PETER HAMMILL

Over, Peter Hammill, 1977

It's quite hard to write about Over in a positive way... which is odd because I love this album. Commenting on the musical variety, technical qualities and details of the album seems demeaning to its raw emotionality and vice versa. It's Hammill's most personal album, which some will probably find either difficult or distasteful, and for me, it's his most powerful. Over is about sustained moods more than bursts of fire, and while reviewers here have picked up a lot on the darker and more miserable side of the album, I personally think its appeal lies also in its hopeful, ironic, self-deprecating, speculative and resigned content and if you acknowledge the one element without the other, the overall effect will probably be quite depressing.

The vocals are, of course, extraordinary and innovative. Aside from some of Hammill's best lower-register work and higher-register work, this contains his most obviously powerful conventional performance. I have never heard anything like the singing on any of the songs here before and the detail, emotion and harmonies in each performance are without parallel. The production of the vocals matches up to this. The music is individual to the pieces and remains excellent but, in isolation from the vocals and lyrics would be somewhat pointless.

Crying Wolf ? from the first notes you can feel the fragility of the album. Some of the many particular musical features of this song are the dense layering, Guy Evans' delicious hi-hat (I think) work near the opening, the various awesome low-in-the-mix keyboards and the vocal development of the main riff. Hammill's guitar solo as usual is strictly devoted to the mood and not to impressing people.

Autumn: the versatility of this album is not solely in the personnel and style but also in the kind of perspective offered. The speculative mood of Autumn enhances a simply exceptional self-duet from Hammill (the vocals sound so old).

'I simply don't know what it all means... this pointless passage through the night, this Autumn time, this walk upon the water.'

Time Heals is the most immediately eye-catching thing on the album and there are a couple of extraordinary live versions out there as well so I'll try not to over-introduce it. Guy Evans and Nic Potter's rhythm section is unshowy and supportive and yet entirely unique to this album.

Alice (Letting Go)... the album's most stripped down singer-songwriter piece. Deliciously bitter and well-produced acoustic sound (which is something, I confess, that the very charming In Camera's pieces didn't have), extraordinarily heart-rending and detailed vocal contrasted with almost spoken bursts. The jolts of directness in the writing are something that makes this album and in particular this song so unique and honest, 'cause I don't wanna just be your friend.'

This Side Of The Looking Glass... if you have ever doubted Peter Hammill's ability to sing extraordinarily well in a conventional manner, you should listen to this song and repent your sins. The orchestration is rich and individual and a unique excursion by Hammill into territory unknown for a striking centrepiece to an individual album.

Betrayed has a much more ferocious and snarling Graham Smith as well as some utterly acidic acoustic guitar. An especially angry, desperate and despondent piece but so well executed as to be of interest to anyone who doesn't find that notion unbearable. The conclusion is wonderful.

(On Tuesdays She Used To Do) Yoga features the single most evil sound I can think of (and I have no idea what it is but you'll know it when you hear it). The echoed vocals are heart-breaking and the writing has both menacing edges and ironic ones to its basic honesty.

Lost And Found is the album's catharsis, and its fragile yet definite optimism is entirely crucial to understanding the album. It is amazing.

Well, I'm sure I've said this about three or four Peter Hammill albums by now (In Camera, ) and I'll probably say it about a couple more, but the thing about those many times I say that the vocals on a particular Peter Hammill album are in my honest view the best ever is that A) trust me: I mean it and B) I feel that the vocals on Over are so amazing for different reasons to those on Hammill album y or z. Hammill's ability as a singer to emote and to communicate emotions in different ways is now so self-evident to me that I can neither really recall the bemusement with which I first heard the quirky vocals of Sleepwalkers nor can I really fathom those who as a rule find his vocals unpleasant either in general or especially on this album.

So, five stars. Though Over is probably only going to be a life-changing album for those who are already self-avowed fans, it remains one of the site's most extraordinary albums and should come early in the Hammill collection expansion process.

Rating: 15/15, or thereabouts Favourite Track: Lost And Found, I think

I'm a sucker for albums like these, I really am.

Peter Hammill's emotional solo album from 1977 is really one of those albums that you have to have an acquired taste for. It's not his best work by any means but he didn't go into it wanting that. He wanted to vent and venting is what he did. The man apparantly just had a scarring breakup and he had some things he needed to let out and that is the kind of album I'm a sucker for. The one's that are just pure emotion, they don't even have to be prog (this one isn't prog alot of the time). The way Hammill releases this emotion is just pure beauty, and if you can relate to the lyrical theme you are going to be taken for a ride.

I can relate to the lyrical theme (boy can I) and that is the main reason this is a masterpiece. This will not be a masterpiece for everybody, I guarantee it, but for those who are just coming off of a breakup that is leaving you weathered, give this album a spin. You'll love it.

I am a huge fan of VdGG so I decided to check Peter Hammill's solo records too. I usually don't check band artists solo albums, because they are almost always sub-par to band efforts. But since the wholo band actually is present on the album, I gave it a try. I was (very) pleasantly surprised!

The first three tracks have almost no instruments except for Peter's acoustic guitar. The songs are just epic. Peter Hammill whispers, he screams, he soars, he growls. The emotion and dynamics are out of this world. The last track, A Louse Is Not a Home and Redshift are probably my favorite tracks. Not to say there is a bad track on the album, they are all excellent.

The lyrics are of course coming from Peter Hammill are dark in nature, poetic and just top- notch.

This should have been a VdGG album. I don't know why Peter decided to disband VdGG, and then record solo albums with exactly the same lineup. This album would get much more attention and would have been just better known had it bore the VdGG name. Oh, well...

Recommended for fans of VdGG and generally fans of excellent, vocal-driven prog. If Peter Hammill isn't the most versatile, enduring and excellent vocalist alive, I don't know who is...

Peter Hammill - Over (1977)

Being a student music therapy I believe music can help people to deal with emotions and cope with the hard times in our lives. Writing and singing about your misary is a good way to gain control over the situation and it releases your pain from the abstract world of the mind. Peter Hammilll must have had a vision in which this information (music therapy was rare in the seventies) was revealed to him. Since his divorce had left him unhappy with the situation he decided to write a lot of material, and I say a lot of material, about his situation.

And though I understand this might have been important for his own life, I think it's a pitty for the music. This album is extremely depressing in its dark vision about love and loss of a loved one. It's bitterness is like poisen and it's anger sounds like lightning. The compositions themselve are sometime good (on side two we hear some nice symphonic pieces) and sometimes plain boring (especially the opening and the ending track). This album must have been driven by emotional needs and it has little intelligent songwriting, progressive ideas or inventive songwriting. It is therefore not per se interesting for fans of progressive rock. The idea of showing his true emotions is basicly good, but the compositions of this album just aren't up to the challenge when comparing to other Hammill or VdGG records.

The voice of Hammill is sometimes avarage, but on some track he sings very out of pitch in an annoying way. The other bandmembers aren't very important as the vocals and keys are the main ingredients for the soundmix.

Conclusion. This album is for fans of Peter Hammilll. The avarage prog fan won't like it's depressing and self-pitty sound. Peter may have solved his problems with making music about it, but he didn't seem to have made this album for the people who had to buy the record. My advice: if you are letdown by love yourself or in a divorce, listening to this album could be deadly. Two stars. Recommended only to fans of Hammill.

3.5 stars really!!!

While VDGG's later career has now being going on for around five years, it hasn't really stopped Hammill's solo output, but has solidly slowed it down, since it's only his second (after Singularity)album since restarting the Generator. Not that I'm complaining at all, since Trisector easily sits in my top 10 of the 00's, but the last solo I'd heard from him (before this present one) is the brilliant Incoherence. After hearing the present thin air, it seems that one of my next goals is to get a hold of Singularity.

After an usual track (for Peter) Mercy track (harpsichord, then piano and guitar with cellos and strings), a more reflective Face In The Street signal to the listener that Peter is indeed on a strong streak of songwriting since his health problem early in the 00's decade, something that had evaded him throughout the 90's (IMHO), It seems also that he's more intent on giving the instruments more space as there is an unprecedented (AFAIK, I am far from having heard every album) instrumental on one of his album: an instrumental track: the short and controversially-titled Wrong Way Round, with plenty of electric guitars. An obviously profound album by its lyrical content, this is a solemn album where every track has its own special ambiance, all the way down to the sinister Diminished, which has The album ends on the chilling Top Of The World Club, which stands for the title track of the album, as would Ghost Of Planes. If I must name two tracks of this album, I'd choose Stumbled and Undone.

Well I certainly won't say that this yet another run-of-the-mill Hammill album, but I can eventually qualify it as one of his better albums over the last two decades, but behind Incoherence. Hammill fans won't be deceived, newcomers better look ar either VdGG or early 70's albums.

Loops And Reels, Peter Hammill, 1985

A particularly (even for Hammill's generally unremittant work in the 80s) dark and disturbing album, with not a hint of levity either in the recording or the retrospective on it. Loops and Reels is an entirely experimental offering with little patience for breathing spaces, though it includes, in fragmentary and complete forms, some of the melodic quality Hammill's more sane work profits from. Conceptually, each piece has a design behind it, and together it is (in spite of the diverse providence of the various inclusions) a masterpiece in black; one of the greatest collections of dark, 'ambient' music I've ever heard.

Those familiar with comfortable integrations of 'world' music a la King Crimson and Talking Heads are going to be somewhat shocked by the intensely terrifying and xenophobic conflict ('the song of a culture/Not yet immune to/ The virus of progress') in this piece. Hammill's experiments in world music appear violently aware of his status as a sort of intruder, and this tension makes Rhythm Of The Heat sound like The Police.

Critical Mass is the first song employing the titular Loops and sound manipulation. Fragments music forms together a haunting tension, before driving their catharsis through a series of the transition through speeded and slowed loops.

Song and not-song, the hypnotic Moebius Loop drags you around in a circle of confusion over a bell-like chime, surrounded everywhere by looped vocal parts and ambiguous words. The exquisitely direct and entangling detail of the lead (listen to the incredible vibrato on 'recognise') pulls you onto the conveyor belt of melted, droning harmony vocals.

An Endless Breath. The sonic background seems to cluster into a voice-like buzzing, as heavily distorted guitar and organ snarl in voiceless protest against it. Two points stand out in the haze: the carefully integrated use of a momentary guitar 'riff' and the resplendent organ-over-pulse at the end.

Hammill's take on a 'dance piece' is every bit as virulent as his flirtation with world music. Layers of gibbering guitar and some thick smog courtesy of impenetrable exercises in analogue sound manipulation convey a sense of alone-ness in the crowd. The version here is rather sparser and more horrifyingly lonely than the disquieted narcissism off A Black Box.

My Pulse has the immediate sense of a hospital bed, with its direct rhythm and decisively clean piano and guitar melody running contrary to the winding delirium of sound effects that underpin it, before eroding into the sonic grit of the rest of the recording. A piece of modified piano with a drone impact, entirely electronic parts running underneath forcefully repeated chords and behind the pulse. There's a deep psychological weight behind every part. When the pulse runs out, the breath stops, and when it resurfaces as part of the piano, the breath starts again. The outbursts of humanity in massed choir vocals or the rare untreated acoustic piano are as warm and intimate as the surrounding loops and distorted sounds are strange and chilling.

And then - The Bells! The Bells! A slice of death, run out with the motif of the pulse.

Not for the faint of heart.

Rating: 15/15, Five Stars. Favourite Track: It doesn't work like that.

(There's Something Out To Get You) Under The Skin

Ostensibly a half-dozen comparatively conventional pop songs heavy on synthesisers with some odd sound choices, an oddity or two and a rare genuine Hammill solo 'epic' (reason enough to get the album), this album is everywhere looking at the question of identity. While much of the material here is not as radical and daring as, say, Loops and Reels or as atmospherically intense as the K Group stuff, it is of a consistently decent standard and concludes *very* powerfully with perhaps Hammill's two best pieces from the 80s.

Following a three year break from studio work, Hammill has returned with Evans and Jackson as well as a few guest performances, and is heavy on sonic manipulation. While previous reviewers have focussed on the more obvious organ and brass synths (though these are often interestingly wrapped around Jackson's leads) and treated drum sounds, I think the pay-off comes on the bass parts (hitting sounds from the hardcore electronic in A Perfect Date to an almost classical disdain in Four Pails) and the wonderful tingling keyboard sounds on Now Lover.

Skin is an idiosyncratic pop/rock song with howling guitar, aggressive vocals and a neat vocal line. The lyrics are fitting. Synth-brass will probably be a deal-breaker for some, but (despite Hammill's reservations about the playing here) I'm still very fond of Painting By Numbers. Pop song three doesn't quite come off as well as either of those, I think; All Said And Done doesn't really pull together until the end, despite the neat lyric.

Two slower numbers: Shell and After The Show are slower and more atmospheric. On both of them, the detail of (I think, though the former includes some programmed sounds) Evans' part is quite valuable and Hammill's lyrics and vocals are especially haunting. The latter is basically made by Jackson's howling introspective solo; Shell features some of the album's more curious sound choices and lyrics. I'm still not completely sure about the lyrics and opening on A Perfect Date but the rest is solid enough. Hammill's many vocals include some of the lowest leads and maddest harmonies from the album and the use of a guest vocalist is something rather rare for a Hammill album. Anyway, the drum part is way cool, as is the almost Levin-like bass.

Four Pails (written by Chris Judge Smith and Max Hutchinson) is quite possibly the album's best piece. Hammill puts together a one-man choir and a powerful lead, a raw sonic backdrop sometimes drawing on his earlier musique concrete experience, a straight piano (rare on this record) and arranges both classical (Stuart Gordon on violin) and decidedly modern electronic instrumentation. The lyrics are very heavy, and for a cover it fits remarkably well into the album, reaching into both the questions, of identity and of time, that permeate it.

'Four pails of water, and a bag full of salts That is all she was all my lover represented That sounds just as mad As saying she will never die' Cheerful pop lyrics, eh...

Now Lover: dijeridu, treated sax, self-harmonies contrasting with lone vocals, Guy Evans, a searing lyric about sex with suitably mild but intriguing reference to science and philosophy, a drone incorporated into regular music, heavy use of sound treatment and synths of various descriptions... utterly, completely mad. And, start to finish, it's brilliant. Features one of David Jackson's finest performances. Not to be missed.

Rounding procedures off, at least on the remaster, is You Hit Me Where I Live, an obviously spontaneous pop/rock song with awesome vocal and guitar parts. Great song, but I'm not sure it belongs after Now Lover.

Much as the 80s aesthetic and pop structure of a lot of the material here will be an insurmountable obstacle for some, a look beneath the surface of this album shows the arteries and beating heart of a great musician. I personally think this is a damn good album, a rare genuinely experimental prog album from the late 80s by an artist still staking out new ground for himself, and there are at least two songs here that no Hammill fan should be without. 4 Stars. Get it if you don't hate the 80s.

Rating: 12/15, Four Stars. Favourite Track: Four Pails or Now Lover

What a pleasingly cryptic little album. Hammill never feared venturing into dark, suppressed parts of the soul, but here he actually manages to balance out that emotionally confrontational side with a more elegant, fragile and searching one, rendering this an unusually diverse and nuanced work. As an added bonus, inner demons and harsh, behemoth-like instrumental attack becomes all the more interesting and striking alongside the nimble and subdued.

Regardless of the diversity here, In Camera comes off as a neatly cohesive album, since Hammill's personality is way too strong to wipe out his signature from the seven songs here.

Ferret and Featherbird immediately piques your curiosity with spindly, discreetly sprawling guitar and piano subtleties that soon form a more orderly, touching and unusually heartfelt Hammill outing, guaranteed to take some listeners by surprise. It forms the first example of a for me unfamiliar, richer and more romantic side of the musician. A continuation of this development can be found in several of the songs here. Never as sweet, but definitely with that increased interest in texture, layering and melody that truly serve as to underline the power and emotional impact he has already mastered. Grandiose swelling keyboards, a delicate touch of organ or piano, naked, frank or soothing acoustic guitars - all utilised in a tasteful, somewhat underwhelming and careful way that just touches you deeply. It feels less unrefined and unfiltered, a bit more mature and adorned. Whether that's a good thing or not is entirely up to the individual listener.

Naturally, the man has got some old cards up his sleeve as well. (No More) The Sub Mariner, Tapeworm and the immense Gog Magog (In Bromine Chambers); brooding, hard-hitting maelstroms of buzzing, cold synthesiser and frustration in the first one, a more steadily Van der Graaf Generator-styled idiosyncratic rock drive in the second.

But Gog Magog - oh, the chills, the chills! A Gothic, Satanic ritual in a godforsaken dungeon under a city in decay, but you know...musically. A delightful blend of good old horror and violence with a cold urban gleam of fear and disillusion that blows everything else that's dark and putrid out of the water. Chaotic, towering and totally and utterly unleashed. What a tour-de-force! Powerful, spasmic drumming, demonic organ and harmonium and Hammill spitting out the phrases with scorn and anger. The change from this to the composition's second part, the harrowing Magog, is as natural as it is dramatic. What follows is a near-industrial droning noise with pitch black streaks of processed sinister vocals and percussive-sounding machinery and drops of cold water. A sub-conscious emotional sewage plant you'd gladly leave forgotten for all eternity, but it manipulatively just draws you in with its twisted imagery of desolation and death. Brr.

Pleasingly diverse, pleasingly profound, pleasingly challenging, pleasingly addictive. This is what I've been looking for in Van Der Graaf Generator's music for so long, but it's on In Camera that I finally feel connected, drawn in and mangled by all the ingredients of the sounds. If an album emotionally drains you and leaves you wanting more, you know it's quality material.

Damn near masterpiece...

...but 4 stars for now.

//LinusW

Peter Hammill's 'Nadir's Big Chance' is a blitzkrieg attack from end to end on love, loss and alienation.

The music is compelling and it is lyrically poetic with a tour de force performance from Hammill. It is one of Hammill's heaviest trips and delivers on every level. 'Nadir' begins with the raucous title track with such moving lyrics as "if the guitars don't get you the drums will.." Hammill screams the lyrics, similar to 'Arrow' on 'Godbluff'. It is a Sex Pistols meet Van der Graaf Generator excursion into high strangeness. There is a blistering keyboard solo that goes off the scale before we get those drums at the end that segue into 'The Institute of Mental Health, Burning'.

Hammill is more laid back on this with his patented crooning vocals about an Institute that's burning... burning... burning... burning. It feels tongue in cheek except Hammill is so full of conviction in his delivery, as he is on all his performances. 'Open Your Eyes' features scintillating sax and some stabs of organ that work well together. There is a sense of ominous tension throughout. The instrumental section features shimmering organ and the staccato sax stabs are relentless, similar to early VDGG.

Another highlight worth mentioning is 'Shingle'. The quiet minimalist acoustic approach work well to create tension and melancholia. The suicide friendly lyrics are more existential than others on the album. "All the elements rage to explain that I should really be on my way, there is something that ensures that I must stay..." Hammill says he can't get you out of my mind and we believe him. The sax chimes in creating a brooding sorrowful sombre tone. The melody is subtle but effective and it quite a low chord that Hammill reaches. The instrumental features an odd time sig guitar with haunting sax echoing over. The ambience is uncanny and it is chilling to hear Hammill sing "I raise my eyes but my head stays bowed" as he seems deep in regret, the sense of alienation and loss is strong.

Another highlight is 'Airport' with Hammill in painful suicidal contemplation, "I stand on the tallest building and stare down at the grey runway... and the tail smoke of the Boeing jet that's taken you so far away". He farewells his love as she flies off and cries out that she may return. Emotional and poignant, but never indignant, Hammill manages to masterfully capture the simple feeling of losing a loved one. The sax once again is well executed, but Hammill's guitar crunches to provide a heavier atmosphere. The time sig changes midway through reminding one of the great VDGG days. He stands on the observation tower crying watching the plane soar up in to the grey sky. "All I can now do is walk away alone without you."

Worthy of note is also 'Birthday Special', another loud menacing track with Hammill's searing conviction. Great bass lines in this track and a crunching guitar with chomps of sax and drums, subtle it aint! "I've got something to say and it aint the usual sorta sob story that you hear every day". The scratchy vocals return on this and it has a strong rhythm, rocking along easily with some strange chord changes. "Birthday Girl! There's ice in the cauldron, look out now!" Complete with "Parrots in the pantry and Lizards in the loo" this is something special "like Hansel and Gretel never had". Strange song, strange lyrics and strange music merge together to create a freak out boisterous track that will scare the neighbours.

No wonder Johnny Rotten endorsed this album as an inspiration. Overall this is one Hammill album that stands out among the rest. Recommended to all VDGG and Hammill addicts. ****

Like Hammill's two previous solo albums("Chameleon In The Shadow Of The Night" & "The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage") "In Camera" is a dark,emotional,experimental and at times insane journey that is difficult to digest.No one writes lyrics like Hammill and no one can sing with such passion and emotion either.Yet for all the admiration and praise for these three consecutive records there are those who will look at these albums like they would a train wreck.Amazing and unforgettable yes,but do i really want to experience that again? For me the answer is yes,just not that often.These are special albums to say the least. "Ferret And The Featherbird" is an almost awkward start as it never seems to get off the ground.Intricate sounds to open and vocals come in after a minute.Not the most melodic tune that's for sure. "(No More)The Sub-Mariner" builds with keyboards as bass and reserved vocals join in.The vocals do get passionate at times.I like the synths on this one. "Tapeworm" is really the first song to have some energy.Piano to open and a full sound kicks in quickly.Vocals follow.A calm before 2 1/2 minutes with vocal melodies.It kicks back in.I like the guitar.Great song. "Again" is mainly reserved vocals,acoustic guitar and bass. "Faint-Heart And The Sermon" and the next two tracks are really outstanding.This is so moving just listening to Hammill sing.Keyboards,cello-like sounds,orchestral sounds all add to the atmosphere here.Amazing tune. "The Comet,The Course,The Tail" is laid back with almost spoken vocals and acoustic guitar.Bass joins in as the sound gets fuller.Some passion 3 1/2 minutes in to the end. "Gog Magog(In Bromine Chambers)" is the almost 17 1/2 minute closer.Fasten your seat belts people.Powerful organ as the vocals come in.Drums come to the fore after 2 minutes as Hammill spits out the lyrics.The first 8 minutes of this tune are insane.Then the last half is filled with experimental sounds and vocal expressions as it drifts into another dimension. It will take me years to fully grasp these three albums,if indeed it even happens.This is the work of an artist.