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Product Description
CD Description
THE BRAND NEW STUDIO ALBUM BY THE LEGENDARY VAN
DER GRAAF GENERATOR.
DER GRAAF GENERATOR.
Esoteric Recordings are proud to announce the release of the new Van Der
Graaf Generator album, A Grounding in Numbers . The stunning new
album is the band s 12th studio record by the band and is their first since
2008.
The album will be released as both a CD and a limited edition LP,
individually numbered, packaged in a die-cut sleeve and restricted to 2000
copies worldwide. It will also be promoted by a tour of the UK and some
key European cities.
In April 2010 Peter Hammill, Hugh Banton and Guy Evans met up for
intensive tracking sessions in Cornwall, arranging, rehearsing and
recording the album in a week. Some of the pieces were already fullyformed
songs; others, even at this stage, remained more sketches than
fully realised works. Over the next months the tracks were overdubbed,
edited and adapted by the band in their own studios. By September the
project was ready to be mixed. Legendary producer Hugh Padgham agreed
to take on this part of the process - the first time anyone outside the band
had been entrusted such responsibility. After three weeks in Hugh s
London studio, Sofasound (which shares its name with Peter s original
home set-up), A Grounding in Numbers was completed. With a fantastic
clarity and depth of sound and a helter-skelter stretch of tunes, A
Grounding... sees VDGG pushing ever further forward into the twenty
first century. Clearly, they know they re a group with a certain history -
but they are also an emphatically modern one.
Product Description
2011 studio album featuring Peter Hammill, Hugh Banton and Guy Evans. 12th album and is their first since 2008
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 48 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Unbelievably still sounding fresh, challenging, weird, and spaced out, Van Der Graaf's 3rd studio album since their surprise reformation after 30 years of absence in 2005 is possibly their most experimental and eclectic release yet. (If you discount the way-out improvisational CD that formed disc 2 of present)
There are songs, there are fragments of songs and there are ideas. Lots of ideas. So many musical ideas that every contemporary band that thinks they are doing something new with 2 riffs and a bridge in a 3 minute song, needs to wake up to themselves - and realise that this trio of near pensioners has more vitality, ingenuity, creativity and class in the 49 minutes and 13 tracks here than 99% of bands have in their entire careers.
Practically every one of VdGGs contemporaries - if still alive - if still in the music biz - are doing "best of" tours that are little more than cabaret acts, yet trust Hammill et al - to still be pushing the boundaries with new and challenging material.
Musically we have harpsichord gothic doom metal - soul jazz mathematics - morbid arpeggiations of chromatic pedal-tone organ riffs - funky prog groove dirges - and a foot tapping 80s rock chorus on the song Highly Strung, where a Dsus4 chord is used to great effect. Thematically we have songs on the passage of time - Euler's analytic mathematics - a take on a Japanese short story about an artist not being able to judge his own works - pretentiousness - and theatrical metaphor in the superbly bonkers Mr Sands.
Hugh Padgham has given the recordings a fabulous gloss as producer; this album sounds awesome played through bass heavy speakers. (It works intimately too on headphones - but as a metaller I appreciate VOLUME!)
It's not the anarchic violent brilliance of Godbluff - or the calculated psychotic psychedelic danger of Pawn Hearts - but it *is* the 21st Century Van der Graaf Generator. If they did recycle their earlier material - us fans would not complain and still lap it up - but I think the band itself would get bored.
It's not going to be to everyone's taste - but in all honesty a glance at any popular chart reveals that taste is in desperately short supply - thankfully - this band are in it for "the music" - and this is pretty much as different to any of their previous albums as they are from each other.
Great stuff!
There are songs, there are fragments of songs and there are ideas. Lots of ideas. So many musical ideas that every contemporary band that thinks they are doing something new with 2 riffs and a bridge in a 3 minute song, needs to wake up to themselves - and realise that this trio of near pensioners has more vitality, ingenuity, creativity and class in the 49 minutes and 13 tracks here than 99% of bands have in their entire careers.
Practically every one of VdGGs contemporaries - if still alive - if still in the music biz - are doing "best of" tours that are little more than cabaret acts, yet trust Hammill et al - to still be pushing the boundaries with new and challenging material.
Musically we have harpsichord gothic doom metal - soul jazz mathematics - morbid arpeggiations of chromatic pedal-tone organ riffs - funky prog groove dirges - and a foot tapping 80s rock chorus on the song Highly Strung, where a Dsus4 chord is used to great effect. Thematically we have songs on the passage of time - Euler's analytic mathematics - a take on a Japanese short story about an artist not being able to judge his own works - pretentiousness - and theatrical metaphor in the superbly bonkers Mr Sands.
Hugh Padgham has given the recordings a fabulous gloss as producer; this album sounds awesome played through bass heavy speakers. (It works intimately too on headphones - but as a metaller I appreciate VOLUME!)
It's not the anarchic violent brilliance of Godbluff - or the calculated psychotic psychedelic danger of Pawn Hearts - but it *is* the 21st Century Van der Graaf Generator. If they did recycle their earlier material - us fans would not complain and still lap it up - but I think the band itself would get bored.
It's not going to be to everyone's taste - but in all honesty a glance at any popular chart reveals that taste is in desperately short supply - thankfully - this band are in it for "the music" - and this is pretty much as different to any of their previous albums as they are from each other.
Great stuff!
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I was one of the fans disappointed by VdGG's previous release, "Trisector" (glad to see I wasn't alone)and, I have to admit, I wasn't really holding out much hope for this one.
But...wow.
On my first listen I wasn't sure what to make of it. Love it? Hate it? Whatever, it was never boring, I knew that much. It seemed very different from anything they'd done before, scattered with bizarre, unsettling little instrumentals and time signatures colliding with each other like tectonic plates. A baffling, bewildering box o' noise, I felt as if I'd been picked up, shaken, and put down again in the wrong order.
But I couldn't stop listening. It seems they've finally found their feet after long-time member David Jackson's departure; have shed their skin and emerged as a whole different band, finally a trio and not a quartet with a missing wheel. After lulling the listener into a false sense of security with the haunting brace of "Your Time Starts Now" and "Mathematics", it kicks into an altogether higher gear with "Highly Strung" and from here on in, you're through the looking glass. The album rattles, it roars, it changes direction and all the while Hammill spits out the lyrics with his customary flare (his voice still being one of the most formidable and distinctive in music).
There's a lot going on in this album, almost too much to take in: listen to the brief instrumental "Splink", for instance, which starts off gently and almost ambiently before, courtesy of Hugh Banton's rogue keyboard line and Guy Evans' disintegrating drum patterns, falling into an unnerving chaos. This is almost the album in microcosm: expect the unexpected, and fasten your seat-belt.
While most of their contemporaries are happy to merely milk past glories, VdGG -- after over 40 years --- have created a brave, exhilirating and thoroughly contrary piece of work that practically dares you to listen. They don't constantly reflect and compare the past and the present, and we shouldn't either. So please forgive the enthusiasm but whereas "Trisector" had me thinking it was the end, "A Grounding in Numbers" has me believing it's just the beginning.
But...wow.
On my first listen I wasn't sure what to make of it. Love it? Hate it? Whatever, it was never boring, I knew that much. It seemed very different from anything they'd done before, scattered with bizarre, unsettling little instrumentals and time signatures colliding with each other like tectonic plates. A baffling, bewildering box o' noise, I felt as if I'd been picked up, shaken, and put down again in the wrong order.
But I couldn't stop listening. It seems they've finally found their feet after long-time member David Jackson's departure; have shed their skin and emerged as a whole different band, finally a trio and not a quartet with a missing wheel. After lulling the listener into a false sense of security with the haunting brace of "Your Time Starts Now" and "Mathematics", it kicks into an altogether higher gear with "Highly Strung" and from here on in, you're through the looking glass. The album rattles, it roars, it changes direction and all the while Hammill spits out the lyrics with his customary flare (his voice still being one of the most formidable and distinctive in music).
There's a lot going on in this album, almost too much to take in: listen to the brief instrumental "Splink", for instance, which starts off gently and almost ambiently before, courtesy of Hugh Banton's rogue keyboard line and Guy Evans' disintegrating drum patterns, falling into an unnerving chaos. This is almost the album in microcosm: expect the unexpected, and fasten your seat-belt.
While most of their contemporaries are happy to merely milk past glories, VdGG -- after over 40 years --- have created a brave, exhilirating and thoroughly contrary piece of work that practically dares you to listen. They don't constantly reflect and compare the past and the present, and we shouldn't either. So please forgive the enthusiasm but whereas "Trisector" had me thinking it was the end, "A Grounding in Numbers" has me believing it's just the beginning.
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
All I can say is that I didn't expect too much of this new VDGG. Don't get me wrong, I have an over 20 year old appreciation for Hamill and VDGG, but most of the releases after Hammill's 'As Close as this' left me always with somewhat mixed feelings. To me some of the old albums like Ph7, Future now, Patience, Sitting Targets etc.... sound more modern and fresh than many of the later records.I'm not a nostalgic by any means, as most of the music I love comes from current musicians. I love diversity and change. In my subjective perception Hammill simply became a little less daring and more predictable over the years.
That all said, this new VDGG record is a very pelasant surprise.
It brings back some old familiar VDGG/Hammill elements I missed while sounding very different at the same time.
It also sounds quite 60's 70's in a good and oddly fresh way.
Van Der Graaf have always been on the good intriguing,raw, daring and indeed progressive side of Prog Rock, far away from the overproduced kitsch that left the whle genre with a bad aftertaste.
This time they make no exception. This is good old and brand new VDGG.
That all said, this new VDGG record is a very pelasant surprise.
It brings back some old familiar VDGG/Hammill elements I missed while sounding very different at the same time.
It also sounds quite 60's 70's in a good and oddly fresh way.
Van Der Graaf have always been on the good intriguing,raw, daring and indeed progressive side of Prog Rock, far away from the overproduced kitsch that left the whle genre with a bad aftertaste.
This time they make no exception. This is good old and brand new VDGG.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Phenomenon continues
Maybe I'm a weird person who delights in things that the rest either don't know about or run away from, but I never cease to be amazed by how "underground" VdGG and Mr Hammill... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Rick N Backer
VDG at his best level
il y a longtemps que je n'avais pas entendu VDG a un tel niveau. C'est excellent. On sent la patte d'Hammill, toujours inventif avec ses superbes mélodies.
Published 5 months ago by Claude Polez
As of old
Here is one of the very few bands out of the sixties that are not retro, or worse, a parody of themselves, but still have relevance today. Read more
Published 7 months ago by MusicMyLife
40 years on and still excellent
Mathematics has been the inspiration for works of art, TV series (e.g. NUMB3RS) and quite a lot of music, including this album. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mr. P. H. Turner
Number crunchers...
This individualistic stalwart of the genre, at its most wilful and excessive, taps at numbers in theming this selection of relatively short pieces of restless and mysterious music... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Rob Brook
New VDGG album
Been along time since ive heard a new VDGG album, i wasnt sure what to expect.They havent changed. First track i love, after that im still trying to get into. Read more
Published 13 months ago by bitchonwheels
simply dreadful
Despite what the fans say, this is simply dreadful. Nothing like Godbluff, Still Life, or Pawn Hearts. There is too much here of the Peter Hammillisms of late.
Published 14 months ago by fausto kantiano
The best so far of the "Third Generation"
OK, so this won't be displacing the likes of "Godbluff" as your favourite VdGG album and David Jackson is very much missed in the studio setting, but that said "A Grounding.. Read more
Published 14 months ago by N. Dutton
Euler's Identity Crisis
In 2005 after an absence of 27 years, one of only a handful of the old school "progressive" rock bands worthy of the over used description, the mighty Van Der Graaf Generator,... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Roger the Dodger
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