GODBLUFF

Van Der Graaf Generator disbanded after the Pawn Hearts tour, in 1972, they disappeared when prog-rock exploded, spread: the years 1972, 1973 and 1974 are dominated by progressive rock, and they are not there: they return in 1975, when the prog movement is now the straight of arrival, it is leaving the scenes to punk; as if primitive dinosaurs that appeared in the Triassic disappeared throughout the Jurassic and then returned to the end of the Cretaceous, just before extinction. VdGG returns in a more stripped-down robe (without the mellotron and synths and terrifying sound orgasms of the past), a drier, almost live sound, where the drums are too prominent, and with more linear but still prog songs that are long , with changes in time and atmosphere, and instrumental variations on the theme.

GODBLUFF (1975)

Side A. 1) The undercover man (8+): Slow beginning with a soft, very expressive singing, followed by a beautiful melodic progression dominated again by Hammill's singing (and here it feels like the complex sounds more calmly and more linear than in the past, according to the more classical schemes of a song), then finally comes the instrumental piece and the epic ending ? but the performance does not touch those very high expressionistic summits of pathos of the past.

2) Scorched Earth (8.5/9): More gritty song than the previous, more expressionist, masterpiece of the album, with frightening sound passages reminiscent of the golden days. Hammill's voice does its part, it is the music that does not have the charge of the past, but is unleashed in the paroxysmal ending. Dark and hallucinatory atmosphere.

Side B. 3) Arrow (8+): It starts with a beautiful jazzy instrumental passage (great Banton on the bass guitar), then comes the sound characterized by a rabid, almost snarling chant of Hammill. Throughout the record is missing the wonderful singing on the high, elegiac notes of Hammill, who prefers here to perform in a raucous rant that is not up to par. The atmosphere, in fact, is more of anger than anguish.

4) The Sleepwalkers (8): Song with a sarcastic atmosphere, the only theatrical, with continuous changes of rhythm, at times ironic as a popular dance, sometimes obsessive. It's fine as a final piece to lighten the atmosphere and close in a pyrotechnic way; it is the longest and lightest piece of the album pleasant, even if it lacks a real direction.

VdGG returned to the scene by churning out an album with a very different sound from the previous ones, as did King Crimson with LTIA, overall rough, sober and fuzzy, where Hammill's voice and Banton's keyboards are less prominent. The arrangements and melodies are all too homogeneous and paint a desolate picture of the loss of hope. The four songs all look a bit like each other in various passages. The pieces are all solid and more than good, if not excellent, and on them hovers an existential nightmare, especially in Scorched Earth and Arrow, and only the last song has slight passages. VdGG do not betray themselves, they reproduce with songs inspired and easier to access than in the past but they do not play and no longer sing with that existential urgency of the beginnings, and this partly affected the pathos transmitted by the music, which still remains well present (O God, compared to Yes, EL&P, Genesis the pathos is always very high) but it does not reach the heights of which they are capable.

Average: 8.15, Rateing: 9. Great album, small masterpiece, five stars.