Van Der Graaf Generator

The sad fact about box sets is that there's always a fan out there who thinks they could have compiled a better one. An even sadder fact is that they're often correct, and the very notion of anthologizing Van Der Graaf Generator was a fraught one for that very reason. More, perhaps, than any other band of the early-'70s prog era, VDGG polarized their fans as much as the band's blatantly inhospitable sound outraged outsiders. They cut just eight studio albums, and all eight possess a wholly different character, all the more so since the band actually broke up midway through the sequence. Past compilations, then, sensibly dealt with one or other of those eras – The Box, contrarily, swallows the entire beast whole, 34 tracks over four stuffed discs, and it gets full marks for courage, whatever its other sins may be. …

In April 2010 Peter Hammill, Hugh Banton and Guy Evans undertook some intensive tracking sessions in Cornwall, arranging, rehearsing and recording the album in a week. Over the next few months the tracks were overdubbed, edited and adapted by the band in their own studios, and by September the project was ready to be mixed by legendary producer Hugh Padgham (the first time anybody outside the band has been entrusted such responsibility). After three weeks at Hugh's studio, Sofasound, "A Grounding in Numbers" was complete. With a fantastic clarity and depth of sound, and a helter-skelter stretch of tunes, "A Grounding In Numbers" sees VDGG pushing ever further forward into the twenty-first century, and their fanbase is certain to enjoy this strong, cohesive set.

VDGG's second step on the mid-'70s comeback trail saw Peter Hammill attempting to meld the introspective and the cosmic throughout, though this did not stop him from taking a dead run at a grandiose concept or two - the consequences of immortality on the title track, and the grand fate of humanity on the epic "Childlike Faith in Childhood's End." The theme of humane cooperation informs the opening "Pilgrims," while "La Rossa" is an epic tale of desire fulfilled (a story that would be concluded on Hammill's solo album, Over). The true highlight, however, is the beautiful, pensive "My Room (Waiting for Wonderland)," with its echoes of imagination and loss. Hammill did not achieve such a level of painful beauty again until "This Side of the Looking Glass" on Over.

In April 2010 Peter Hammill, Hugh Banton and Guy Evans undertook some intensive tracking sessions in Cornwall, arranging, rehearsing and recording the album in a week. Over the next few months the tracks were overdubbed, edited and adapted by the band in their own studios, and by September the project was ready to be mixed by legendary producer Hugh Padgham (the first time anybody outside the band has been entrusted such responsibility). After three weeks at Hugh's studio, Sofasound, "A Grounding in Numbers" was complete. With a fantastic clarity and depth of sound, and a helter-skelter stretch of tunes, "A Grounding In Numbers" sees VDGG pushing ever further forward into the twenty-first century, and their fanbase is certain to enjoy this strong, cohesive set.

VDGG's second step on the mid-'70s comeback trail saw Peter Hammill attempting to meld the introspective and the cosmic throughout, though this did not stop him from taking a dead run at a grandiose concept or two - the consequences of immortality on the title track, and the grand fate of humanity on the epic "Childlike Faith in Childhood's End." The theme of humane cooperation informs the opening "Pilgrims," while "La Rossa" is an epic tale of desire fulfilled (a story that would be concluded on Hammill's solo album, Over). The true highlight, however, is the beautiful, pensive "My Room (Waiting for Wonderland)," with its echoes of imagination and loss. Hammill did not achieve such a level of painful beauty again until "This Side of the Looking Glass" on Over.