PH7

Why is this called 'PH7'? By my count this is Peter Hammill's eighth solo album. And while I'm admitting confusion, there's a song listed on the label of Side 1 called "Polaroid", a dopey, almost Monty Python-esque song, but the lyrics aren't printed along with the rest...and on the flip of the lyric sleeve 12 songs are listed, "Polaroid" not among them but one of them being "The Moebius Jigsaw", which doesn't appear here at all. Strange...

This is one of Hammill's best albums, but be warned, it's very quirky, sometimes unsettling, sometimes beautiful and often experimental. The rigid, dissonant strains of "Porton Down" and "Imperial Walls" are the kind of progressive thing he would tend to leave behind in the '80s decade, while "Mirror Images", "Mr. X (Gets Tense)" and Faculty X" might as well be Van Der Graaf songs. In fact, "Mirror Images" was a Van Der Graaf song, as it appears on 1978's 'Vital - Live' album. And then we have the wonderful, very human vocals and sentiments in "My Favourite" and "Handicap And Equality". Even '60s-era Van Der Graaf Generator co-founder Chris Judge Smith's name pops up, as lyricist of "Time For A Change". With a wide sonic landscape, a variety of instrumentation and recording techniques, and appearnces from VDGG alumni Graham Smith and David Jackson, it should be clear that 'PH7' is one of the most complex and complete Hammill solo albums of them all.