I was listening to Van Der Graaf Generators "World Record" today..... a lumbering beast of a thing it is with some immense prog noise leaping out of the speakers as I trundled through the back streets of Salford...it was released in October 1976 at the heart of the punk explosion....interesting to note then that the liner notes mentioned Messrs Lydon and Smith (ME) as "fans" of the band....some 32 years later it feels as fresh now as it did then. Like The Fall, VDGG are unique, built around a gnomic front man with an idiosyncratic vocal style and a fondness for language. Like The Fall then band relies on riffs and repetition.
However I'm not sure your average Fall fan would take to the bands prog leanings.
The centrepiece is the sprawling 20 minute Meurglys III a riff dominated tirade about songwriting which morphs into a slow melodic section and then into a jamaican style guitar jam. Hammill's admitted that his guitar playing is very basic and the beauty of this piece is that he does not try to do a Steve Vai but in true Miles Davis style "less is more".
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