H TO HE, WHO AM THE ONLY ONE

It's amazing how much this band improved in the span of three albums. Just listen to the AEROSOL GREY MACHINE and you'll find a band more or less sticking in the psychedelic realm, with some folk overtones. The Least We Can Do is Wave to Each Other is the band finally finding their trademark sound, thanks to the inclusion of David Jackson. But you can tell, just by listening to that album that even better things were to come, and that would be their next two albums. Of course, I'm focusing on "H to He Who Am the Only One". I own the American LP version on ABC/Dunhill which features the same basic artwork, but with different background, and the lyrics included in the gatefold, rather than the back cover.

The album opens up with "Killer", dominated by David Jackson's sax. A little known prog band that recorded for RCA/Neon called Raw Material recorded a song called "Ice Queen" for their 1971 album Time Is, which bears more than a passing resemblance to "Killer". "House with No Door" is a piano-oriented ballad, while "Emperor In His War Room" features some killer spacy organ from Hugh Banton, Robert FRIPP even makes a guest here! The music gets lengthier with "Lost" and one of my all-time favorite VdGG compositions, "Pioneers Over C", in which the artwork in the gatefold represents this song. The lyrics obviously have strong sci-fi overtones, with a spacy sound. Might not be their most aggressive album, but a must have for all Peter HAMMILL/VdGG fans.