ROOM TEMPERATURE LIVE

The former Van der Graaf Generator front man's solo output was/is never easy to digest and this album containing selected live recordings from concerts in the USA, Canada and England certainly seems to have a life of its own, a rather dark life. Hammill doesn't just sing, he wails, whispers, screams in equal measures, invites you to listen closely one second only to attempt an attack on your eardrums the next. This is music from deep inside, true soul-(searching)-music, an acoustic mirror image to Van der Graaf's angry 'Still Live' set.

With a sparse backing band (the overwhelming and sometimes slightly overbearing Stuart Gordon on violin and the marvelously inventive Nic Potter on bass) the proceedings get off to a rather subdued start with some of pH's great ballads, which comes to an abrupt end with a racy rendition of 'The Comet...': "What can I say when in some obscure way I am my own direction" - if you still follow the direction the performers take after this you are truelly in for an unforgettable ride into your/Hammill's own private heaven/hell. 'Patient' gets another long, almost psychedellic face-lift and you almost believe the audience is not just listening but sucked into the happenings on stage. At times Gordon and Potter seem almost lost as to what Hammill gets up to next, but this only adds to the authentic atmosphere. Disc Two kicks off with the prog'n'roll of 'Cat's Eye/Yellow Fever' and 'Skin'. The original studio recording of the latter was at best a meddled affair, this version however shows perfectly that Hammill is a first-class songsmith, who sometimes simply misjudges the format of his creations. This could probably be said for most of the tracks on the second set, the performances of 'Hemlock', 'Our Oyster', 'After the show' all outclass the studio versions. 'A way out' is a simple yet majestic work, giving its structure even more space in this semi-acoustic rendition. We are then treated to a grand finale with some of Hammill's greatest compositions, ending with 'Modern', still, always and truelly modern music for the head.

There are no middle ground with Hammill's voice: you either love it or hate it and on 'Room Temperature' you will find arguments for both sides. This is certainly no 'easy- prog' listening, quite on the contrary, even if you love the man's work you will find it difficult to sit through the whole album in one session, but try and have a go, put it back on your shelf and pick it up a few weeks later and try again. It will be worth your while.

This wonderful live album serves both as a souvenir for Hammill fans and as an introduction for his solo work. Recorded along several concerts in North America during his 1990 tour, with a backing band of only two musicians (longtime bassist Nic Potter and violinist Stuart Gordon), "Room Temperature Live" offers a complete concert (well, pieces of different concerts gathered together to duplicate a typical songlist of the tour), in more than 140 minutes of music. And great music is offered here: almost all songs came from various solo albuns, with only "The Wave" and "Cat's Eye/Yellow Fever (Running)" (both from "The Quiet Zone, The Pleasure Dome") representing his work with Van Der Graaf Generator. Hammill sings with passion (sometimes he sounds a bit desperated), and offers a good job playing acoustic guitar and piano; Nic Potter provides rhythm and pulsation to the songs (and sometimes, by using some distortion, he pushes his bass to the front); and Stuart Gordon, often featured as a soloist, makes a significant contribution to the album's sound. IMHO, the highlights are: "Cat's Eye...", "If I Could", "Hemlock" and "After the Show". The only reason I didn't gave this album five star is: sometimes the sparse instrumentation makes it a bit tiring. Try to listen CD one, go to other CD, and then listen CD two; this will make listening to "Room Temperature Live" more easy.

Tedious. That's the one word that comes to mind when I listen to this live set.

Now, I usually enjoy Peter Hammill's music immensely, and have quite a few of his records and CDs, but even a fan such as I must admit, this one is an experiment gone wrong. Perhaps in smaller doses, the idea of PH with only his voice, keyboards and guitar, only assisted by a violinist and electric bassist, might be easier to take. But here, at about two and a half hours, Hammill's gruff, over-emotive voice, without a full band to back him up, often wind up sounding like someone doing weird interpretations of well-lyriced show tunes. And it begins rather badly. It takes Hammill a few songs before he stops hitting frequent off-key notes, and bassist Nic Potter begins the set rather sloppily, and only get marginally better throughout.

This isn't to say the set is without value. There are many sections where the trio clicks together, but given the length of the disks, they are few and far between. And violinist Stuart Gordon plays some mean licks, but often falls into performing the same tricks in multiple songs.

Nice try, Peter, but none of the recordings of the songs on this double disk set are superior to the original full band recordings. The songs are nice to own individually, but the album as a whole is too hard to listen to.

2.5 stars