PETER HAMMILL/GARY LUCAS
''OTHER WORLD''
RECORDED AT TERRA INCOGNITA, WILTSHIRE BY PH, JANUARY TO JUNE 2013
FEBRUARY 3 2014
58:56
1 Spinning Coins 02:49
2 Some Kind Of Fracas 05:10
3 Of Kith & Kin 05:25
4 Cash 02:52
5 Built From Scratch 04:21
6 Attar Of Roses 04:14
7 This Is Showbiz 03:00
8 Reboot 06:52
9 Black Ice 04:54
10 The Kid 04:11
11 Glass 03:24
12 2 Views 03:03
13 Means To An End 01:33
14 Slippery Slope 07:00
All Tracks By Hammill & Lucas
Peter Hammill - Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Vox, Found Sounds
Gary Lucas - Acoustic & Electric Guitars, FX
REVIEW AND INTERVIEW
By Dave Thompson, February 28, 2014
Thirty-six albums into his solo career, with another dozen Van Der Graaf Generator discs, and a whole heap of live-and-otherwise too, it’s always surprising when a new Peter Hammill record appears, and you realize that he has still to start repeating himself.
Of course, you know it’s Hammill from the start. The voice alone is so uniquely distinctive that even when it starts its signature gymnastics, you’re not going to mistake it for somebody else. “Ah, I see David Bowie’s found a new way to tighten his trousers,” for example.
But he writes and records at such a breathtaking pace – and here, let us pause to reflect that those forty-eight albums bridge forty-five years, a pace that would probably kill most of today’s active artists – that he could surely be forgiven if he forgot, once or twice, that he’s already broached that subject, tortured that chord, echoed that melody some place else.
No. Maybe the occasional album winds up disappointing; maybe the odd song seems a little throwaway. But if there is any other currently-functioning artist who has remained as consistent, as prolific and, so unflinchingly original as Peter Hammill… and Neil Young and Richard Thompson maybe come close… then he/she obviously needs to get out more. And remind us who he (or she) is.
Other World is Hammill’s latest offering, recorded with former Magic Band alchemist guitarist Gary Lucas, and across fourteen tracks that seem truly collaborative, as opposed to one guy doing what the other one says, it finds our hero touching peaks that reminded these ears, at least, of that end of the seventies burst of energy that produced Ph7 and Sitting Targets. Just in terms of delivery and sound. Nothing tangible, nothing obvious and nothing, says Hammill, that he would agree with.
“Actually, no, I didn’t have the particular feeling that any of the solo albums were being referenced.” And he is equally vague on the subject of reference points. “I suppose [they] were, quite simply, our mutual enthusiasms.” Which, from Lucas’s point of view included a long time admiration of Hammill; and from Hammill’s, a long time not-really-admiration of Captain Beefheart. “Full respect to Don, of course, but I wouldn’t say I was a *fan* exactly. (I’m not, actually, much of a fan of anyone).”
GM: What prompted you to work in such a collaborative setting?
PH: Gary suggested that we have a try at “finding something.” And if you’re going into something like that, then it’s probably best to start without any preconceptions. This, in turn, meant that we were fully collaborative from the outset.
GM: How did you and Gary meet in the first place?
PH: We actually met way back in the 70s, when he came to a gig of mine, even interviewed me. Thereafter, or rather, more recently, we’d been in e-mail and Twitter contact.
GM: You talk about the collaborative process in the album’s liners, and on your blog, but were there many moments when one or the other of you just stopped what you were doing to marvel at what the other was doing? Or, vice versa, to run horrified from the room?
PH: Ah, well, the actual process was that we made our contributions solo, and then each reacted to the other afterwards. The improvisation was distanced-in-time, as it were. (By now, of course, we’ve proved that we can do it in real time on stage as well, as if there were any doubt…)
So I’d prepared a couple of (near-) song baking ideas and some loose soundscapes. When Gary came in, he did several versions of his song ideas, from which I could comp or choose master takes, and then a couple of ferocious live improvs.
And actually, one of the fascinating things about it all is that now, it’s sometimes hard to say exactly who’s playing what!!!
GM: The music industry has changed so much since you began, but you really do seem to have turned that to your advantage. With the best will in the world, I can’t imagine even Charisma having okayed something like the Pno Gtr Vox box [a seven CD box set focussing on Hammill’s 2010 Tokyo shows]! What do you think are the best aspects of the new “system”… and what are the worse?
PH: I’ve been in the new “system” as you call it from the 1990s, when I started [his own label] Fie!… as If I hadn’t already been nudging towards it before then. But control has certainly been mine since then.
Certain responsibilities, and potentially many pitfalls, come with that, but it’s suited me. And even the old system would have long had enough of me if I hadn’t distanced myself from it.
GM: You recently said in one of your on-line postings, “I’ve noticed… over recent years that I’m definitely slowing somewhat in both word and deed.” But reading through the monthly missives, you seem as busy as ever. You may not be pumping out an album or two every year, but who is? If you were just starting out now, we’d be lucky to see a new LP every three years. How do you deal with “downtime”?
PH: As my wife would tell, I’m not actually very good at “downtime” at all. Happily, I still find things to absorb me in making music and discovering new pieces, of whatever ilk. And it still makes more sense to me than most other things.
I suppose that when that stops, I’ll stop….
Okay, a quick pause. On top of all the regular albums, band and solo and live, there’s also a bountiful stash of what we’ll term archive releases – early compilations rounding up even earlier singles, a couple of discs of radio sessions, a Van Der Graaf box set that cherry-picks the bootlegs, a dark room full of the bootlegs themselves. And the wealth of odds, ends and out-takes appended to the last batch of CD remasters.
Next down the turnpike, Hammill reveals, is a fresh collection of Van Der Graaf live material, being assembled by Hugh Banton even as we speak. Comparing it to the aforementioned Pno Gtr Vox, he admits “I don’t think… it’ll come out as a mega-box, but it’ll be something of a document.”
So what is his relationship with his past, and what are the possibilities of seeing more from the vault?
PH: As a matter of fact, there’s really not that much [left] in there. I’ve always believed in pursuing something through to a full conclusion, if it’s worth working on at all, so there aren’t a whole load of out-takes or abandoned ideas.
GM: With so much of your back catalog available again, remastered, bonus tracked and so forth, do you ever go back and wish that you could (for want of a better expression) “relive” any particular periods, following different trains of thought or directions? Or is the past best left in the past?
PH: Nope, what’s done is done. Always, I like to think, with the best of intentions, and using the best of abilities, experience and technology available at the time. I’ll stick with that.
And finally, your December 2013 blog promised “more, different, work to come in 2014.” Can you give us a clue as to what that might be?
PH: Apart from the live VdGG – which will arrive in its own good time, doubtless – I’m in the last month or so of recording the next solo disc.
Tally ho!
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek (AllMusic)
Other World, the collaborative album by Peter Hammill and Gary Lucas, might seem an unlikely pairing on the surface, but its roots lie in an acquaintance and mutual admiration decades old. Hammill invited the New York guitarist to his studio in Bath to see what might transpire. Hammill sings; both men play guitars and add electronic treatments to the proceedings. "Spinning Coins" is a near pastoral folk ballad, with strummed acoustic guitars and Lucas' colorful, single-string digital delay effects that spiral yet restrain themselves under the vocal. On the brooding "Some Kind of Fracas," reverbed electric and acoustic guitars underscore the intensity and tension in Hammill's delivery. "Built from Scratch" and "Attar of Roses" are sequential instrumentals. On the former, feedback, harmonics, and a repetitive chord pattern frame a mercurial, even fractured sense of melody. The latter is even more abstract but contains a pronounced flamenco tinge as rounded, watery effects commingle with the duo's meandering guitars as they improvise. "This Is Showbiz" is a rumbling blues with Hammill's wry, bitter lyric in tandem with Lucas showcasing his abundant knowledge of and extrapolation from fingerpicked Delta forms -- before a bridge adds a touch of jazz syncopation. Nice! "Black Ice" is a rocker with completely improvised middle and closing sections, featuring squalling guitars and effects, while "The Kid" is rooted in the blues tradition, and Lucas' playing delivers abundantly. Hammill, however, offers sleight of hand and imbues his singing with elements from folk and prog simultaneously. "2 Views" is a spacious, almost cinematic love song with "found" layered chorus vocals adding drama to its elegance -- it contains Hammill's finest vocal on the set. Other World's closing pieces are also instrumentals. The snarling, if brief, "Means to End" is a rockist tease and countered by the graceful, gossamer ambience in "Slippery Slope." Other World is a fine album, and one where this pair's creative reach feels nearly boundless.
BIOGRAPHY (PETER HAMMILL)
by Thom Jurek
Peter Hammill is a prolific songwriter, singer, and co-founder of Van Der Graaf Generator; he has also released dozens of solo recordings on a series of labels and later on his own Fie! Records. Though he never attained the public profile of fellow countryman David Bowie, Hammill's recording career has proven just as groundbreaking and uncompromising.
Hammill was born in 1948 in the west London suburb of Ealing, moving to Derby when he was 12. As a child and young adolescent, he was subject to Catholic teachings, particularly those of the Jesuit order. Though he ceased practicing the religion later in his teens, its influence, as well those of history, depth psychology, and philosophy, have been profound in his music. Hammill discovered music at a fairly young age, learning piano as a child.
He began playing guitar in his teens. He was steeped in classical music as well as opera and avant-garde, but also loved rock & roll. His discovery of new wave science fiction authors Michael Moorcock, Harlan Ellison, and Tom Disch, among others, also influenced his thoughts and music at the time.
While studying at Manchester University, Hammill met drummer Nick Peame and keyboardist/saxophonist Chris Judge Smith (who had just returned from studying at the University of California in Berkeley); the trio formed the first version of Van Der Graaf Generator, though Judge Smith left when the band began to tour in 1968, and Peame left in 1969.
Hammill (vocals, acoustic guitar and electric piano) enlisted Hugh Banton (organ, bass pedals), Guy Evans (drums), David Jackson (reeds and winds), and bassists Keith Ellis (1968-1969), and Nic Potter (1970). The band released four highly influential albums --The Aerosol Grey Machine, The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other, H to He, Who Am the Only One, and Pawn Hearts -- between 1969 and 1971 before breaking up for the first time in 1972.
After the split, Hammill began releasing a series of provocative, diverse, and at times astonishing solo recordings: Fool's Mate (1971), Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night (1973), The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage and In Camera (1974), Nadir's Big Chance (1975, which saw the emergence of his punk alter ego, Riki Nadir), and Over (1977), all for the Charisma label. These records established his reputation as not only a songwriter and composer of consequence, but as a singular vocalist.
In the middle of his solo run, Van Der Graaf Generator reunited in 1975 and released Godbluff. They followed it with two offerings in 1976, Still Life and World Record. Banton and Jackson left the group almost immediately after. Hammill and Evans changed the name to Van Der Graaf, added violinist Graham Smith, and recorded The Quiet Zone in 1977. A live album, Vital, followed in 1978, and the group disbanded again, though its members continued to appear on Hammill's solo work. The songwriter resumed his solo career with 1977's provocative Future Now, followed by pH7 in 1978. These marked his final two dates for Charisma. Taken with his earlier solo recordings, they make for diverse and groundbreaking run in art/prog rock that has never lacked in eclecticism, ambition, and adventurousness.
Hammill didn't record again until 1980, when he released the completely solo -- and subsequently regarded as a classic -- A Black Box for S-Type. He signed to Virgin later that year. Sitting Targets, his debut for the label, was followed by another fine run that included Enter K (another of his alter egos) in 1982, Patience (1983), The Love Songs (1984), And Close as This, and Skin (both in 1986). In 1988, Hammill contracted with American independent Enigma for three albums: 1988's In a Foreign Town, 1990's Out of Water, and the acclaimed completely solo Room Temperature: Live. In 1991 he released his first opera, a musical re-enactment of Edgar Allan Poe's, The Fall of the House of Usher, co-written with Judge Smith. Though Hammill performed all of the instruments and many of the vocals, other artists who contributed voices included Lene Lovich, Andy Bell, and Herbert Grönemeyer. The album appeared on Some Bizarre.
In 1992 the songwriter formally launched his Fie! Records label with an acknowledged masterpiece, Fireships, cut in his home studio in Bath. It was followed by The Noise and a live offering in 1993, and Roaring Forties in 1994.
With few exceptions -- notably 1993's Offensichtlich Goldfisch and 1996's Tides -- Hammill recorded his solo works exclusively for Fie! Some of these received distribution across the Atlantic, including X My Heart (1996) and Everyone You Hold (1998). In 1999, he collaborated with composer Roger Eno for The Appointed Hour.
In the 21st century, Hammill showed no sign of slowing down. Playing live somewhat regularly, he set up his own website, Sofa Sound, in order to distribute his recordings to fans and communicate with them via a blog and regular news updates. Significant albums include 2000's None of the Above, 2002's Clutch, and 2004's Incoherence.
In 2004, the classic lineup of Van Der Graaf Generator played together for the first time since the '70s at a pair of Hammill's solo shows. Though he'd rejected the idea of another reunion for over a decade, he, Jackson, Evans, and Banton re-formed and issued Present, a brand-new studio album, in 2005. Fans and critics agreed on its significance and merit. It made several year-end lists, including The Wire's. A live record was cut at Royal Albert Hall that year and issued in 2008, the same year as their next studio offering, Trisector. A Grounding in Numbers and Alt were issued on Esoteric in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
Hammill's solo career continued without a break. In 2006 he released Incoherence, followed that same year by a duet recording with Stuart Gordon entitled Veracious (sic). He found time to write for himself as well as Van Der Graaf Generator, even on tour. He released Thin Air in 2009, followed by Consequences in 2012.
After a long email correspondence, Hammill invited the eclectic and prolific New York guitarist Gary Lucas (Captain Beefheart) to his studio in Bath with no particular goal in mind. Ideas flew fast and furious and the pair emerged with the accessible yet thoroughly experimental The Other World. It was issued by Esoteric in February of 2014.
BIOGRAPHY (GARY LUCAS)
by Joslyn Layne (AllMusic)
When Gary Lucas was nine, his dad suggested he take up playing the guitar. Although he followed his dad's suggestion, Lucas focused more on the French horn that he played for his elementary-school band, and continued to play that instrument until getting kicked out of his high-school band. Lucas then focused wholly on the guitar, and played in various groups throughout the '60s. As a campus station music director during his second year at Yale, Lucas saw Captain Beefheart in concert and immediately wanted to play with Beefheart's unique band more than anything. Shortly thereafter, he interviewed and got to know Beefheart.
Lucas soon performed as a soloist in the European premiere of Bernstein's Mass (From the Liturgy of the Roman Mass) (1973), and after graduating from college, moved to Taipei for two years. During that time, he led a locally popular group, the O-Bay-Gone-Band, until a chaotic 1976 show broke out in a brawl that seriously injured many people. Upset, Lucas promptly returned to the States, hooked back up with Beefheart, and was finally invited to join the band. He appears on Doc at the Radar Station, and was a full member of the group by the time of the Ice Cream for Crow album. After Beefheart retired in the early '80s to pursue painting, Lucas couldn't imagine topping his experience of playing in a group he considered the number one avant-garde rock band in the world, so he switched over to the production end of music, producing albums by Peter Gordon and Tim Berne, among others.
In 1988, Lucas returned to live performance with a highly acclaimed solo set at N.Y.C.'s Knitting Factory, and continued to play shows and tour for more than a decade to follow. Shortly after his return, he collaborated with longtime friend Walter Horn on a score for The Golem (a 1920 German Expressionist film) as a commission for the 1989 Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival. That same year, Lucas formed his rock band Gods and Monsters. Over time, the band's lineups included Jeff Buckley and Matthew Sweet. By 1999, the Gods and Monsters lineup was in trio form with ex-Swans drummer Jonathan Kane and former Modern Lovers bassist Ernie Brooks; the LP Improve the Shining Hour appeared in early 2000. But there was other activity as well.
In addition to Gods and Monsters, Lucas formed the Du-Tels in 1994, a psychedelic folk duo with Peter Stampfel, and recorded the solo album Bad Boys of the Arctic for Enemy. He followed it in 1996 with a solo acoustic guitar album entitled Evangeline. Lucas released Busy Being Born for Tzadik in 1998, followed by Street of Lost Brothers, another project for the label, in 2000. He collaborated with lutist and electronic musician Jozef Van Wissem on two albums, Diplopia and The Universe of Absence, issued in 2003 and 2004, respectively. Coming Clean, a Gods and Monsters release, appeared in 2006.
In 2008, Beyond the Pale, credited to Gary Lucas vs. the Dark Poets (the electronic British soundtrack duo), appeared on Some Bizarre. That same year, Rishte, a collaborative album with vocalist Najma Akhtar, appeared, and he joined with jazz and blues vocalist Dean Bowman to form Chase the Devil. The duo explored the spiritual and secular roots of the blues and released the self-titled Chase the Devil on Knitting Factory in 2009. Lucas was back with Gods and Monsters for The Ordeal of Civility, produced by Jerry Harrison and released by Knitting Factory in 2011.
In 2012, Gary Lucas Plays Bohemian Classics -- solo acoustic arrangements of Czech composers -- was issued in the Czech Republic. In 2013, Lucas released Cinefantastique on Northern Spy, a collection of film scores he performed solo, and published a memoir, Touched by Grace: My Time with Jeff Buckley. He also recorded a collaborative album with British singer and songwriter Peter Hammill, co-founder of Van der Graaf Generator. Co-billed, the album entitled Other World was issued by Esoteric in early 2014.
OFFICIAL WEBSITE (PETER HAMMILL)
OFFICIAL WEBSITE (GARY LUCAS)
''OTHER WORLD''
RECORDED AT TERRA INCOGNITA, WILTSHIRE BY PH, JANUARY TO JUNE 2013
FEBRUARY 3 2014
58:56
1 Spinning Coins 02:49
2 Some Kind Of Fracas 05:10
3 Of Kith & Kin 05:25
4 Cash 02:52
5 Built From Scratch 04:21
6 Attar Of Roses 04:14
7 This Is Showbiz 03:00
8 Reboot 06:52
9 Black Ice 04:54
10 The Kid 04:11
11 Glass 03:24
12 2 Views 03:03
13 Means To An End 01:33
14 Slippery Slope 07:00
All Tracks By Hammill & Lucas
Peter Hammill - Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Vox, Found Sounds
Gary Lucas - Acoustic & Electric Guitars, FX
REVIEW AND INTERVIEW
By Dave Thompson, February 28, 2014
Thirty-six albums into his solo career, with another dozen Van Der Graaf Generator discs, and a whole heap of live-and-otherwise too, it’s always surprising when a new Peter Hammill record appears, and you realize that he has still to start repeating himself.
Of course, you know it’s Hammill from the start. The voice alone is so uniquely distinctive that even when it starts its signature gymnastics, you’re not going to mistake it for somebody else. “Ah, I see David Bowie’s found a new way to tighten his trousers,” for example.
But he writes and records at such a breathtaking pace – and here, let us pause to reflect that those forty-eight albums bridge forty-five years, a pace that would probably kill most of today’s active artists – that he could surely be forgiven if he forgot, once or twice, that he’s already broached that subject, tortured that chord, echoed that melody some place else.
No. Maybe the occasional album winds up disappointing; maybe the odd song seems a little throwaway. But if there is any other currently-functioning artist who has remained as consistent, as prolific and, so unflinchingly original as Peter Hammill… and Neil Young and Richard Thompson maybe come close… then he/she obviously needs to get out more. And remind us who he (or she) is.
Other World is Hammill’s latest offering, recorded with former Magic Band alchemist guitarist Gary Lucas, and across fourteen tracks that seem truly collaborative, as opposed to one guy doing what the other one says, it finds our hero touching peaks that reminded these ears, at least, of that end of the seventies burst of energy that produced Ph7 and Sitting Targets. Just in terms of delivery and sound. Nothing tangible, nothing obvious and nothing, says Hammill, that he would agree with.
“Actually, no, I didn’t have the particular feeling that any of the solo albums were being referenced.” And he is equally vague on the subject of reference points. “I suppose [they] were, quite simply, our mutual enthusiasms.” Which, from Lucas’s point of view included a long time admiration of Hammill; and from Hammill’s, a long time not-really-admiration of Captain Beefheart. “Full respect to Don, of course, but I wouldn’t say I was a *fan* exactly. (I’m not, actually, much of a fan of anyone).”
GM: What prompted you to work in such a collaborative setting?
PH: Gary suggested that we have a try at “finding something.” And if you’re going into something like that, then it’s probably best to start without any preconceptions. This, in turn, meant that we were fully collaborative from the outset.
GM: How did you and Gary meet in the first place?
PH: We actually met way back in the 70s, when he came to a gig of mine, even interviewed me. Thereafter, or rather, more recently, we’d been in e-mail and Twitter contact.
GM: You talk about the collaborative process in the album’s liners, and on your blog, but were there many moments when one or the other of you just stopped what you were doing to marvel at what the other was doing? Or, vice versa, to run horrified from the room?
PH: Ah, well, the actual process was that we made our contributions solo, and then each reacted to the other afterwards. The improvisation was distanced-in-time, as it were. (By now, of course, we’ve proved that we can do it in real time on stage as well, as if there were any doubt…)
So I’d prepared a couple of (near-) song baking ideas and some loose soundscapes. When Gary came in, he did several versions of his song ideas, from which I could comp or choose master takes, and then a couple of ferocious live improvs.
And actually, one of the fascinating things about it all is that now, it’s sometimes hard to say exactly who’s playing what!!!
GM: The music industry has changed so much since you began, but you really do seem to have turned that to your advantage. With the best will in the world, I can’t imagine even Charisma having okayed something like the Pno Gtr Vox box [a seven CD box set focussing on Hammill’s 2010 Tokyo shows]! What do you think are the best aspects of the new “system”… and what are the worse?
PH: I’ve been in the new “system” as you call it from the 1990s, when I started [his own label] Fie!… as If I hadn’t already been nudging towards it before then. But control has certainly been mine since then.
Certain responsibilities, and potentially many pitfalls, come with that, but it’s suited me. And even the old system would have long had enough of me if I hadn’t distanced myself from it.
GM: You recently said in one of your on-line postings, “I’ve noticed… over recent years that I’m definitely slowing somewhat in both word and deed.” But reading through the monthly missives, you seem as busy as ever. You may not be pumping out an album or two every year, but who is? If you were just starting out now, we’d be lucky to see a new LP every three years. How do you deal with “downtime”?
PH: As my wife would tell, I’m not actually very good at “downtime” at all. Happily, I still find things to absorb me in making music and discovering new pieces, of whatever ilk. And it still makes more sense to me than most other things.
I suppose that when that stops, I’ll stop….
Okay, a quick pause. On top of all the regular albums, band and solo and live, there’s also a bountiful stash of what we’ll term archive releases – early compilations rounding up even earlier singles, a couple of discs of radio sessions, a Van Der Graaf box set that cherry-picks the bootlegs, a dark room full of the bootlegs themselves. And the wealth of odds, ends and out-takes appended to the last batch of CD remasters.
Next down the turnpike, Hammill reveals, is a fresh collection of Van Der Graaf live material, being assembled by Hugh Banton even as we speak. Comparing it to the aforementioned Pno Gtr Vox, he admits “I don’t think… it’ll come out as a mega-box, but it’ll be something of a document.”
So what is his relationship with his past, and what are the possibilities of seeing more from the vault?
PH: As a matter of fact, there’s really not that much [left] in there. I’ve always believed in pursuing something through to a full conclusion, if it’s worth working on at all, so there aren’t a whole load of out-takes or abandoned ideas.
GM: With so much of your back catalog available again, remastered, bonus tracked and so forth, do you ever go back and wish that you could (for want of a better expression) “relive” any particular periods, following different trains of thought or directions? Or is the past best left in the past?
PH: Nope, what’s done is done. Always, I like to think, with the best of intentions, and using the best of abilities, experience and technology available at the time. I’ll stick with that.
And finally, your December 2013 blog promised “more, different, work to come in 2014.” Can you give us a clue as to what that might be?
PH: Apart from the live VdGG – which will arrive in its own good time, doubtless – I’m in the last month or so of recording the next solo disc.
Tally ho!
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek (AllMusic)
Other World, the collaborative album by Peter Hammill and Gary Lucas, might seem an unlikely pairing on the surface, but its roots lie in an acquaintance and mutual admiration decades old. Hammill invited the New York guitarist to his studio in Bath to see what might transpire. Hammill sings; both men play guitars and add electronic treatments to the proceedings. "Spinning Coins" is a near pastoral folk ballad, with strummed acoustic guitars and Lucas' colorful, single-string digital delay effects that spiral yet restrain themselves under the vocal. On the brooding "Some Kind of Fracas," reverbed electric and acoustic guitars underscore the intensity and tension in Hammill's delivery. "Built from Scratch" and "Attar of Roses" are sequential instrumentals. On the former, feedback, harmonics, and a repetitive chord pattern frame a mercurial, even fractured sense of melody. The latter is even more abstract but contains a pronounced flamenco tinge as rounded, watery effects commingle with the duo's meandering guitars as they improvise. "This Is Showbiz" is a rumbling blues with Hammill's wry, bitter lyric in tandem with Lucas showcasing his abundant knowledge of and extrapolation from fingerpicked Delta forms -- before a bridge adds a touch of jazz syncopation. Nice! "Black Ice" is a rocker with completely improvised middle and closing sections, featuring squalling guitars and effects, while "The Kid" is rooted in the blues tradition, and Lucas' playing delivers abundantly. Hammill, however, offers sleight of hand and imbues his singing with elements from folk and prog simultaneously. "2 Views" is a spacious, almost cinematic love song with "found" layered chorus vocals adding drama to its elegance -- it contains Hammill's finest vocal on the set. Other World's closing pieces are also instrumentals. The snarling, if brief, "Means to End" is a rockist tease and countered by the graceful, gossamer ambience in "Slippery Slope." Other World is a fine album, and one where this pair's creative reach feels nearly boundless.
BIOGRAPHY (PETER HAMMILL)
by Thom Jurek
Peter Hammill is a prolific songwriter, singer, and co-founder of Van Der Graaf Generator; he has also released dozens of solo recordings on a series of labels and later on his own Fie! Records. Though he never attained the public profile of fellow countryman David Bowie, Hammill's recording career has proven just as groundbreaking and uncompromising.
Hammill was born in 1948 in the west London suburb of Ealing, moving to Derby when he was 12. As a child and young adolescent, he was subject to Catholic teachings, particularly those of the Jesuit order. Though he ceased practicing the religion later in his teens, its influence, as well those of history, depth psychology, and philosophy, have been profound in his music. Hammill discovered music at a fairly young age, learning piano as a child.
He began playing guitar in his teens. He was steeped in classical music as well as opera and avant-garde, but also loved rock & roll. His discovery of new wave science fiction authors Michael Moorcock, Harlan Ellison, and Tom Disch, among others, also influenced his thoughts and music at the time.
While studying at Manchester University, Hammill met drummer Nick Peame and keyboardist/saxophonist Chris Judge Smith (who had just returned from studying at the University of California in Berkeley); the trio formed the first version of Van Der Graaf Generator, though Judge Smith left when the band began to tour in 1968, and Peame left in 1969.
Hammill (vocals, acoustic guitar and electric piano) enlisted Hugh Banton (organ, bass pedals), Guy Evans (drums), David Jackson (reeds and winds), and bassists Keith Ellis (1968-1969), and Nic Potter (1970). The band released four highly influential albums --The Aerosol Grey Machine, The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other, H to He, Who Am the Only One, and Pawn Hearts -- between 1969 and 1971 before breaking up for the first time in 1972.
After the split, Hammill began releasing a series of provocative, diverse, and at times astonishing solo recordings: Fool's Mate (1971), Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night (1973), The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage and In Camera (1974), Nadir's Big Chance (1975, which saw the emergence of his punk alter ego, Riki Nadir), and Over (1977), all for the Charisma label. These records established his reputation as not only a songwriter and composer of consequence, but as a singular vocalist.
In the middle of his solo run, Van Der Graaf Generator reunited in 1975 and released Godbluff. They followed it with two offerings in 1976, Still Life and World Record. Banton and Jackson left the group almost immediately after. Hammill and Evans changed the name to Van Der Graaf, added violinist Graham Smith, and recorded The Quiet Zone in 1977. A live album, Vital, followed in 1978, and the group disbanded again, though its members continued to appear on Hammill's solo work. The songwriter resumed his solo career with 1977's provocative Future Now, followed by pH7 in 1978. These marked his final two dates for Charisma. Taken with his earlier solo recordings, they make for diverse and groundbreaking run in art/prog rock that has never lacked in eclecticism, ambition, and adventurousness.
Hammill didn't record again until 1980, when he released the completely solo -- and subsequently regarded as a classic -- A Black Box for S-Type. He signed to Virgin later that year. Sitting Targets, his debut for the label, was followed by another fine run that included Enter K (another of his alter egos) in 1982, Patience (1983), The Love Songs (1984), And Close as This, and Skin (both in 1986). In 1988, Hammill contracted with American independent Enigma for three albums: 1988's In a Foreign Town, 1990's Out of Water, and the acclaimed completely solo Room Temperature: Live. In 1991 he released his first opera, a musical re-enactment of Edgar Allan Poe's, The Fall of the House of Usher, co-written with Judge Smith. Though Hammill performed all of the instruments and many of the vocals, other artists who contributed voices included Lene Lovich, Andy Bell, and Herbert Grönemeyer. The album appeared on Some Bizarre.
In 1992 the songwriter formally launched his Fie! Records label with an acknowledged masterpiece, Fireships, cut in his home studio in Bath. It was followed by The Noise and a live offering in 1993, and Roaring Forties in 1994.
With few exceptions -- notably 1993's Offensichtlich Goldfisch and 1996's Tides -- Hammill recorded his solo works exclusively for Fie! Some of these received distribution across the Atlantic, including X My Heart (1996) and Everyone You Hold (1998). In 1999, he collaborated with composer Roger Eno for The Appointed Hour.
In the 21st century, Hammill showed no sign of slowing down. Playing live somewhat regularly, he set up his own website, Sofa Sound, in order to distribute his recordings to fans and communicate with them via a blog and regular news updates. Significant albums include 2000's None of the Above, 2002's Clutch, and 2004's Incoherence.
In 2004, the classic lineup of Van Der Graaf Generator played together for the first time since the '70s at a pair of Hammill's solo shows. Though he'd rejected the idea of another reunion for over a decade, he, Jackson, Evans, and Banton re-formed and issued Present, a brand-new studio album, in 2005. Fans and critics agreed on its significance and merit. It made several year-end lists, including The Wire's. A live record was cut at Royal Albert Hall that year and issued in 2008, the same year as their next studio offering, Trisector. A Grounding in Numbers and Alt were issued on Esoteric in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
Hammill's solo career continued without a break. In 2006 he released Incoherence, followed that same year by a duet recording with Stuart Gordon entitled Veracious (sic). He found time to write for himself as well as Van Der Graaf Generator, even on tour. He released Thin Air in 2009, followed by Consequences in 2012.
After a long email correspondence, Hammill invited the eclectic and prolific New York guitarist Gary Lucas (Captain Beefheart) to his studio in Bath with no particular goal in mind. Ideas flew fast and furious and the pair emerged with the accessible yet thoroughly experimental The Other World. It was issued by Esoteric in February of 2014.
BIOGRAPHY (GARY LUCAS)
by Joslyn Layne (AllMusic)
When Gary Lucas was nine, his dad suggested he take up playing the guitar. Although he followed his dad's suggestion, Lucas focused more on the French horn that he played for his elementary-school band, and continued to play that instrument until getting kicked out of his high-school band. Lucas then focused wholly on the guitar, and played in various groups throughout the '60s. As a campus station music director during his second year at Yale, Lucas saw Captain Beefheart in concert and immediately wanted to play with Beefheart's unique band more than anything. Shortly thereafter, he interviewed and got to know Beefheart.
Lucas soon performed as a soloist in the European premiere of Bernstein's Mass (From the Liturgy of the Roman Mass) (1973), and after graduating from college, moved to Taipei for two years. During that time, he led a locally popular group, the O-Bay-Gone-Band, until a chaotic 1976 show broke out in a brawl that seriously injured many people. Upset, Lucas promptly returned to the States, hooked back up with Beefheart, and was finally invited to join the band. He appears on Doc at the Radar Station, and was a full member of the group by the time of the Ice Cream for Crow album. After Beefheart retired in the early '80s to pursue painting, Lucas couldn't imagine topping his experience of playing in a group he considered the number one avant-garde rock band in the world, so he switched over to the production end of music, producing albums by Peter Gordon and Tim Berne, among others.
In 1988, Lucas returned to live performance with a highly acclaimed solo set at N.Y.C.'s Knitting Factory, and continued to play shows and tour for more than a decade to follow. Shortly after his return, he collaborated with longtime friend Walter Horn on a score for The Golem (a 1920 German Expressionist film) as a commission for the 1989 Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival. That same year, Lucas formed his rock band Gods and Monsters. Over time, the band's lineups included Jeff Buckley and Matthew Sweet. By 1999, the Gods and Monsters lineup was in trio form with ex-Swans drummer Jonathan Kane and former Modern Lovers bassist Ernie Brooks; the LP Improve the Shining Hour appeared in early 2000. But there was other activity as well.
In addition to Gods and Monsters, Lucas formed the Du-Tels in 1994, a psychedelic folk duo with Peter Stampfel, and recorded the solo album Bad Boys of the Arctic for Enemy. He followed it in 1996 with a solo acoustic guitar album entitled Evangeline. Lucas released Busy Being Born for Tzadik in 1998, followed by Street of Lost Brothers, another project for the label, in 2000. He collaborated with lutist and electronic musician Jozef Van Wissem on two albums, Diplopia and The Universe of Absence, issued in 2003 and 2004, respectively. Coming Clean, a Gods and Monsters release, appeared in 2006.
In 2008, Beyond the Pale, credited to Gary Lucas vs. the Dark Poets (the electronic British soundtrack duo), appeared on Some Bizarre. That same year, Rishte, a collaborative album with vocalist Najma Akhtar, appeared, and he joined with jazz and blues vocalist Dean Bowman to form Chase the Devil. The duo explored the spiritual and secular roots of the blues and released the self-titled Chase the Devil on Knitting Factory in 2009. Lucas was back with Gods and Monsters for The Ordeal of Civility, produced by Jerry Harrison and released by Knitting Factory in 2011.
In 2012, Gary Lucas Plays Bohemian Classics -- solo acoustic arrangements of Czech composers -- was issued in the Czech Republic. In 2013, Lucas released Cinefantastique on Northern Spy, a collection of film scores he performed solo, and published a memoir, Touched by Grace: My Time with Jeff Buckley. He also recorded a collaborative album with British singer and songwriter Peter Hammill, co-founder of Van der Graaf Generator. Co-billed, the album entitled Other World was issued by Esoteric in early 2014.
OFFICIAL WEBSITE (PETER HAMMILL)
OFFICIAL WEBSITE (GARY LUCAS)
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