Van Der Graaf Generator

Perhaps my favourite progressive group ever. The band's intensive and at times haunting athmosphere with Peter Hammill's insane vocals has something very sick and very beautiful at the same time. The trademark alto/tenor-sax runnings by David Jackson and gloomy hammond-patterns ny Hugh Banton are also a vital part of the Vdgg-sound. Almost every single release is flawless but especailly Pawn Hearts and Godbluff.

The one mentioned first is One of my favourite albums of all time. Very, very stable, even though Lemmings fades a bit when compared to the other two. Peter Hammill's vocals are insane as
hell, and at the same time very melancholic and full of bittersweetnes.
Lemmings is a bit whacky opener with some insane piano and sax-work. Man-Erg completes the most of it's awesomeness simply by Hammill's clean piano and
vocals. In the middle we have some drainages and even a bit of electric guitar
by Fripp from Crimson. But the ultimate climax is naturally yet to come.
In all of it's massiveness, angst, joy, paranoia and fucking a' musicianship, A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers is one of the three songs that you'd listen first
and then die happily. The band itself does naturally a fine job. Hammill is one
of the most piercing vocalists of all time and David Jackson adds his notch to the chaos with his mentally unstable fonelicks.

Godbluff is almost nearly as diamond, though the songs are a bit more stable and it doesn't have an half-hour epic as a finale. Get 'em both.

I recommend this band to everyone who's into music of any sort.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5A06EYNUZc
Scorched Earth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXryhDGUXPQ&feature=related
Arrow

As a big prog fan, I love these guys. Pawn Hearts is great.

Cuoma wrote:

Get 'em both.

Correction: Get 'em all.
There's not one Van der Graaf Generator album I have been disappointed by, not even The Quiet Zone or World Record.
My favourite still are the second and third album, The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other and H to He, Who Am The Only One. There's a good reason I'm running around with the avatar of the second after all.

David Jackson is great, one of the people who made me pick up the saxophone. So are all others, great musicians with a good feel for what the songs need, all above Peter Hammill, who never was a real virtuoso on the instrument he played, but rather could play exactly as much as the song required. His electric guitar work, especially on his solo records, shows that well.

Wow, I never thought I'd find fellow VdGG-Fans HERE! Sweet!
A few months ago a friend of mine introduced me to them, and I am so loving this music!
A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers is arguably one of the most epic songs ever recorded, that is imho!

^Great man, there's never enough worshippers of VdGG.

I love this band.