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Peter Hammill - This

Artist:	Peter Hammill
Title:	This
Label:	Fie! Fie9118
Length(s):	49.49 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1998
Month of review:	10/1998

Line up

Peter Hammill - vox, all instruments except
Manny Elias - drums
Stuart Gordon - violin and viola
David Jackson - saxophones and flutes

Tracks

1)	Frozen In Place	0.46
2)	Unrehearsed	7.05
3)	Stupid	4.26
4)	Since The Kids	5.56
5)	Nightman	6.17
6)	Fallen (the City Of Night)	5.37
7)	Unready	0.42
8)	Always Is Next	3.58
9)	Unsteady	0.58
10)	The Light Continent	14.02

Summary

The history of this man could fill books I guess. From VDGG v1 and v2 to the K-group, and his many many solo albums, This album is the fortieth. A hallmark and still going strong, yet different. Knowing that Hammill was still 49 years old at the moment of release of this album, the album length of 49 minutes and 49 second makes one wonder.

The music

Starting with an overall remark: I tend to think of this album as a compilation in style of the previous albums. There's some Everyone You Hold here, some X My Heart, some The Noise even and some Roaring Forties as well. On the disc are three short "instrumentals", Frozen in Place (choirlike vocals in a soundscapish way), Unready (Gordon's violin) and Unsteady (acoustics, vocals). The first real song is Unrehearsed featuring both the saxophone of Jackson as well as the violin of Gordon while Hammill plays the piano. The song opens rather quietly and has a rather dark feel to it. Lyrically it seems to be about someone having to take his/her own responsibility, at first I thought he was singing about the relation towards some or one of his daughter, but I can't be sure. In the middle the song becomes more involved and after a minute or four there's even a The Noise-like rock part, rather chaotic. Then a naked riff is left and the music starts to become more melodic again and the quieter vocals return. Something's definitely wrong in Stupid (autobiographical?). He refers in this song to "this pilgrim" (see VDGG) and making errors. I'm not sure whether he refers to some error he made, but he also generalizes to people making mistakes in their lives. The music is in a way rather disjointed. I'm not too fond of the "IIIII-hIII-hII'm so stupid" vocals here. The music is rather quiet, with some injections on saxophone and on the whole the music is rather moody, but also a little uneventful. Not my favourite. A great song is Since The Kids. I guess this is about the separation between parents and kids that hurts most on the side of the parent and I guess also the implications of having children. This song can be compared to Curtains in its sense of drama. The vocal melody of this song is quite good, and is only accompanied by a lone piano (and Hammills own eerie backing vocals). A moving song. Acoustic guitar and violin make up Nightman. The song has elements of earlier songs of Hammill and especially one melody I seem to recognize, but like you might have guessed with such an amount of music it is hard to figure out exactly what it is. Fallen (the City Of Night) also seems to do so: the first verses features the moody violin of Gordon, while afterward the music tries to pick up, but then the music becomes a little chaotic with vocals, percussion and violin all moving through each other. After a return of the quiet part it becomes again chaotic like at first, but then from this chaos emerges something that is both melodic and strange, both appealing and complex as he plays on the keyboards. Very exciting and intense is Always Is Next, strangely enough the shortest song on this album. With lyrics like "his push, her pull, the slushy genderpool" it is obvious what its about (I will not give you the meaning of title though). This is definitely a guitar song, but the vocals are so very untypical and in a way refreshing that I really like this song. The closing title is the long The Light Continent, over fourteen minutes long. Opening with something akin to soundscapes this is a very, ery moody and consistent track with the slow moving rumblings of a continent. The music on this track fits so well with the title: it is both light and desolate with little variation, just like those icy plains. The saxophone and violin also have their place here, but they also do nothing to fire up the music or break the spell. As it is, it remains unbroken.

Conclusion

A good album I think with something, you might say, for everybody. To me it sounded like a cross between Everyone You Hold and X My Heart, but also harkens back to older days at times. Personal favourites are Since The Kids and Always Is Next.