Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent remaster of an excellent album, December 7, 2005
Mr. Leimer has done an excellent job of describing what this album is all about - it really is amazing to be able to listen to these songs again after 30+ years (I bought the album on vinyl, when it was "new"!) with the remastered sound bringing out whole instrumental lines I hadn't been able to make out before.
The remaster definitely makes my re-purchase of this CD worthwhile - aside from what might some audiophiles might describe as an occasional, mild "over-brightness" to the sound, I am amazed at how good this sounds - brilliant! Since Robert Fripp (electric guitarist of King Crimson fame) is all over these recordings, it's especially nice to be able to hear some of his contributions in the background that I had missed before.
The demo versions included as bonus tracks are quite well-recorded (for demos, especially) and do give insight into the development of the songs - very enjoyable.
Now that it's available domestically for far less than it cost as an import, it's doubly worth your money (and you get the import manufacture anyway - they just imported this disc as well as the Van der Graaf remasters and sell them as domestic).
Very highly recommended.
|
|
|
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
ODD MAN OUT, August 29, 2005
You have to assume that when Peter Hammill sits down to write music, he has something specific in mind. But, then again, music has a way of making a number of decisions all on its own. Fool's Mate is a set of famously "orphaned" songs, written before and during the original Van der Graaf Generator days that simply did not fit the VdGG style. They are odd even beyond that because this record proves not to be a precursor to "Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night" or any other Hammill solo album, with the possible exception of the short pop song forms found on "Nadir's Big Chance".
Which means, absent even of a Rikki Nadir-like theme, Fool's Mate is really just a collection of great songs, performed with Hammill's characteristic sense of urgency and reflection. What's shocking is just how good they really are, especially considering how early we are in Hammill's career. The observations are typically simpler and more direct than much of his later work, yet sacrifice no insight or originality. Some, like "Summer Song in the Autumn" are quite simply beautiful in both sentiment and presentation. Others might now seem perhaps a bit juvenile -- "I once wrote some poems" was all depth and pain when I first heard it some 30 years ago, today it sounds somewhat affected -- but all in all the music and lyrics hold up remarkably well even when compared to the vast and uniformly remarkable corpus of Hammill's work. Compared to just about anything else, these songs will never come up short.
As for the sound quality, the remastering reveals layers of instruments and voices that weren't even accessible on the original import vinyl, at least not on my stereo at the time. Which is even further proof of the growth in arranging and performing that Hammill and the lads were experiencing during one of their most productive periods. The results are all there to hear. Still the Purest Pop for Now People, even back then.
|
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hammill, April 23, 2006
"Each of us suffers his own spirit: a few of us are later released to wander at will through broad Elysium, the joyous fields; until, in the fullness of time ... nothing is left but pure ethereal sentience and the pure flame of the spirit." [Virgil, Aeneid 6.742].
"Cadmus, in vain you travel round and round ... You seek a bull which no cow ever calved; you seek a bull which no mortal knows how to find ... Europa's bridegroom no drover knows how to drive ... he is ordered by no whip...he strains his neck for Love alone ..." [The Pythian priestess to Cadmus. Nonnos, Dionysiaca 4.293]
Peter Hammill has always bestowed upon listeners references of eternal restlessness, a search for that essence that we call "human" and all the uneasiness that accompanies the actualization
within our worldly experience. Along with his body of work with VDGG, Hammill's work has been the veracious conjunctive force that requires total attention from each perceiver.
Shortly after the demise of VDGG#2 in 1971, Hammill took to the studio with songs that had collected dust from as far back as 1966 and proceded to put them to tape before becoming a mere non reflection of posterity.
"Fools Mate" represents the more melodious side of his body of work, with hints of what lie ahead in the coming years, solo as well as with reconfigured versions of VDGG.
This 2005 remastered edition restores and reveals many of the intricate details that eluded many listeners for years and the added bonus tracks allow us to listen to imagined arrangments with the VDGG rehearsal for a possible aborted VDGG effort.
What is an added attraction to the complete package are the detailed liner notes, along with lyrics, that complete the picture that left me guessing since it's 1971 vinyl introduction as to who played on what track and what was talking place within the specific time period.
This was perhaps, Hammill's only bid for a more commercial friendly introduction with songs such as "Reawakening","Candle" and "Imperial Zepplin" appealing to the more rock oriented listener. With "Vision", Hammill composed the most detailed and intimate taste of what true love between human beings can become once realised while singing them with the conviction of one who's looked inside the soul:
"Be my child, be my lover,
swallow me up in your fire-glow.
Take my tongue, take my torment,
take my hand and don't let go.
Let me live in your life,
for you make it all seem to matter.
Let me die in your arms,
so the vision may never shatter.
The seasons roll on;
my love stays strong".
What "Fools Mate" reveals in perceptiveness and sensation would set him forever apart from his contempories and lay the course toward exploration into the abyss of the soul through musical expression. His journey continues well into the 20th century and, for those who've paid attention, for eternity.
5 stars for the excellent care in its rebirth in 2005.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
~ Van Der Graaf Generator
~ Van Der Graaf Generator
~ Peter Hammill
~ Van Der Graaf Generator
~ Van Der Graaf Generator
by Peter Hammill 
