If I was smiling during When She Comes, I was positively beaming by the time of A Place to Survive... Amid the beauty, poetry, anguish, ferocity, and triumphant brilliance found in the music of Van der Graaf Generator, there is often an undercurrent of creepiness; an unsettling chill and slithering premonition weaving its way around..
VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR – Still Life: Vinyl Reissue (Esoteric / Cherry Red)
All told, this is an album which not only repays repeated listening, but ultimately makes you profoundly grateful to have made that investment of effort, as it has the potential to enrich the soul in the way only the very finest music can do. Sometimes albums come up for reissue which you've always liked. Sometimes..
Peter Hammill – In a Foreign Town/Out of Water 2023 (Esoteric)
These songs are cast in a new light... or is it the same light but through a different window? Of all the musicians I'd be surprised to see reference Taylor Swift in their liner notes, Peter Hammill is at the absolute top of the list. Or he was, at least, until this morning when I..
‘DECADES: Van Der Graaf Generator In The 1970s’ Book – Exclusive Sample Chapter
Some months ago the book Decades: Van Der Graaf Generator In The 1970s was published by Velvet Thunder writer Steve Pilkington via Sonicbond Publishing, telling the eventful take of the band's first decade in existence. We present here an exclusive sample chapter of the book for anyone to get a feel for what it contains...
Van Der Graaf Generator – the Bath Forum Concert (Esoteric)
This is not safe music and its creators do not aim to comfort audiences with by-the-numbers recreations… Well, well, well!' quips Peter Hammill as the legendary Van Der Graaf Generator wanders onto a stage in Bath in the late winter of 2022. Within seconds they are summoning art from thin air with the dizzyingly complex..
VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR – Interference Patterns: The Recordings 2005-2016 (Esoteric / Cherry Red)
As a reminder – or even a realisation – of just how much great material the band have produced in this twilight portion of their career, this set is an absolute treasure. There are pieces of music produced by the band in this post-reunion, post-Millennial era which are good enough to stand shoulder to shoulder..
VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR – Bridgewater Hall, Manchester (22 Feb 2022)
Every time I go to see a Van Der Graaf Generator show, I almost fear the worst, as sustaining that level of seemingly telepathic timing and multi-instrumental precision seems that eventually the spinning plates must fail and drop to the floor. And every time I come out of the venue proved wrong again, as this..
VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR – Upcoming lavish 20-disc ‘Charisma Years’ box set
A lavish 20-disc Box — 'The Charisma Years Box' comprising 17 CDs and 3 Blu Ray discs — covers Van Der Graaf Generator's entire recorded works for Charisma Records, including previously unreleased tracks and previously unreleased footage. And brand new Stereo and Surround Sound remixes. Single releases — Refugees (Single Version), Killer (New Stereo Mix),..