Customer Reviews

Future Now (Reis)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Future Now" presages the edgy art-pop of albums like Peter Gabriel's "Security" and Kate Bush's "The Dreaming", and stands as one of Hammill's very best. His always-unusual vocal histrionics have never sounded better, nor has his penchant for discovering new sounds in the studio. Most of the songs are "pop", or are at least shorter than his fabled prog-rock efforts, but follow various twists and turns (not so unlike those of Brian Eno's first few efforts) which

match the unsettling nature of the lyrics. There's not a weak track to be found, as each manages to grab the listener with some unusual sound element, and he avoids both repeating himself (a problem with much of his previous solo work) and writing somewhat sophomoric lyrics (a hallmark of some of his VDGG work and the previous album, the self-indulgent "Over"). Indeed, "The Future Now" marks the beginning of a more mature Hammill style, which cuts back on the indulgences but retains its experimental and emotional edge. Highly recommended to both prog and pop fans; for those who have never heard Hammill before, his vocal affectations may take some getting used to but "The Future Now" is as good a place to start as any.

The Future Now, released in 1978 is one of Peter Hammill's most distinctive albums in a line of highly distinctive music. To start with, the eye catching album cover of Hammill, half-shaven in a peculiar pose and startled look strikes strong emotions. More importantly the music is stark yet oddly catchy and precise; challenging but a bit more inviting than previous efforts.

Peter Hammill is one of the more deftly insightful and introspective singer/songwriters of the last 40 years; the type of thoughtfulness, brilliant wordplay and expression is certainly a rarity of art in this day and age, let alone in the world of rock. As the songwriter and leader of Van Der Graaf Generator as well as numerous solo efforts, Hammill wrote songs that asked all the searching questions about God, existence, relationships, and anything else one might question because of it's seemingly dual nature. Introspective art does not lend itself easily to mass appeal; sometimes too extreme, Hammill's music is not always pretty or agreeable but the integrity and honesty comes out in all it's substance, and purely shows an experience in the human condition.

His solo projects tended to delve even deeper into those searches mostly because he wrote, produced and played most of the instruments on those albums. The results were always interesting because although he was not an accomplished musician on all the instruments he played, but he had a way of expressing his depth through inspired need.

The Future Now was, in retrospect, an interesting follow-up to the "break-up album" Over. Where Over was straightforward in it's dissection of the feelings that come when a relationship has gone bad, The Future Now turned it's focused analysis and angst towards the world and mankind's arrogance, spiritual hunger, and ambivalence to morality.

There isn't a single track on The Future Now that I don't love. Pushing Thirty would have fit in nicely with the punk rock of Nadir's Big Chance- the song is aggressive and full of vigor and sharp wit. The Second Hand, with it's simple bass groove pulsates the lyrics about how fool's can waste their lives. Trappings has a cool folk/rock arrangement, and connects well topically with the simple introspection of Mousetrap and then the violent echoing of Energy Vampires.

The lone plaintive ballad "If I Could", possibly a remaining strain of sadness from Over, may not strike one immediately as fitting in with the rest of the album, but on repeated listening the song takes on the form of a serene oasis of desired romance in a troubled world. But the anthem-call of The Future Now brings the music back into the stark cry in the wilderness that seems to be the theme to this album. Still In The Dark mellows things out a little, to contemplate our place in the universe under the interpretation of science. Medieval is a dissonant Gregorian chant that brings to light the issue of when true spirituality is stuffed behind the hierarchy of religion. A Motor-bike In Afrika uses an interesting motorized rhythm and tribal chants that give a pretty distinctive feel to the songs theme. And the final two songs, The Cut and Castaway (Palinarus), partner up quite well. The Cut, with it's backward loops and skewed vocals make for a disorienting sound; then it speeds into the awakening of Castaways electro landscape of waves crashing against the boat as the search for purpose and life twirl upward through the abstract lyrics.

The two bonus tracks are interesting, live performances from 1978. The sound isn't very good but the performances are great.

I've always likened Peter Hammill's late 70's/ early 80's albums (`78's Future Now through '81's Sitting Targets) to both Peter Gabriel and David Bowie's experimental art rock around that same period. Gabriel and Hammill especially seemed to have paralleled careers up to that point; both fronting highly successful progressive rock bands (VDGG and Genesis) before moving into more personal/introspective and experimental solo albums. Hammill even did occasional back up vocals on a few of Gabriel's albums.

The new re-mastered albums (both of Hammill and VDGG) sound amazing, clearing up details and showing the fullness of the music.

Highly Recommended.
Some other albums of Peter Hammill I would recommend are pH7, Nadir's Big Chance, Over, Fool's Mate, and The Silent Corner And Empty Stage; as for VDGG stuff all the albums are superb but some are very different than others- Pawn Hearts or Still Life are pretty good places to start.

ORIGINAL REVIEW
The FUTURE NOW is a great album to start off with Peter hammill (theother being NADIR'S BIG CHANCE). Most of the songs have strong tinges of avant-garde electronics of that 70's era similar to the David Bowie albums Low and Heroes. With it's experimental edge it never really strays to far out from it's rock n roll roots . "If I could" is not the strongest track, and I don't think it fits with the rest of the album (sound better around the songs of OVER)- it's a restraint pop ballad but a good one. The last two songs "the cut" and "Palinarus (castaways)" are great songs that complement each other very well and have some interesting orchestrations and production technics. "Pushing 3o" reminds me a great deal of NADIR'S BIG CHANCE in its bombastic horn driven attack- There is definitely not a weak track on the album- This is one of the albums on my wish list of things that somebody would digitally remaster it's in such a desperate need (like all of Hammill and VDGG albums)- it would really make this an even more enjoyable listen considering the odd experiments of sound and texture that are in this album.

The Future Now, released in 1978 is one of Peter Hammill's most distinctive albums in a line of highly distinctive music. To start with, the eye catching album cover of Hammill, half-shaven in a peculiar pose and startled look strikes strong emotions. More importantly the music is stark yet oddly catchy and precise; challenging but a bit more inviting than previous efforts.

Peter Hammill is one of the more deftly insightful and introspective singer/songwriters of the last 40 years; the type of thoughtfulness, brilliant wordplay and expression is certainly a rarity of art in this day and age, let alone in the world of rock. As the songwriter and leader of Van Der Graaf Generator as well as numerous solo efforts, Hammill wrote songs that asked all the searching questions about God, existence, relationships, and anything else one might question because of it's seemingly dual nature. Introspective art does not lend itself easily to mass appeal; sometimes too extreme, Hammill's music is not always pretty or agreeable but the integrity and honesty comes out in all it's substance, and purely shows an experience in the human condition.

His solo projects tended to delve even deeper into those searches mostly because he wrote, produced and played most of the instruments on those albums. The results were always interesting because although he was not an accomplished musician on all the instruments he played, but he had a way of expressing his depth through inspired need.

The Future Now was, in retrospect, an interesting follow-up to the "break-up album" Over. Where Over was straightforward in it's dissection of the feelings that come when a relationship has gone bad, The Future Now turned it's focused analysis and angst towards the world and mankind's arrogance, spiritual hunger, and ambivalence to morality.

There isn't a single track on The Future Now that I don't love. Pushing Thirty would have fit in nicely with the punk rock of Nadir's Big Chance- the song is aggressive and full of vigor and sharp wit. The Second Hand, with it's simple bass groove pulsates the lyrics about how fool's can waste their lives. Trappings has a cool folk/rock arrangement, and connects well topically with the simple introspection of Mousetrap and then the violent echoing of Energy Vampires.

The lone plaintive ballad "If I Could", possibly a remaining strain of sadness from Over, may not strike one immediately as fitting in with the rest of the album, but on repeated listening the song takes on the form of a serene oasis of desired romance in a troubled world. But the anthem-call of The Future Now brings the music back into the stark cry in the wilderness that seems to be the theme to this album. Still In The Dark mellows things out a little, to contemplate our place in the universe under the interpretation of science. Medieval is a dissonant Gregorian chant that brings to light the issue of when true spirituality is stuffed behind the hierarchy of religion. A Motor-bike In Afrika uses an interesting motorized rhythm and tribal chants that give a pretty distinctive feel to the songs theme. And the final two songs, The Cut and Castaway (Palinarus), partner up quite well. The Cut, with it's backward loops and skewed vocals make for a disorienting sound; then it speeds into the awakening of Castaways electro landscape of waves crashing against the boat as the search for purpose and life twirl upward through the abstract lyrics.

The two bonus tracks are interesting, live performances from 1978. The sound isn't very good but the performances are great.

I've always likened Peter Hammill's late 70's/ early 80's albums (`78's Future Now through '81's Sitting Targets) to both Peter Gabriel and David Bowie's experimental art rock around that same period. Gabriel and Hammill especially seemed to have paralleled careers up to that point; both fronting highly successful progressive rock bands (VDGG and Genesis) before moving into more personal/introspective and experimental solo albums. Hammill even did occasional back up vocals on a few of Gabriel's albums.

The new re-mastered albums (both of Hammill and VDGG) sound amazing, clearing up details and showing the fullness of the music.

Highly Recommended.
Some other albums of Peter Hammill I would recommend are pH7, Nadir's Big Chance, Over, Fool's Mate, and The Silent Corner And Empty Stage; as for VDGG stuff all the albums are superb but some are very different than others- Pawn Hearts or Still Life are pretty good places to start.

This is one artist that I am listening to a lot lately. I own 6 of his albums (which is a small fraction of the total) from the mid 70's to early 80's, and this one is probably my favorite, although "A Black Box" A Black Box is close. All of the ones I own are very good, even though some are a bit erratic (Enter K, for instance). This one is very solid throughout. This album was made after the breakup of Vandergraaf Generator the year before, and finds him moving away from the prog rock style of VDGG. Some reviews I've read lump PH's albums from this period in the category of contemporary works by Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Iggy Pop's "The Idiot", and Robert Fripp (Hammill does a lot of the vocals on Fripp's "Exposure" album). I would argue that Peter Hammill's music of this period doesn't actually sound like these other ones, but it certainly has the same explorative spirit, and fans of those artists should definitely check out Peter Hammill.

Peter Hammill gets no airplay anywhere, and very little publicity in the US, and so it's very difficult for people to come across his music, which is a real shame. He is a very talented and versatile singer, even if some of his quirks take some getting used to (he is English, but definitely not an understated Englishman). He can be a bit over the top at times (OK, often!), but that's a quality of his that I have come to enjoy, actually!

His lyrics are intelligent, thoughtful and often very witty. In the same song he might throw in metaphors from religion and from physics (who else mentions entropy in a song?). His music is full of quirks too, and nothing he has done comes close to being commercial. Some of it is intentionally jarring and quite avant-guarde. Other stuff is very melodic. It's definitely music that grows on you with repeated listening.

"The Future Now" is a very eclectic collection, and is probably the best place for someone to start listening to his solo work. The subject matter of his lyrics is equally diverse, including commentary on his music career (he calls overly-obsessive fans "energy vampires"), personal relationships, to social and political topics. Many, like "Mediaevil", are still very pertinent today. You can find the lyrics on his website, [...].

In brief, Peter Hammill is a vastly under-appreciated artist with a huge catalog of recordings spanning almost 40 years. He survived a heart attack a few years ago, and is still going strong with his solo work and with a VDGG reunion. I have not heard most of his 40+ releases. Evidently some periods are stronger than others. I can recommend all the albums from "In Camera" through "Sitting Targets" and this is the best of those. Highly Recommended.

In hindsight it's easy to recognize this as the beginning of a new direction for Hammill. It helps to remember that this was 1978, and the punks had made prog rock, with its pomp and grandiosity, a favorite target. Much of the prog camp felt threatened and dug in their heels, only to go the way of all dinosaurs. Others took the young upstarts seriously and reconsidered their own approach, opting for a new direction that was more raw and stripped down: Peter Gabriel's second album, Robert Fripp's "Exposure" (on which both Gabriel and Hammill appeared as vocalists), and this, the seventh solo album by the Van der Graaf Generator front man.

Recorded in a small home studio with only eight tracks and very few guest musicians, the production here is bare bones. In truth it sounds a bit dated now - some of these synths, drum machines and effects have not aged so gracefully. And his delivery often falls more on the side of declamatory ranting rather than singing (think the Fall's Mark E. Smith), which is too bad because you might miss the fact that Hammill is a terrific singer.

The other thing he seems to have borrowed from punk was a renewed sense of outrage. His work had always had a cynical edge, but here it was amped up several notches. The music biz comes in for some scathing criticism, whether record company jerks (Pushing Thirty), infantile pop stars (Trappings), pathetic has-beens (The Mousetrap), creepy fans (Energy Vampires), or the industry in general (The Cut). On the second half he sets his sights on politics, and is just as pissed off. And in the eye of this storm sits If I Could, simply one of the most beautiful lost-love ballads of the era.

Hammill can be way over-the-top, but this lack of restraint takes the form of passionate intensity. The man had always been about bearing his soul, but here he seems to tear away the final curtain. It makes you cringe sometimes, but for the right reasons (as did Kevin Coyne at his best). At the same time, there is a certain tenderness and vulnerability that is heartbreaking. The cover image conveys this dynamic nicely: half crazed wildman, half naked poet.

I saw Hammill in Los Angeles when he was touring for this album, just him on piano and guitar and Graham Smith on violin. They were ferocious, and I was completely won over.

I was worried after hearing the emotionally overbearing Over that Peter Hammill had permanently changed for the worse, but... I underestimated the clever guy. Future Now is a significant improvement from beginning to end because these songs actually contain exciting vocal melodies and a return to the clever lyrics.

Upon hearing "Pushing Thirty", it's like Over never even happened! Seriously, Over stands out in a big, clunky and uninspiring way when you realize it was released in between Nadir's Big Chance and Future Now. This is because Nadir's Big Chance and Future Now feel sort of identical in spots (though Future Now has significantly better sound quality for one thing). Anyway, "Pushing Thirty" is really catchy in a Roxy Music kind of way, and in fact, reminds me of the opening song from their Stranded album. Oh, and how weird is this? *I'm* turning 30 in 7 days!!! I probably won't become anything like the lyrics in this song suggest, though. Then again I HAVE changed quite a bit over the last 30 years, and life's always a mysterious journey so... who knows?

The next song is "The Second Hand" and the vocals remind me of David Bowie a little bit, especially the late 70's version of Bowie with the Eno collaboration (not that there's any innovative and fascinating experiments on THIS track mind you). Just a pretty nifty vocal melody. "Trappings" has some nice acoustic guitar playing and a pretty good vocal melody with reasonably impressive lyrics. "The Mousetrap (Caught In)" feels really personal like a good Peter Hammill song *should* feel, and the emotional intensity in Hammill's vocals is noticeable right away... and let's not forget the underrated piano playing! Some of the background arrangements actually remind me of Mike Oldfield a little bit. Great song.

"Energy Vampires" focuses on a rather bizarre vocal melody with Peter changing into a higher pitch unexpectedly (and sounding quite vicious as a result) and the way it's written with the strange background instruments is quite the unusual direction indeed. "If I Could" is a gentle ballad of some kind... yeah, a special and distinct Peter Hammill kind of ballad which is quite different from your typical 70's ballad by *far*. After the devastatingly beautiful intro from "The Future Now", I can't help but wonder if the vocal melody was influenced by the one from "Wondering" (from VDGG's World Record). At least, there's a resemblance in that distinct style of atmospheric personal devastation that Peter Hammill is the master at. I really love this song to pieces. Repeated listens makes me think it's downright awesome.

"Still in the Dark" is an even softer piano ballad than "If I Could" and perhaps it's not as tightly constructed either. I can't tell if those are synths or unusual guitar tricks following along in the background, but they are pretty neat and help enable me to appreciate the vocal melody even more. "Mediaevil" begins with a really strange chant, and then... progresses into something that barely resembles a melody, haha. This is definitely some kind of unusual attempt at experimentation, but I love it for some reason. It's a church hymn. Basically this is an obvious attempt at spiritual atmosphere, whereas before (such as on most Van Der Graaf Genrator albums) Peter Hammill was spiritual in a less obvious and more highly original kind of way.

The rest of the album contains unusual experiments, and it's honestly up to you whether these experiments qualify as listenable or not. "A Motor-bike in Afrika" is probably the weakest point on the entire album because it's partially ambient and lyrically odd. You see, Peter Hammill isn't really doing anything remotely interesting with his vocals here, but I seriously wouldn't feel right complaining about a 3-minute song. "The Cut" is a relatively eerie folk/rock tune with low pitched vocals. There's a haunting echo in the background which reminds me of uh... to give one example, Black Sabbath's "A National Acrobat" when Ozzy's voice can be heard in a way where it sounds like there's *two* Ozzy's singing. The same exact situation here. The Brian Eno-like noisy guitar work around the halfway point makes the song even scarier. "Palinurus (Castaway)" is not a song about Tom Hanks and Wilson. It's a fairly normal ballad I suppose, but well... the piano (and harmonica, really? This ain't no blues song... then again, Roxy Music used to do the same thing as far as throwing in harmonicas at the most unusual of moments) really elevates the song in a league above the universe.

I love Future Now, but it's not quite a 5-star album because some of the weirdness and some of the vocals don't quite gel in a completely satisfying way. Still worth owning though, absolutely.

This is one artist that I am listening to a lot lately. I own 6 of his albums (which is a small fraction of the total) from the mid 70's to early 80's, and this one is probably my favorite, although "A Black Box" A Black Box is close. All of the ones I own are very good, even though some are a bit erratic (Enter K, for instance). This one is very solid throughout. This album was made after the breakup of Vandergraaf Generator the year before, and finds him moving away from the prog rock style of VDGG. Some reviews I've read lump PH's albums from this period in the category of contemporary works by Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Iggy Pop's "The Idiot", and Robert Fripp (Hammill does a lot of the vocals on Fripp's "Exposure" album). I would argue that Peter Hammill's music of this period doesn't actually sound like these other ones, but it certainly has the same exlorative spirit, and fans of those artists should definitely check out Peter Hammill.

Peter Hammill gets no airplay anywhere, and very little publicity in the US, and so it's very difficult for people to come across his music, which is a real shame. He is a very talented and versatile singer, even if some of his quirks take some getting used to (he is English, but deffinitely not an understated Englishman). He can be a bit over the top at times (OK, often!), but that's a quality of his that I have come to enjoy, actually!

His lyrics are intelligent, thoughtful and often very witty. In the same song he might throw in metaphors from religion and from physics (who else mentions entropy in a song?). His music is full of quirks too, and nothing he has done comes close to being commercial. Some of it is intentionally jarring and quite avant-guarde. Other stuff is very melodic. It's definitely music that grows on you with repeated listening.

"The Future Now" is a very ecclectic collection, and is probably the best place for someone to start listening to his solo work. The subject matter of his lyrics is equally diverse, including commentary on his music carreer (he calls overly-obsessive fans "energy vampires"), personal relationships, to social and political topics. Many, like "Mediaevil", are still very pertinent today. You can find the lyrics on his website, Sofasound.

In brief, Peter Hammill is a vastly under-appreciated artist with a huge catalog of recordings spanning almost 40 years. He survived a heart attack a few years ago, and is still going strong with his solo work and with a VDGG reunion. I have not heard most of his 40+ releases. Evidently some periods are stronger than others. I can recommend all the albums from "In Camera" through "Sitting Targets" and this is the best of those. Highly Recommended.

Yes, as another reviewer pointed out, this is the album that started a new trend in Hammill's creative style... which i beleive to be much more interesting (and inventive) than previous works as solo artist. Give it a try!

Twenty years now that this sublime masterpiece was released, it still lingers on the mind and affects you like the very first time it was heard. PH searchs for redemption in here and this still is his best and long-lasting album. Matter-of-factly, the future was made then, back in 1978...

"The future now" est un titre étudié pour vous faire oublier le "We want the world and we want it NOW!" de Jim -père lachaise- Morrison. Hammill souffre dans ses chansons, à longueur d'albums, ça n'l'empêche pas d'rester vivant. Et quand on a une voix comme la sienne, on n'a qu'un droit : celui de s'en servir. Ce qu'il fait et il y ajoute toutes ses tripes. C'est pourquoi aucun de ses albums n'est à jeter. Ils sont tous magnifiques et in-dis-pen-sa-bles ! Faites passer...