Van Der Graaf Generator
Present

THE REVIEW

They unexpectedly reappeared in 2005.

We had left them, or rather, they had left us quietly, almost on tiptoe, the Van Der Graaf Generator, with the last studio album (The Quiet Zone / The Pleasure Dome, from 1977) and with a final live, Vital from 1978, to mark the definitive end of the group's activity.

But these two albums had left many question marks: the absence of David Jackson and Hugh Banton, Graham Smith's violin instead of the sax, the return of bassist Nick Potter. No, it couldn't end like this, because just when no one expects to even hear their name mentioned again, the cursed quartet of English Progressive returns to the scene. And they do it in style. Just four faces in the dark: a cover that already hints at the mood of the entire album. A great gothic ballad indeed opens 'Present', the new classic of the band Every Bloody Emperor. Here Hammill sings like in the old days, and the keyboards played by him and Hugh Banton do the rest. The lyrics are as dark as ever: Hammill lashes out against all the figures who, thirsty for power, abused it, ultimately sinking; but he also speaks about the people living under these regimes, reduced to the role of "servants and slaves".

The instrumental Boleas Panic was written by saxophonist and flutist David Jackson and it's a dark piece, with the wind section naturally in great evidence. Nutter Alert is the other great piece of the album, where Hammill's voice once again evokes all the drama we already knew from the past. Painfully fantastic. In Abandon Ship that genius Peter Hammill picks up the guitar, plays it with weird effects, sings peculiar vocal lines over it, and then almost recites during the interludes. And then there's In Babelsberg, another complicated track, like the one before, where the drum rhythms are unplayable, but certainly not for the great Guy Evans. Finally, On The Beach, a calm ballad, worthy of past tracks like Refugees. But the party isn't over yet.

Not one, but two are the CDs: a great gift for every fan. The studio improvisations, ah, an unlistenable prog-delight, impossible to comment on song by song. Whoever withstands listening to the end can call themselves a true Progman (a bit like the live Thrakkathak by King Crimson). A complicated listen, it's true, but one to frame. It's a great reunion then (bands like Genesis should follow their example!), born by chance in 2004 during a dinner among old friends at Peter Hammill's cottage. Taking up the instruments again immediately seemed like an extraordinary idea to the group, which had been immersed in other activities for too long: David Jackson worked with disabled children, Hugh Banton had opened a company that built organs, Guy Evans was a drum teacher, while Peter Hammill had been the only one not to leave the stage with a great solo career full of originality.

Finding them again in record stores with a new album was an immense emotion, imagine what those who, like me, saw them live at the Consevatory in Milan felt, on that magical June 11, 2005…