PH7

The 77-80 era was a second golden age for Peter Hammill, since his writing remained as strong as ever and his experimental interets gained a renewed power. To my ears, pH7 is the least accomplished Hammill effrt from this era but still is very worthy of the level of excellency that this rock visionary usually sets as a pattern in a very unafraid fashion. This album continues absorbing the new-wave sound initiated in The Future Now (there is even a cover from the pop-rock mainstream in the tracklist!), and the overall sound is more robust: there is only a certain lack of cohesiveness in the album, a factor to be mended in A Black Box one year later. The album kicks off with a candid acoustic ballad, 'My Favorite', dealing with the rare Hammillesque topic of joy for a love found. 'Careering' is the new-wave oriented song that light things up, with 'Porton Down' pursuing a simila rextrovertd vein: actually, there is potential for a more developed epic undertone in this track, but that thing was kept for the live album The Margin. This sutido version pales in comparison, but stills makes a pertinent follower for 'Careering', given the fact that it is more elaborated. 'Mirror Images' is a Vital-era song from the Van der Graaf Generator repertoire: actually I find that the more Spartan instrumentaion in this version is more effective when it comes to reflect the aura of angry dissapointment with oneself exposed in the lyrics. 'Handicap and Equality' is a socially concerned acoustic ballad, not really as emotionally charged as the preceding track or the next one ('Not for Keith', a serene lament for the death of a lifelong friend and former VdGG bass player, Keith Ellis), so it is easily outdone by both. The second half starts with 'The Old School Tie', a political satyre about the corrupting power of political power, which kills all ideals of justice in the minds of those who sell their dreamss for a safe home in politics. This song, with such a patent irony in its deceitfully lighthearted spirit, can be appreciated as the flip side of 'The Future Now': whose lyrics seem designed to explain the reasons why the future that should be at our hands cannot be achieved by the powers-that- be. 'Time for a Change' is a beautiful introspective ballad penned by good old friend Chris Judge Smith: this is my personal favorite ballad in the album. With 'Imperial Walls' the real experimental side of the album starts . a piece full of challenging tricks and intense density. The last two tracks state a continuous piece of social observations about the madness of our urban society in a progressive scheme: in terms of sound and writing, none of these pieces would have been out of place in World Recod... in fact, any of them would have improved it. 'Mr. X' and 'Faculty X' are effectively complex and notably weird, while preserving some sort of catchiness in the motifs. The multilayeed violins provided by Graham Smith in 'Mr. X' are climatic on their own terms, while the flute flourishes delivered by David Jackson in 'Faculty X' add the right colors to the whole track. The only minus for this album is the not so rich rhythm section (Hammill played the drums valiantly but not too successfully). 3.75 starts for yet another great Hammill album - pH7.