I'll be writing more very soon in a newsletter but for now I can confirm the following: the line up will be Banton, Jaxon, Evans, Hammill. The show will be entirely VdGG (no "solo spots"). There will be new material as well as old. An album of new material will be released around the time of the show, almost certainly on Virgin. Virgin will definitely also be releasing remastered versions of the VdGG albums.

Nytkö se on ilmestynyt?

Oli tullut promo myös paikalliseen levykauppa Äxään. Jari pisti pyörimään, kun menin käymään ostoksilla. Hyvälle kuulosti ainakin pari ekaa piisiä. Pistin varaukseen yhden kappaleen.

In the first crop of Re-masters set for release on 30th May 2005 will be:

* The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other with bonus tracks - The Boat Of Millions Of Years and Refugees (single version)
* H to He Who Am The Only One with bonus tracks - Squid/Octopus Live in the studio (from the Pawn Hearts sessions) and The Emperor in his War Room (alternative version).
* Pawn Hearts with bonus tracks - Theme One (alternative version), w (alternative version), Angle Of Incidents (Guy Evans' track from planned side 3), Diminution (Hugh Banton's track) and Ponker's Theme (David Jackson's track).

This will be followed on 27th June 2005 by:

* Godbluff with bonus track - Forsaken Gardens (Live from Rimini 9th August 1975) and A Louse Is Not A Home (Also from Rimini).
* Still Life with bonus track - Gog (Live from Bangor 10th May 1975).
* Fool's Mate with (early demo version) bonus tracks - The Birds, Sunshine, Happy, Re-awakening, Summer Song (In The Autumn).

Oho, kerrankin voi olla Kcrimson kanssa samaa mieltä!

Welcome to the new old wave. . .
All present and correct as Van der Graaf Generator line up with a new album

“Come on, surf’s up!” sings Peter Hammill on Van der Graaf Generator’s new album, Present. The nautical themes and references that drift throughout the lyrics and textures on Present come as no surprise given that VdGG were nearly always swimming against the prevailing tide during their heyday in the late sixties and mid seventies. Though the water may be cold, turbulent and almost certainly hazardous to shipping, it’s hard to resist Hammill’s invitation. Whilst there’s little that will surprise the old seadogs that have followed the ebb and flow of their career, this 2CD set of songs and improvisations nevertheless confirms that after an absence of 29 years they remain a force to be reckoned with.

Age hasn’t dampened the lyrical hyperbole nor softened the course, sandpaper wall of sound that made and still makes an industrial floor grinder appear sweetly tuneful by comparison. The rough stuff continues unabated on tracks like Abandon Ship. Teetering from side to side, David Jackson’s barking sax and Hammill’s specialist atonal guitar-gouging clash and clatter against each other; forget the pleasure cruise, this is more like cruising for a bruising.

With In Babelsberg, their declamatory, argumentative strut continues, surly and spoiling for a fight throughout. The rhythmic powerhouse of Guy Evans drives along with some smart TLev-sounding bass hitching a ride. There’s a palpable sense of outrage on this record, as though they can’t wait to vent their pent-up energies on all the shoe-gazing milksops who’ve since colonised the music scene in their absence.

“Here comes that special nonsense/ pour the words out in a spurt/ the unhinging of the trolley/as the mouth begins to blurt” rages the darkly witty, Nutter Alert. Funny it may be but this being Van der Graaf, it’s the humour of the gallows; a cautionary tale about fatal fanboys. Here and elsewhere, the glorious layers of Hugh Banton’s keyboards, overdriven, overwrought and most definitely over the top, splendidly match Hammill’s indignation note for note.

Composure of sorts is regained during disc one’s closer, On The Beach. Spending time on the beach with the boys might be tempting until you remember that it’s also the title of Neville Shute’s 1950s novel the end of the world. Perhaps the best track on the album though, is its stately opener, Every Bloody Emperor. An unalloyed classic from the very start, it’s a brickbat polemic of a protest song that is catchy beyond belief. Potent stuff indeed, this is a trenchant take on the parlous spin that passes for politics in today’s world – a place where even the protest singers now come wearing hard hats.

In the past, we’ve had brief hints and glimpses of Van der Graaf’s MO; parts of Pawn Hearts and Godbluff peppered with some free-form work-outs that introduce or bookend a track. Disc two offers a sustained view of the Generator’s engine room. Some will be tempted to see this as bonus material; nice to have but not probably not essential. In fact, the ten improvisations are the dark material fuels the engines – the strange stuff that tempers and tones the songs. There are times when it comes close to early period Can (the haunted textures of Manuelle or space-punk of ‘Eavy Mate) and as with all aleatory music, the open-ended and sometimes inconclusive nature of the tracks is also part of the appeal.

Whilst some results might be a touch provisional, the patient listener will nevertheless be rewarded with numerous examples of deft interplay as on the beautifully languid Slo Moves, and the excellent Architectural Hair, where they display an almost perverse melodic tenacity that borders on being bloody-minded. Other tracks such as the fractious Spanner, or song-in-waiting, Crux and an especially uncompromising, fuck-you buster, The Price of Admission, ably demonstrate that the second disc is just as much a part of the murky undertow that has always flowed through their work. Whilst some old stagers mellow out and their musical credibility sinks without a trace, VdGG sound remarkably buoyant. No life jacket required here.

Levy-tilaus on vetämässä Amazon.uk:sta, joten siihen asti eikun virittäytymään aiempien VDGG-levyjen tahtiin!

Joo, etenkin bändin toinen kausi (Godbluff, Still life, World Record) on melkein parasta mitä voi tehdä. Oon jääny koukkuun erit. Sleepwalkers-biisiin. Huh mitä tavaraa! Puolivälin tiukan rumpubiitin taustalla elää omaa elämäänsä upeat syna- ja saksokuviot. Ja Hammillin ääni... Huh miten mahtipontisen teatraalista ja suoraan sydämestä tullutta. Tää on niin rankkaa kuin musiikki voi olla olematta vulgaaria.

[VDGG on täysin omaa luokkaansa !

Kyllä! Sen toisen bändin ohella, mikä se nyt taas olikaan... :)

Liput on varattu, syteen tai saveen.

Uskomattoman loistavahan se oli.

Haluaisikos Kcrimso paljastaa, mistä löysi tuon tän vuoden Royal Albert Hall nuhoituksen?