Re: Phase II

[ircam!kato@uunet.UU.NET (John Kitamura)]

Hmmm .. I seem to have missed all info regarding a music survey. Oh well...

	Anybody out there have any impressions of Peter Hammill? Hammill was
almost the sole composer and vocalist for Van Der Graaf Generator/Van Der Graaf,
whose nine albums I would rank among the most inaccessible, but most satisfying
pieces of vinyl ever pressed. He then embarked on a parallel solo career,
and has since made 17 or 18 solo albums of wildly different styles and
consistancy, but all containing his trademark "extreme" vocals and fantastic
lyrics. Now that they're all out on CD I hope he gets some exposure
(his albums have been long out of print).
	VDG/VDGG had some of the most bizarre line-ups for a (progrressive) rock
band but they managed to make them work:
a) acoustic guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, winds (sometimes two saxes
simulataneously - shades of Don Van Vliet!)
b) acoustic guitar, keyboards, drums, winds
c) electric guitar, keyboards, drums, winds
d) electric guitar, cello, violin, drums
	Hammill, now resident in Bath (a neighbour of Peter Gabriel, I guess)
was good friends with Robert Fripp (singing three tracks on Fripp's Exposure,
Fripp plays guitar and speaks on 4 or 5 VDGG/Hammill albums) and donated a
track to Gabriel's first WOMAD project and album. He also wrote a song about
Stephen Biko some three years before Gabriel.
	Like the divine Miss Bush, PJAH tends to use his extended vocal range
(extended in expression as well as pitch) to convey a lot of different emotions,
and tends to write about non-mainstream topics (going into surgery, eating in
a restaurant, astronauts breaking the speed of light, scientists finding the
secret of immortality, etc.). His voice bugs a lot of people, and does take
some getting used to. But there's this one track called "Now, Lover" off the
album "Skin" which uses a digeridou(sp?) opening which sounds like it was lifted
off of "Dreamtime". Same note and everything. Or do all digeridou's sound
alike?
	He puts on a solo live show armed only with an acoustic guitar,
his MIDI keyboard and his amazing voice that has to be heard to be believed.

kato