GODBLUFF

Released in late 1975, Godbluff sees a distinct shift in the band's sound. A Hohner clavinet is used prominently on all four songs on the album, and Hammill plays electric guitar on the record. (Previous instances of electric guitar had (mostly) been played by either former bassist Nic Potter or King Crimson bandleader Robert Fripp.) There's an anxious, edgy feel to Godbluff, and it suits the band very well.

Gentle flute and whispered vocals start the album off on an unassuming note on "The Undercover Man". It swells gradually, and the relatively stripped-down arrangement allows room for the individual members of the band to shine through.

"Scorched Earth" sees the band return to some familiar modal territory. Where the opening track had been relatively upbeat, this piece is dark, and the clavinet adds a unique crunch to everything. The song's instrumental midsection sees some great interplay between Jackson's saxes and both organ and clavinet. The urgency keeps building throughout the nearly-10-minute runtime, and it eventually reaches an explosive climax.

Skittering drums gradually fade in for the introduction of "Arrow" alongside some bass noodling and the errant squeal of saxophone. After gently meandering for a few minutes, Hammill's voice barges in and demands attention. The backing track remains stripped-back, and the chorus features a haunting, foreboding build-up. Jackson's saxophones snarl menacingly in the instrumental middle. As "Arrow" builds toward its peak, Hammill's vocal performance is especially arresting, even by the standards of someone as theatrical as himself.

Godbluff closes on its longest cut, "The Sleepwalkers". An odd organ-and-sax pattern driven along by a marching drumbeat opens things at the start. Evans's use of woodblocks in his drumming add a distinctive character to this track. Wonky jazz and Latin flavors crop up at moments, giving those passages a hazy, dreamlike quality. The song's middle few minutes are instrumental and feature an organ solo which is pretty distinctive in Banton's history, though it is awfully low in the mix (the clavinet buries it). This section is followed by one of Jackson's best solos, though. It's a hard-rocking, melodic passage, and Hammill's electric guitar flourishes add a lot of depth. This all resolves wonderfully into the closing verse.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2023/07/10/deep-dive-van-der-graaf-generator/