THE AEROSOL GREY MACHINE

This first album, released September 1969, was The Aerosol Grey Machine. It's a rough-around-the-edges, unpolished release. The seeds of Van der Graaf Generator's sound had been planted, but they were unrefined. That roughness was not helped by the album's muddy production. Unique among the band's early releases, guitar featured prominently here. 

The Aerosol Grey Machine opens with "Afterwards", a pure slice of late-1960s psychedelic folk. Banton's organ applies prominent wah-wah, and Hammill's guitar twinkles over it all. It's a good song, but it doesn't do much to stand out from contemporary releases. This lack of distinctiveness is underscored on the two-part "Orthentian Street". Had Peter Hammill's voice been more generic, I could have easily mistaken this for a Traffic song. 

"Running Back" meanders for nearly seven minutes in unimpressive acoustic mediocrity, as does the opening of the following "Into a Game". The instrumental elements of this second song are more interesting, dynamic, and dark; and the closing minutes of "Into a Game" give the first glimpse of the distinctive Van der Graaf sound. Frenetic piano powers it along, with Hammill adding haunting vocal flourishes. 

"Aguarian" is a good summary of the album. There are some very good ideas in this song, but in the end it's somewhat unimpressive psych-pop that overstays its welcome. The following "Necromancer", though, is the best song on the album. The piano is driving, and the bass is unusually forward. This instrumentation is paired with the strongest vocal melody on this release. 

The Aerosol Grey Machine ends on "Octopus", an early version of "Squid/Octopus" (more on that later). This is another instance of good ideas with unimpressive execution. Hammill's palm-muted guitar line could have been something truly sinister if played by a more competent guitarist, but here it comes across more as awkward. (Even now, half a century later, Peter Hammill is still an unsteady guitarist.) Hugh Banton's organ soloing is similarly weird-but-unimpressive, and this whole song feels like it needed to gestate a little more.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2023/07/10/deep-dive-van-der-graaf-generator/