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Peter Hammill - The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Artist:	Peter Hammill
Title:	The Fall Of The House Of Usher
Label:	Fie! Fie 9121
Length(s):	77 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1991/1999
Month of review:	12/1999

Line up

Peter Hammill - everything except the following
Stuart Gordon - violin
Chris Judge Smith - libretto
Vocals by Sarah-Jane Morris, Andy Bell, Peter Hammill, Lene Lovich, Herbert Groenemeyer

Tracks

1)	An Uneviable Role	2.29
2)	That Must Be The House	4.56
3)	Architecture	3.40
4)	The Sleeper	3.19
5)	One Thing At A Time	2.50
6)	I Shun The Light	3.46
7)	Leave This House	5.05
8)	Dreaming	3.30
9)	A Chronic Catalepsy	3.16
10)	The Herbalist	3.32
11)	The Evil That Is Done	3.47
12)	Five Years Ago	3.51
13)	It's Over Now	3.32
14)	An Influence	3.18
15)	No Rot	2.27
16)	She Is Dead	6.44
17)	Beating Of The Heart	5.20
18)	The Haunted Palace	4.22
19)	I Dared Not Speak	2.57
20)	She Comes Towards The Door	1.07
21)	The Fall	3.20

Summary

The orginal opera Usher 1 in the booklet was released in 1991. Now after remixing and rerecording parts with better production facilities and adding electric guitar to the opera it has come out completely and beautifully refurbished. As you should know the opera is based on Edgar Allen Poe's tale.

The music

Sarah-Jane Morris as the chorus opens the album with a reflection upon her role and introducing the story where it is told that Montresor visits his friend Usher in the house of the latters family. Morris has a pleasant, classically oriented, low voice. Andy Bell (formerly of Erasure) sings the role of the optimistic and somewhat naive Montresor. Still he also feels the somberness of the house in his bone. A large difference here is that by introducing a lot of guitars the music has won in power. Quite a lot of layers exist more or less independent of each other. This allows the listener to keep on finding new melodies in songs. The vocal melody is of course the most prominent one and use usually they are quite good and memorable. It should be noted however, that this is more an opera than the rock opera's made by Ayreon or Jeff Wayne. The vocal style is much more "talking" than in any of those opera's. Like Chris Judge Smith says in his introduction to this Usher 2, the guitar lends an eerie and intense atmosphere to the music. One of the problems many listeners had with the original version (and I as well, especially after listening to this version) is that the orchestra sounds much too artificial and thin. Because of the power of the guitar (mind you: no riffs) this is now much less so. Architecture is the house itself singing. During this track I learned a lot of new words. The song is entirely vocals. In fact, it consists only of vocals by Hammill as if all parts of the house are making their presence known at the same time. This makes for a somewhat chaotic track, but since the house is a whole, they do harmonize at times. The Sleeper is a somber piece with low, whispered vocals of Hammill. The melody is one of the better ones on the album. The church organ lends a majestic, overpowering quality to the song. It can be clearly heard here that Hammill has resung his parts singing more in the style of his later albums and the additions on guitar are great. Another high point on the album is I Shun The Light in which Usher describes his hypersensitivity. Montresor interprets this in his typical way: everything can be explained by science. Of course, his advice to Leave This House is quite sound. However Usher will not budge. Dreaming introduces Lene Lovich (yes, the one of My Lucky Number's One) in the role of the sister, Madeline. The voice she uses is not the squeaky one of the time that she ahd her hitsingles. In fct, her vocals are rather low and often calm. Sometimes she gets to become a bit manic, but this is only evident by the fact that the music steps up the pace and she starts to rant. The eeriness of the music is strengthened by the weird vocals and the violins. The eeriness disappears only shortly in A Chronic Catalepsy. At first glance the middle part is quite chaotic. This happens often when the singers perform together, but that is just to mimick the fact that they talk at the same time trying to win the argument. Herbert Groenemeyer from Germany, for whom Hammill did some translating, is the quack who treats the poor Madeline. I always found his vocal parts somewhat weak. Hammill has added much more instrumental sounds especially guitar to this, filling up the soundspectrum. The Evil That Is Done consists of two monologues intertwined. Montresor with his optimism but also invested by doubt, the Chorus knowing more than it makes explicit. Moving into the fourth act already Madeline and Montresor reminisce about their former life's together as friends. It shows they were more than friends but never came off. The love song is It's Over Now. This is a bit of a romantic song (as you might expect) and maybe a bit sugary. The powerful, desperate chorus makes good however and there's even a short guitar solo now. The somberness enters when Usher enters the stage again. Montresor and Usher discuss the situation of Madeline, who is dying. In No Rot Stuart Gordons violin plays a prominent role. Again, lots of layering with the music often coming to a stop and then continuing. Montresor and Usher decide to try and defeat the house. However, in the fifth act Madeline has died. This is for me the goose bumps song on the album. Opening with a string quartet playing the great theme the songs builds up to the emotional impact of the message of Usher to Montresor that she is dead. After that the song starts building up again with sounds added from all sides including a guitar solo hidden at the end. Act six starts directly after and places us three days later. In any opera this would have been the climax, but not so here. Madeline has to rise again (make of three days what you like). Fortunately we have a little respite as the Chorus sings her low voiced parts. Montresor and Usher are awoken by a raging storm. Long drawn tones on the violin, the chaotic menacing Voices Of The House and the panic in Ushers voice. The next track contains The Haunted Palace, a poem by Poe. To pass the time Usher plays organ on this comparatively peaceful piece, but as always in Poe's stories the peace and quiet has to be perverted. During the telling of the story within the story the organ wins in power until it drowns out everything except the maniac vocals. I Dared Not Speak is the first step unto the climax. Ushers noticed by his hypersensitivity that Madeline was still alive. This song and the next are filled with each of the characters reliving part of the previous acts. The House crashes down and the Voices Of The House finish off.

Being remixed and such and having been partly rerecorded with better equipment this album sounds much better but also much fuller. A thing that struck me is that there seems hardly to be a restive moment.

Conclusion

Is this prog? Maybe not. Is this good? Yes, very much so. This something out of the ordinary and has to be experienced. If you do want to experience it make sure you experience this second version. In fact, I think this holds even more if you are into progressive rock. Do no expect something such as Ayreon however. This is an opera. Rock is very much a side issue here. However you can also hardly compare it with the "standard" classical opera. The noisy guitars, the intensity of the emotions are things I hardly notice there. This does make it an experience which is not for the faint of heart.