This lyrical fearlessness in investigating the nether reaches of humanity is matched by the musical intensity of the band’s unusual line-up, which, during its most successful period was comprised only of drums, keyboards (mostly organ), sax, and Hammill’s occasional contributions on piano and guitar.
THE WONDERLANDS DARKNESS ALBUM GENERATOR
Hammill is unapologetically philosophical, and while he’s explored many kinds of lyrical themes in his long career, with Van der Graaf Generator it’s always been ruminations on the dark side of human psychology, the occult, bad religion, weird science, toxic relationships, everything that can disturb and distress. His own discography is so vast that I would prefer to defer it for another post, but suffice it to say that he’s continued his explorations in the same vein and beyond in the years since VdGG’s heyday. So challenging that to the casual punter he’s still practically unknown but is revered by hardcore musos the world over. One group whose oeuvre investigates the darker reaches of the soul is England’s Van der Graaf Generator, a band that justly retains a large cult of followers to this day, as does its lead singer/songwriter Peter Hammill, one of rock’s most prolific and consistently challenging figures. This questing spirit made for some extremely ambitious and brave music, from beautiful idealism to the darkest of pessimism. Hence, who knows what the heck one can expect progressive rock to be? However, there was a time when the term was more appropriate and exact: the glory period from 1969 through, say, 1976, when the musicians who operated under this banner (usually willingly) really were expanding not only the musical dimensions of rock to include influences from myriad other varieties of music-making, but were also expanding the limits of what rock music could express, lyrically and philosophically. Progressive rock is a very interesting genre, probably because the words combined are actually so general as to be pretty meaningless, and it’s used as a blanket term to cover such a vast array of styles that you can find almost every kind of rock music under this blanket.