Quiet Zone

"The Quite zone" "The Pleasure Dome" was by far the more adventurous of the post VDGG reformation of 1975three lp's. Banton and jackson had sadly left and was replaced" by ex-bassist Nic Potter and Graham Smith of "String Driven Thing" and could not of filled the VDG ethos better. Both departures seemed to free Hammill in the writing of the lp in a sense more like a solo lp than a band effort. Not that anything at this time was short of amazing but this lp seems to stand out more for me, for some strange reason. Side 1 "lizard Play" is true Hammill in the sense of the story that is told and "Last frame" could of been on "In camera" or "Future now" for that matter. side 2 "the Pleasure Dome" Oviously one of the best sides in prog rock history "Wave" starts slowly but the side explodes threw "Cats Eye" "Sphinx" and "Chemical world"The band broke up after the first leg of the eruo tour to promte the lp sadly a live lp "Vital" soon followed and now in 2005 we eargly await "PRESENT'

There's a violin player on here that sounds like a cross between L.Shankar and Stephane Grappelli instead of David Jackson on saax and winds. Hammill's voice has disappeared, when he tries to sing, it's as if he's talking, when he screams nothing comes out. Why he decided to record with his voice in this condition, I have no idea. The drums sound fantastic and overall the songs are more interesting but not necessarily better than on "Still Life." The 3 standouts are Lizard Play, Cat's Eye/Yellow Fever, and The Sphinx in the Face, but there's nothing here that even comes close to the level of the pre-'73 Van Der Graaf Generator records. Don't say I didn't warn you.

In the 2 years since I wrote this the album continues to grow on me, and I am upgrading it to 5 stars.This album is very controversial. Some people love and some dislike it. AMG actually lists it as their pick among all the VDGG albums. Technically this is not VDGG but VDG. Hugh Banton and David Jackson had left after the previous album, taking with them the trademark organ/saxophone lead instrumentation. For this album Peter Hammill's piano and guitar move to the front, along with a violin player. Nick Potter, a previous VDGG member is brought back on bass. The result is a sound that is very different to any previous albums. Another difference is a focus on shorter songs with simpler structures. It can be argued that this really sounds more like a Peter Hammill solo album than VDGG, but it really is a one-off anomaly in his catalog. One could say that this album, along with "Nadir's Big Chance" and "Over" are transitional works between the progressive rock of VDGG and Hammill's early albums on one hand, and his work after the breakup of VDG(G) in 1978.The album has two titles, one for each former LP side (released in 1977). The first half has shorter and simpler songs, while the latter half has somewhat more involved songs. The overall sound is more subdued, largely because of the instrumentation, but also because of Hammill's (relatively) more subdued singing. The streamlined sound does allow Hammill's lyrics to stand out more, and in most cases they are of the usual high quality.The songs in the first half are all quite good, particularly "Last Frame" and "The Wave", which has become a concert staple. "Chemical World" is one that I like a lot, with a very striking vocal and acoustic guitar intro. "Sphinx in the Face" is pretty good, except for the falsetto chorus at the end, which irritates me (and which they unfortunately choose to bring back for a reprise at the end). Yellow Fever / Cat's Eye (Running) is a song which Hammill seems to like a lot (he named it 3 times!), since he has released several versions - I now own 4. I must say that I don't share his enthusiasm for it. A review I read commented that it sounds like Hammill was trying to do an ELO song. On this track I find the violin to be very grating, and I just don't like the song. On other tracks the violin works very well, usually playing a role roughly analogous to what David Jackson did previously.I was initially not that impressed with this album, but I have gotten to like it a lot with repeated listenings. As with anything, it helps to approach it without preconcepttions of what it ought to be. If you listen to it as a VDGG album, or as a "prog-rock" album, you might not appreciate it. If you look at it as part of the continuum of work that Hammill has done with VDGG and solo, it fits in very well.In a nutshell,it is not really representative of VDGG or Peter Hammill's solo work (it's probably closer to the latter). Nevertheless it's a very enjoyable album which fans will want to get.

The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome is honestly not quite the disastrous album as some would have you believe. I was told by many to avoid it but as usual, even in the worst of times you can find a few decent moments along the way. The Quiet Zone/Pleasure Dome is no exception.Alright, here's the deal. Whether Peter Hammill wanted to admit it or not, he was definitely running low on songwriting ideas. Either that or he was so far into his more experimental solo career where the lyrics are more down to earth and poetic involving the difficulties of love (to name the most obvious example) that he was more focused on that aspect of his career. Perhaps he thought he had a successful and commercial solo career in his future, like Peter Gabriel after he left Genesis. Wasn't mean to be. Either way World Record had a few questionable moments that pretty much confirmed the well was drying up, but at least that album had more than enough great moments that the few less than spectacular ones weren't a distraction.What's especially weird about this album is that the saxophones no longer dominate most of the material. Instead the violin does and for some unusual reason the violin is played almost identically the ones you'd find on a Jefferson Starship album. Interesting enough, Jefferson Starship started going downhill around the same time as Van Der Graaf Generator. Hmmm... The approaching 80's and the changing times were undoubtedly affecting every musician's creativity.Anyway, as far as musical instruments go, I actually prefer the violin over the saxophone. This is perhaps due to the fact most artists prefer to use the saxophone, so whenever a violin makes an appearance I treat it like it's a special event. However Van Der Graaf Generator *clearly* had something special going with the melodic saxophone jams and the way they knew how to bring out the musical instrument in all its emotional glory, so I'm a bit disappointed. This is perhaps the ONLY time in history I'll ever say I prefer a saxophone over a beautiful violin!Anyway, what's up with Peter Hammill? He sings in such a relaxed, bland and straightforward kind of way most of the time, never really expanding his vocal range to match the creative lyrics like he did in the early days. Whenever he does try to raise his range, it's almost never interesting and indicates a band either completely burnt out or suffering from a temporary period of writers block. I firmly believe however that Peter was aiming for something more comparable to his solo career. The problem is that Van Der Graaf Generator and Peter Hammill's solo career are two separate animals and should never be combined. However the lyrics are actually pretty good for the most part. They feel more personal and still resonate with me quite well. However the songwriting... yikes. I'd say about half of the vocal melodies are interesting and continue to grow on me to this very day. The other half have the potential to grow, and probably will since I'm honestly a VDGG fanboy. Yeah I will admit it. :)There's two or three saving graces (four actually, maybe five if I'm in a good mood). The first and most obvious is a song I'm sure the Trans Siberian Orchestra would be proud of, "Cat's Eye/Yellow Fever" takes a classical cliched violin riff and builds Hammill's vocals around it. THIS time, he actually uses his vocal range to sing with tons of amazing range and power, like in the early days. I love one part around the 3-minute mark when the cymbal bashes play along with the violins- I never heard anything like it before, and it paints a picture of instant destruction or more realistically perhaps, reveals a band on the verge of self-destructing."The Sphinx In the Face" is another Roxy Music or David Bowie-resembling piece of excellent songwriting. I love the way Peter sings "You're so young, you're so here, so gone, so old, so near, so wrong", etc. The whole song has an upbeat quality to it that the rest of the material (besides "Cat's Eye/Yellow Fever") sorely lacks. How unusual is it however that right after the line "I'm a man who should know it doesn't stop" the song briefly turns into Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons "Who Loves You". "The Wave" has a mysterious and poetic feel to it that's actually pretty powerful and enjoyable, though some of the lyrics *really* take a weird turn near the end to the point it's hard to understand where Peter is taking them. This is another excellent song and the lyrics show that Peter Hammill interprets waves in a way much different than I do.I originally thought "Chemical World" had the worst vocal melody the band ever wrote. For some reason the song actually reminds me of something ominous appearing from the back of a sheep field... ha! The first part of the song sounds like it consists of exactly three notes before eventually speeding up in the most generic way imaginable. However, it grows on me the more I hear it. Not sure why. I actually think I love the song now. At least the violin playing that occasionally comes and goes manages to trigger a positive reaction out of me, but depending on my mood admittedly, the vocals could leave me completely numb.Then you have a song like "Lizard Play" that I woke up singing today for some reason, which bases its vocal melody around recreating the one from "Lemmings" but making it much less appealing. However there's a noticeable feeling of elevation when the violins comes in and the tempo changes. "Last Frame" and "The Siren Song" are very forgettable ballads with no interesting instrumentation or any signs of a progressive rock band that just released several quality albums in a row from 1969-1976. Flat ballads with great lyrics but lyrics alone can't save them. The appearance of the violin and a brief atmospheric/instrumental break in one of these two songs makes them more appealing. They will grow on you perhaps but never as much as you'd want them to because it still definitely seems like Peter Hammill was writing this material with his solo career in mind. Maybe I'm wrong about that.Overall, no it's not the worst album ever created of course. It's just a very disappointing one, but you know, it's not exactly surprising. You could tell something like this was coming when you consider some of the more average vocal melodies in a track like "A Place to Survive" from their World Record album. The signs were definitely there. Too bad the band members themselves apparently didn't notice them.