INCOHERENCE

After Hammill released no album in 2003 I thought that he would be dead, or stopped making music. 2003 was the first year since decades without a Hammill release. But now, 2004 he is back with his new album "Incoherence", fotunately. The albums contains one song with a running time of 41:39 minutes. Incoherence is parted in 14 parts but it is actually one song. 41 minutes are very long for a single song but for an album it is rather short. On his website Hammill explains that 40-45 minutes are the perfect lenght for an album because within this time, the concentration for the music is on a high level. Evey minute longer would decrease the listeners attention. But I think that it depends on the music itself. I have no problem to listen to a long album if it is good.

After the acoustic album "Clutch" Hammill again concentrated on Keyboards, mainly E- Piano. Just like on its antecessor, there are no drums on "Incoherence". Here and there you can also hear the acoustic and electric guitar. Hammill's companions Stuart Gordon (violin) and David Jackson (saxophone and flute) are featured but the whole sound leaks a few instruments. I really would love to hear this album by VdGG. The overall picture is very mellow with casual distorted guitar dominated breakouts ("Logodaedalus", "Cretans Always Lie", "All Greek"). "Incoherence" is slightly reminicsent of former, late seventies, outputs (Ph7, The Future Now) without sounding similar. The topic of this concept album is, just like some titles hint, Speech, communication and the problems about it.

"Incoherence" is another great Hammill album and one I would recommend without concern. People liking VdGG and Hammill's earlier works should keep an eye on this one. 3,5 stars is a good rating and I'm sure this album played by all members of VdGG would have deserved more , at least for me.