| VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR THE AEROSOL GREY MACHINE | |
01. Afterwards (4:58) | 02. Orthenthian St, Parts 1 & 2 (6:20) 03. Running Back (6:36) 04. Into A Game (6:58) 05. Aerosol Grey Machine (0:46) 06. Black Smoke Yen (1:26) 07. Aquarian (8:23) 08. Necromancer (3:40) 09. Octopus (8:01) Note: some versions include tracks 'Giant Squid' & 'Ferret And Featherbird Bonus tracks (1997, Repertoire, Germany): 10. People You Were Going To (2:45) (1968 A-side) 11. Firebrand (4:07) (1968 B-side) Total playing time: 54:05 Tracks 10 & 11 were originally released on a single 'People You Were Going To', Polydor, UK, 1968 All tracks by Hammill except: 'Into A Game' & 'Giant Squid' by Hammill/Ellis/Evans/Banton; 'Black Smoke Yen' by Ellis/Evans/Banton All lyrics by Peter Hammill Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Chant, Hype Hugh Robert Banton: Piano, Organ, Sa Sa Ka, Dissent, Vocals Keith Ian Ellis: Wah-Wah Bass, Bass, Added Vocals, Chant, Croon Guy Randolph Evans: Drums, Talking Drums, Sa Sa Ka with Jeff Peach: Flute Gordian, Guy, Hugh, Ines, John, Keith, Nick, Peter, Sheila: Add. B. Vox Produced by John Anthony Engineered by Robin Cable Recorded at Trident Studios, London, July 31/August 1, 1969, except 'Afterwards' & 'Necromancer', recorded in one afternoon in January 1969 at Marquee Studios, London Photography by Gordian Troeller & Barrie Wentzell This album is dedicated to Chris J.J. Smith & Nick Peame, without whom VdGG would never have existed Take 4 people thoroughly until they are a Group, add a Producer (of sorts) & a good Engineer (to taste). An assortment of good vibes & a few ideas & Jeff on Flute. Loon lightly for 12 hours. Mix above for 8 hours adding a lump of double tracking (from the Blue Machine), some phased Drums, some top on Piano, middle on Bass & a dash of Echo. Serve on a warm Turntable with 33.3 with a Stereo Pick-up. Garnish your head with whatever turns you on. JOHN ANTHONY. In June, the original VdGG split up for a number of reasons, among which personality conflicts figured none at all. We regretted its passing very much & sadly headed off in our separate directions, my own being to work solo in an acoustic context. Eventually the time came to record this album, originally intended to be mine alone. 'I'd like to get together again', I said to Guy, Keith & Hugh, '& do some nice, sweet, gentle things'. 'Great', they said. Six hours of rehearsal & one week later, we found ourselves in Trident with 3 songs completely ready to record, an eager crowd of friends, & the mysterious Jeff on flute, while the unholy twins, John & Robin, lurked in the control room flicking switches & sipping tea. After 12 hours, much sweat & a couple of hundred photographs, we discovered, to our great surprise & elation, that we'd made an album, a band album to boot, albeit with passages of gentleness, but mostly consisting of bare-your-tonsils-to-the-world music. A lot of things happened in the studio: Hugh sat at the piano for ten minutes, playing one note at half speed with one hand & eating a banana out of the other. At one point everyone in the studio was gathered together to form the impromptu Aerosol chorus. Keith pretended to be Bing Crosby. Guy lurched, grinning, round the stairs & became an adopted member of the band. The cans kept falling off my head at crucial moments. Gordian crawled round everyone's legs taking photographs. And somewhere amidst all this chaos of people, instruments, empty bottles & plastic cups, VdGG was reborn, slapped into life by the heavy pressure put on us in the making of this album. It's not the same as the old VdG...by the time we're on the road again, the personnel will have changed, too. But this album is the starting point. Each copy's a bit like a slice of our first birthday cake; in fact, the sessions degenerated into some kind of freaky party after a while, maybe some of that comes through in 'Aerosol Grey Machine'... It was a very happy, if very taxing 12 hours. I wonder if Mr. Robert J. Van der Graaf of M.I.T. knew quite what he was doing when he invented his little bit of electrostatic apparatus! PETER HAMMILL. Originally released in 1969 by Fontana Records, West Germany This compilation © 1997 Repertoire (Germany) 
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Lyrics Liner notes (1997) |