2012)

VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR
''RECORDED LIVE IN CONCERT AT METROPOLIS STUDIOS, LONDON, DISC ONE''
AUGUST 7 2012
86:35

DISC ONE
1/Interference Patterns/4:22
2/Nutter Alert/5:35
3/Your Time Starts Now/4:25
4/Lemmings/14:26
5/Lifetime/5:24
6/Bunsho/5:38
7/Childlike Faith/12:16

DISC TWO
1/Mr. Sands/5:22
2/Over the Hill/12:21
3/We Are Not Here/4:54
4/Man-Erg/11:52
All Tracis By Peter Hammill

Peter Hammill/Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards
Hugh Banton/Keyboards, Organ, Bass
Guy Evans/Drums

BIOGRAPHY
by Jason Ankeny
An eye-opening trip to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury during the summer of 1967 inspired British-born drummer Chris Judge Smith to compose a list of possible names for the rock group he wished to form. Upon his return to Manchester University, he began performing with singer/songwriter Peter Hammill and keyboardist Nick Peame; employing one of the names from Judge Smith's list, the band dubbed itself Van der Graaf Generator (after a machine which creates static electricity), eventually earning an intense cult following as one of the era's preeminent art rock groups.
Despite the early involvement of Judge Smith and Peame, the group found true success as a vehicle for Hammill, whose dark, existentialist lyrics made him the focus of considerable attention. After the release of the 1968 single "People You Were Going To," Judge Smith left Van der Graaf Generator, which by then consisted of Hammill, keyboardist Hugh Banton, bassist Keith Ellis and drummer Guy Evans. The group soon split, and in 1968 Hammill entered the studio, ostensibly to record a solo album; however, he ultimately called in his ex-bandmates for assistance, and when The Aerosol Grey Machine appeared, it did so under the Van der Graaf Generator name.
Although Ellis was replaced by Nic Potter and woodwind player David Jackson, the reconstituted group continued on for 1969's Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other. After 1970's H to He, Who Am the Only One, Potter departed; the Generator recorded one more LP, 1971's Pawn Hearts, before Hammill left for a solo career, putting an end to the group. After five solo efforts, however, Hammill again re-formed Van der Graaf Generator in 1975 for Godbluff. Following a pair of 1976 albums, Still Life and World Record, Banton and Jackson exited; as simply Van der Graaf, the band recorded The Quiet Zone with new violinist Graham Smith. After a 1978 live set, Vital, the group officially disbanded, although most members made appearances on Hammill's subsequent solo records.
Twice during the '90s, Van der Graaf reunited for one-off gigs, and in 2005 released a reunion album, Present. Without Jackson, the trio of Hammill, Banton, and Evans recorded Trisector, which appeared in 2008. They appeared in concert frequently during 2009, and released another studio album, A Grounding in Numbers, in 2011. An album of studio jams and outtakes, titled ALT, followed one year later.
DoWnLoAd

3201 - VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR - Alt (2012)

VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR
''ALT''
JUNE 25 2012
60:24

1/Earlybird/3:59
2/Extractus/1:38
3/Sackbutt/1:52
4/Colossus/6:32
5/Batty Loop/1:10
6/Splendid/3:45
7/Repeat After Me/7:34
8/Elsewhere/4:15
9/Here's One I Made Earlier/5:39
10/Midnite Or So/3:31
11/D'accord/2:21
12/Mackerel Ate Them/4:45
13/Tuesday, The Riff/2:42
14/Dronus/10:34

REVIEW
by James Allen
If you're curious about the career of legendary British prog rockers Van der Graaf Generator and are looking for a gateway album to enter the band's rarified realm, don't pick this one. As the title archly implies, Alt has little in common with anything else in Van der Graaf's extensive discography. For one thing, it's the only all-instrumental album in the catalog of a band famous for frontman Peter Hammill's voice and lyrics, and even the instrumental sections of previous Van der Graaf albums are distant kin at best. If, however, you are a hardcore fan who wants to follow the band's mercurial muse into uncharted territory, then you occupy the micro-niche of open-minded VDGG enthusiasts for whom Alt was intended. After re-forming in 2005, Van der Graaf turned out three albums that seemed to be the next natural step from where they'd left off in the ‘70s, but following those with Alt is clearly a warning not to take the group's direction for granted. While Van der Graaf's compositional métier has always been a particularly intense band of prog, tightly structured and full of complex, carefully executed twists and turns, Alt is a much less linear affair. Apparently, most of the pieces came out of group improv sessions that were artfully tweaked afterwards. The inside photo of all three bandmembers bent purposefully over a computer suggests what the latter half of the process was like. Alt is filled with abstract sound paintings -- shadowy, evanescent affairs where keyboards and percussion slither in and out of the foreground like scurrilous rumors. If you took the hazy reflection of the dark moods mined in many Van der Graaf songs and manipulated that image into an entirely new context, you'd have something like the tracks on Alt, snapshots of a band that obviously abhors standing still.

BIOGRAPHY
by Jason Ankeny
An eye-opening trip to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury during the summer of 1967 inspired British-born drummer Chris Judge Smith to compose a list of possible names for the rock group he wished to form. Upon his return to Manchester University, he began performing with singer/songwriter Peter Hammill and keyboardist Nick Peame; employing one of the names from Judge Smith's list, the band dubbed itself Van der Graaf Generator (after a machine which creates static electricity), eventually earning an intense cult following as one of the era's preeminent art rock groups.
Despite the early involvement of Judge Smith and Peame, the group found true success as a vehicle for Hammill, whose dark, existentialist lyrics made him the focus of considerable attention. After the release of the 1968 single "People You Were Going To," Judge Smith left Van der Graaf Generator, which by then consisted of Hammill, keyboardist Hugh Banton, bassist Keith Ellis and drummer Guy Evans. The group soon split, and in 1968 Hammill entered the studio, ostensibly to record a solo album; however, he ultimately called in his ex-bandmates for assistance, and when The Aerosol Grey Machine appeared, it did so under the Van der Graaf Generator name.
Although Ellis was replaced by Nic Potter and woodwind player David Jackson, the reconstituted group continued on for 1969's Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other. After 1970's H to He, Who Am the Only One, Potter departed; the Generator recorded one more LP, 1971's Pawn Hearts, before Hammill left for a solo career, putting an end to the group. After five solo efforts, however, Hammill again re-formed Van der Graaf Generator in 1975 for Godbluff. Following a pair of 1976 albums, Still Life and World Record, Banton and Jackson exited; as simply Van der Graaf, the band recorded The Quiet Zone with new violinist Graham Smith. After a 1978 live set, Vital, the group officially disbanded, although most members made appearances on Hammill's subsequent solo records.
Twice during the '90s, Van der Graaf reunited for one-off gigs, and in 2005 released a reunion album, Present. Without Jackson, the trio of Hammill, Banton, and Evans recorded Trisector, which appeared in 2008. They appeared in concert frequently during 2009, and released another studio album, A Grounding in Numbers, in 2011. An album of studio jams and outtakes, titled ALT, followed one year later.

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