Track Listing

1. The Hurlyburly
2. Interference Patterns
3. The Final Reel
4. Lifetime
5. Drop Dead
6. Only In A Whisper
7. All That Before
8. Over The Hill
9. (We Are) Not Here

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26816 in Music
• Released on: 2008-03-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Album Description

Van Der Graaf Generator now a stripped-down trio of original 1968 members Hugh Banton (organ), Guy Evans (drums) and Peter Hammill (vox, guitar, piano), made a storming return to live performance in the spring of 2007. The band started recording their new album in July 2007, after a period of mixing and overdubbing 'Trisector' is now ready for release.

There are nine pieces on the album, one of them instrumental. Unusually for VDGG, only one of these is more than ten minutes long - indeed, five come in at under five minutes. There are, of course, passages of great complexity but there's also a confidence about the group which allows them to leave some simple things as they are.

Customer Reviews

Maybe there is a god ... after all
Trisector - what more could a 53 year old man want (...and it was my birthday on Friday!)

Some Instant Feedback on the Tracks:
HurlyBurly - Evans has lost none of his energy as he blasts his way around the kit. Stabs of Banton-esque organ swirl behind Hammills "gentle" (?) guitar.
Interference Patterns - Quantum Mechanics for the lost '70s generation. A bass riff from the good old days
The Final Reel - gentle piano and brushed drums
Lifetime - gothic organ, and some electic piano with a suspicious "sax"! sound...
Drop Dead - the return of Rikki Nadir - filthy guitars and rumbling bass lines over heavy-duty drums
Only In A Whisper - gentle whimsy, like the early PH solo albums
All That Before - Bit more crunchy with a bass-riff from somewhere deep in the past...
Over The Hill - starts off gently and then builds up into a Godbluff / Still Life era frenzy.
(We Are) Not Here - does this sound like ELP? In parts.

So did we miss Jaxon? Yes. And No. This is definitely VDGG, but not as we knew it.

Essential
Do you like VdGG? Then you'll absolutely love Trisector! This can easily hold its head up with any of their masterpieces from the 1970s. You'll hear echoes of "Godbluff", "Pawn Hearts", "Still Life" and "A World Record" on this album. It's progressive rock at its absolute finest. Guy Evans' drumming and Hugh Banton's organ work are, of course, exemplary and Peter Hammill's voice sounds better than it has in ten years.

Do you like progressive rock in general but are unfamiliar with VdGG? Then buy this album immediately! Unlike the wannabes from the 80s and 90s, these three musicians are pioneers (pun intended) of the genre, having recorded their first album in 1969. There's little likelihood of a better album of new prog until / unless they release a follow-up.

Are you concerned that David Jackson is not on the album? Understandable if you are - after all, Jaxon was a huge part of the majority of their back catalogue... So is he missed? From a purely nostalgic perspective, yes of course he is. From a musical perspective, not for a second! Would this have been a better album with him? I neither know nor care - it's simply an outstanding album.

The power of creative constancy...
And then there were three ... The departure of of horn player David Jackson from the latest recorded convention by this veteran progressive act is commemorated in the title ('a dividing into three equal parts') but thereafter it's business as usual. As with the previous Jackson exit of the late 70s, the band simply adjusts tack. There's a return to shorter (well, short them for them) running times and more conventional structures against the improv blow-outs of yore. Compositionally emotions still run high but within a tighter framework dominated by keyboards from Peter Hammill (also on guitar) and Hugh Banton, herded, pushed and prodded by Guy Evans' beautifully flexible drumming. An amusing opener in instrumental 'The Hurlyburly' (not out of place filling up to the 'top of the hour' on a '70s pirate ship) is a red herring as the album grows with a mix of tricky trademark punch and pith on the likes of 'Interference Patterns' and 'Drop Dead', soothed by the more contemplative 'The Final Reel' and 'Lifetime', building to a senior moment in 'Over The Hill', which at nearly 13 minutes reels in and smacks the faces of gainsays averring the loss of Jackson as terminal to the VdGG career path. Hammill is quoted: "We intend to carry on as long as the work leads us, as and whenever the work needs us. We don't want to know when the last show will be." A gleaming affirmation of the power of creative constancy and sheer bloody-mindedness, 'Trisector' is funny, serious, self-knowing and more than adequate reward for follower and newcomer alike.