TRISECTOR

After having heard the album several times I can only say: They did it again! VdGG are full of surprises still, at least for me. This starts right with the opening track The Hurlyburly An instrumental, which certainly is unusual for VdGG, if you don't count the 2nd disc of Presence. Not my favorite track on the album though, but I guess the message of that track is Hey, we are still having fun and don't take ourselves too seriously. Interference Patterns is a great track and quite complex, although short. Hammill shows he knows a bit about physics in the lyrics. The Final Reel is a melancholy number about a couple committing suicide. It seems simple on the surface; the complexity is in the details here, like that slow repeated riff at the end of the song. Lifetime is another quiet track with a meandering melody line; Guy Evans almost exclusively plays on the hi-hat for most of the time on this one. Enough of the sentiments, time for a rocker. Drop Dead is just that, a song I really like to dance to. Hammill grunges on his axe with his typical dirty chords, and Banton adds slightly overdriven organ bits in between, while Evans pounds away maniacally. One of my favourite tracks on the album. With Only in a Whisper we are back on quiet territory again, at least at the beginning, but the song rises to a climax in the middle. Hammill on electric piano and Hugh Banton on bass guitar for a change (I always like it when he does that). The 10/8 rhythm drives the song along like a sailboat. Another rocker follows: All That Before is a song about losing short-time memory and displacing things. The joys of getting older; is Hammill being self-ironic here? Great organ licks of Banton here while Hammill is being Nadir on his guitar again. And now for the epic of the album: Over the Hill takes you on a typical VdGG roller-coaster ride. This is definitely a VdGG classic. The rocky instrumental parts remind me a bit of Man-Erg, but VdGG are definitely not plagiarizing themselves here. The majestic chorus of the song reminds me a bit of Childlike Faith in Childhood's End, lyrically as well as musically. But again, this is not plagiarism; I am just trying to give you a an impression of what it is like. The final track (We Are) Not Here has an interesting rhythmical pattern and is in my opinion another great track to dance to. And now the question some of you may ask: What about Jackson? To that I answer: Well, what about him? He does not play on that album! A solid 4 star effort. VdGG remain one of my favourite bands.