THE QUIET ZONE / THE PLEASURE DOME

More or less seriously (though I considered his argument a very convincing one), a friend of mine, true Van der Graaf Generator fan, told me how he cannot find a single album of theirs something below five stars and complete masterliness effect (or,let's say, at least of four stars). Strange and addictive as his personal opinion sounds, it's really not farfetched. To support my prologue is this 1997 album of Van der Graaf, The Quiet Zone-The Pleasure Dome, one of three stars, perhaps three point five stars. The problem with it? None! Except that it isn't a masterpiece or grand resonance material. Van der Graaf are for me extraordinary gentlemen of music. Their discographic line is almost flawless (the official material release is for sure). It's a rather unique thing to experience such a vision and a masterfull act of art, perpetuated so long and so powerfull.This album features the same more than appreciable essence of Van der Graaf Generator, just that it isn't to be measure with the big names of their history. Perhaps a slight loosened act, but as far as quality, appealingness and charisma are concerned, there is absolutely no downfall in this acomplishment. So I can my friend was right about one thing: even in their low points or apparently unrealized graphics, Van der Graaf stay Van der Graaf. That is my strong feeling and unshattering conception (as well). Short sentenced, The Quiet Zone-The Pleasure Dome isn't the greatest thing you'll hear, but it certainly doesn't invite an opposite to character, vigurous mentality, keen interpretation and old-fashioned state in. To many aspects, this is an album in the context of all albums.

Symbolically placed in a "second generation" phase of Van der Graaf Generator (symbolically by my standards, for I don't really care at all about these delimitations), the album supports the style. Nothing of Still Life and most certainly not of World Record, but nothing to complain at all. It isn't a compromise, it isn't a missed musical aspect. Shortened as effect, but undamaged as perspective. A light abstract, but one authentic nonetheless. A minimalist satisfaction, but the same unchanged desire to make out of music art (and by now, it's not an attempt of a dream, it's a realized thing). Maybe more "talkative" with a wider auditory, but still enough to put the mind, the soul and the everlasting imagination to a tempered active motion. A very positive three stars position, really (considering that,most of times, such a place means for me an incomplete musical manifest). The music here is one very defined and very stable in structure and in effort. The kind is one not of overevalution and most thrilling sensation; complexity, improvisatorical flavour and the wild pulse are not points of resemblance. Instead comes the beauty of the gesture and the rigurous context. To be even more specific, some piece from The Quiet Zone-The Pleasure Dome are quite definitory. Cat's Eye/Yellow Fever is a masterpiece. The Sphinx In The Face as well. Presumably "The Pleasure Dome" is better than the "Quiet Zone", but why such a difference in a most unitary presentation?

I like it. I enjoy it. I'm fond of it. The music here is good and more than decent. For me, The Quiet Zone-The Pleasure Dome is not a relaps moment, but just another occasion of seeing the minds up to work and up to their names. In a way, recommended. Not much, but enough.