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[	Current Music	|	Van Der Graaf Generator - The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other	]

Album: Aerosol Grey Machine
Artist: Van Der Graaf Generator
Release date:1969
Genre:: Progressive Rock
Scene: London

Album: The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other
Artist: Van Der Graaf Generator
Release date:1969
Genre:: Progressive Rock
Scene: London

"Aerosol Grey Machine" is a mixed bag of style. It one of those albums, where the band searches its style by throwing staff to the wall and seeing what will stick. many songs on this album would fit young David Bowie. The titular "Aerosol Grey Machine" is dark fun cabaret performance. Song "Aquarian" in many moments sounds partly as a psychedelic anthem but in other parts it is lament for a dying hippy dream:" Hardly any money... Who needs bread anyway? \\ Well, I mean to say, it's just a road to freedom! \\ Everything's too funny; we just ride along so high \\ Watch the bad scenes floating by; who needs them? \\". But the real highlight of this album for me is the song "Necromancer". While most psychedelia adjacent bands used abstract absurdist poetry a lyrics, or preferred to talk about drugs in some kind of birds' language, this song is full blown fantasy epic: Yes, I live in the black woods, where you dare not \\ Even speak my name \\ If there is evil in your heart and you come near me \\ You will lose your sane \\ My form is mystic, but my heart is pure \\ You'd better believe what I say \\ I am the Necromancer (I am the Necromancer) \\ ...\\ Every day, the power is greater \\ And soon the world will come to rights \\ Through the magic, through the power \\ Shaman shall die on the seventh night \ And now remember, magic is here \\ You'd better believe in the White \\ I am the Necromancer (I am the Necromancer) \\ [Chorus] I am the Necromancer (I am the Necromancer) I think this is a real cultural shift here. Because, the only song comparable in its topic until now is "In the court of King Crimson". Also, probably "Black Sabbath" also had chased the same urge but on a more raw musical level. And in a few years, this style of song-writing will be fetched by the multitude of metal bands. This, probably, was an answer for an urge for fantasy and science fiction. And "Van der Graaf Generator" as new young band were not strangers to this urge. Many other songs on this album have a dark sci fi story implied by their lyrics. This kind of stories could have been inspired by prose which had been publishing in the "New Worlds" magazine in the mid to late sixties. Another highlight of the album is "Octopus" with its cascading orchestral jam. This is also one of the most abstract songs on this album, which opposes the direct fantasy tale of the "Necromancer".

The second album "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other" is there for many fans the real "Van der Graaf Generator" starts. Here the band fully lunges into dark sci fi/fantasy epic territory pioneered by the "Necromancer" of the first album. "Darkness (11/11)" is a fitting dark opener for this album, with its lyrics full of self-loathing ("I didn't choose it" Peter Hammill sings about his life) and its interludes with resonating guitar and saxophone. The next song "Refugees" is an ornate baroque romantic song counter-posing the darkness of its neighbors. The topic of this song strangely complements the short story "the slaves" by Thomas Disch. Bu the next song "white hammer" is a dark historic fantasy epic about the real historic book "Hammer of the witches" and corresponding which hunts and inquisition. But the song takes an unusual fantasy turn describing stating that as in a result of witch hunts were slayed not only black magicians but also white magicians. Here is a fragment of the lyrics:"Though Hexenhammer was intended to slay only evil \\ Fear and anger against magic overspilled: \\ They also killed those of the White \\ So for two centuries and more they tried to slay \\ Both the Black and the White Arts - \\ But spirits override pain \\ For every one that the torture took, two were hid secure \\ And so the craft, yes, it endured \\ Love and hate lived on in the face of fear \\ Hexenhammer's force died \\ And the real power became clear:... ". But not only the lyrics are impressive in this song. It ends with an insane and ominous free jazz like segment. Next son is "Whatever Would Robert Have Said?". I think it is a song about the eponymous "Van de Graaf generator". It's dark and heavy, a real progressive masterpiece switching between multiple tempos and time signatures and featuring a strong creative instrumental section. "Out of My Book" is another light spot on this album. It features guitars, which remind me of a Genesis' album "Trespass". "After the Flood" is a final dark sci fi epic. It paints a picture of humanity devastated by a flood , which is not unlike something, which can be described in the novels by J. G. Ballard: The ice is turning to water The ice is turning to water \\ The water rushes over all \\ Cities crash in the mighty wave; \\ The final man is very small \\ Plunging in for his final bathe \\ The water rushes over all \\ Cities crash in the mighty wave; \\ The final man is very small \\ Plunging in for his final bathe \\ ... Poles are fixed once more \\ Water is receding, like death and blood leaving \\ And when the water falls again All is dead and nobody lives \\ ... And then he said: \\ "Every step appears to be \\ The unavoidable consequence of the preceding one \\ And in the end there beckons more and more clearly \\ Total annihilation". Indeed, this is an absolutely new lyrical direction and mood for the music in the 60's. There were all kind of musical virtuoso before "Van der Graaf Generator". But I can' imagine any of 60's bans singing about topic like this. Nevertheless, musically this song is also exceptional with it's long instrumental breaks with insanely raving free jazz saxophone. And the worlds "annihilations" in the lyrics above being distorted and stranded to some inhuman limits.

Overall. I can attest that the early work of "Van der Graaf" generator has a special place in the "evolution" of popular/rock music. Clearly, I will put it above all the bands from the previous post just for this reason alone.