You Can't Have Two Killers Options

[ImperialAerosolK...]

VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR


H TO HE: WHO AM THE ONLY ONE

(1970)




The most dubious aspect to early prog rock was always its nerdy infatuation with science fiction even tho glam-punks like Bowie and Elton John explored these nether regions with much success. But if you were in a prog band and decided to do 12 minute songs about breaking the speed of light....well the genre of wallflower rock was born.


Van der Graaf Generator came out of London and were signed by Charisma's Tony Stratton at the same time as Genesis. In the late 60s, London's Soho neighborhood had a little tavern called The Middle Earth where nerds of previous description would gather with organs and attitudes of musical elitism and started art rock. Out of this scene came everyone from Pink Floyd to The Nice -- and the spawn of SGT. PEPPER and Dylan in intent was created by the local music and art school drop outs who saw rock as a literary communication tool in the new album media and the novel concept of writers as musicians and vice versa. The Charisma bands came out of this movement and amongst them in 1968 included this ever changing line-up producer in VdGG.

Fronted initially by Peter Hammill and coming to their cunning head with their 1970 release H TO HE: WHO AM THE ONLY ONE, VdGG came to my attention recently from a dude who told me that there were similarities here to The Mars Volta's millenia-prog and were certainly worth a bong-up. I followed said advice and here is my story....


Well it's not a story really. With 5 long tracks revolving around lofty concepts of undersea violence and futuristic(1983!) space travel, H.. is a bravery experiment . It's kinda like a deadhead sticker on your car. This indicates you are stoned. An unusual jazz menage of saxophone, B-3 and drums under the sometimes a tad too theatric vox of Hammill...the hard parts are worth the investment. In the middle of “The Emperor In His War Room”, Robert Fripp beams in for a solo not unlike the RED era of Crimson that occurred 3 years later. The outrageous time changes are the creme de prog. Indicating in visceral proof that the aforementioned dude was right in giving it the TMV salute. Math rock at it's finest and a lyrical mind trip about some goddamned thing....H TO HE was worth the bong-up...


-Maurice Doubleday

[ImperialAerosolK...]

http://www.vandergraafgenerator.co.uk/