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Van der Graaf Generator: Do Not Disturb
by Glenn Astarita
You can't have a serious conversation about the infancy of progressive rock without citing Van der Graff Generator (VdGG) as one of the genre's driving forces amid its influence back in the '70s and beyond. They may not have been as widely known or sold as many records as King Crimson, Yes or Emerson, Lake & Palmer, but VdGG's singular imprint stands tall amongst the upper echelon of bands that sparked a re-imagination of the tried and true, namely conventional ...
read moreSanguine Hum: What We Ask Is Where We Begin - The Songs for Days Sessions
by John Kelman
Few groups in the history of music can be credited with having come up with something as wonderfully absurd (yet, somehow, totally making sense) as Sanguine Hum. On its last album, the two-CD concept album Now We Have Light (Esoteric Antenna, 2014), the group told the story of a Dystopian future where our hero, Don (just Don), uncovers the “Buttered Cat Theory of Perpetual Energy" (if you want to know what that is, you'll have to read the review).
read moreTheo Travis’ Double Talk: Transgression
by Roger Farbey
The chiming notes of a very Mahavishnu Orchestra sounding guitar open the tension-rich “Fire Mountain" hotly pursued by Theo Travis' intense tenor sax soloing and coruscating axe work from Mike Outram. A change of pace is heard in the title track, beginning slowly but gradually building-up in pace and volume, Outram's fuzzy guitar twinned with Travis' sax comprise the melodic driving force, all underpinned by organ from Pete Whittaker and crackling drums from seasoned percussionist Nic France. The ...
read moreSanguine Hum: Now We Have Light
by John Kelman
Sometimes things take a long time to gestate in the minds of musicians, but Sanguine Hum may well be eligible for entry in the Guinness Book of World Records-- if there was such a category (and if there isn't, perhaps now there should be)--for Longest Time to Bring a Musical Concept to Fruition. OK, it's a clunky name and someone at Guinness will have to do better, but with the double-disc concept album Now We Have Light, Sanguine Hum has ...
read moreMerlin Atmos (Deluxe Edition)
by John Kelman
For a group that has released only three studio albums since reforming in 2005 after a quarter-century hiatus--longer when considering the “classic" lineup with singer/pianist/guitarist Peter Hammill, keyboardist Hugh Banton and drummer Guy Evans was last heard on World Record (Charisma, 1976), and forgetting about 2012's atypical ALT (Esoteric), an album of improvisation-driven instrumentals--Van der Graaf Generator sure has released a lot of live albums in the past few years. Since the spectacular Real Time (Fie!, 2007)--which documented ...
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