Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Hammill, Peter
Label: Charisma Records
Release: 1979
Running time: 43:44
Rating: 4.5/5
pH7 is the chemical scale for measuring an aqueous solution that is neither basic nor acidic. That’s more or less the stylistic direction of »ph7«, the eighth studio album from Van Der Graaf Generator thunderer Peter Hammill, and also his last solo effort for Charisma Records. After VDGG fell apart, maestro Hammill poured all his creative energy into his solo career, which by then had long since taken on epic proportions.
The charismatic singer, who also contributed all the guitars, percussion and keyboards, was once again in excellent company, with longtime VDGG saxophonist/flautist David Jackson and violinist Graham Smith (String Driven Thing) helping out on most of the tracks. Smith was a VDGG member only on the farewell studio album »The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome« (1977) and the live recording »Vital« (1978). The cover photo was shot in New York in the late evening. A few minutes later, Hammill and violinist Smith reportedly narrowly escaped a violent run-in with a local gang.
Structurally, the album is akin to Hammill’s other work from the turn of the seventies into the eighties, meaning it’s dominated by an art-rock fusion of new wave elements and symphonic prog rock. The love ballad »My Favorite«, wrapped in a pastoral mood, is marked by a gorgeous melody on acoustic guitar and violin, while the lyrics show that Hammill got over his previous love affair with Alice, to whom the album »Over« (1977) was dedicated, pretty quickly. In 1978 he married Hilary, and they’re still married today. Throughout, the album keeps shifting stylistically between brighter and darker ambient moments. »Careering«, with its choppy guitar riff and stumbling rhythm, has a somewhat darker, slightly dystopian undertone, which goes double for its chaotic finale. »Porton Down« refers to the military complex of the same name, home to research labs developing the latest killing technologies, and it’s accordingly dark as hell, with irritated, droning guitar lines and toxic saxophone, while the ‘sharp-tongued doctor’ gets tossed around mid-song by all that pent-up rage.
The epic »Mirror Images« has a solemn mood built on synthesizer and slowly builds in intensity with the help of Peter’s poetic vocals. The beautiful acoustic ballad »Handicap and Equality« features a harrowing lyric about the relationship between disability and human relations, which makes it one of the strongest pieces on the album in terms of both atmosphere and message. »Not For Keith« is dedicated to the memory of bassist Keith Ellis, who had just died, a former member of VDGG, The Koobas, The Misunderstood and Juicy Lucy. Ellis, who played on the first VDGG album »The Aerosol Grey Machine« (1969), died in 1978 in Germany in the middle of a tour with Iron Butterfly. Hammill feels guilty about it, since he was far away when Keith died and never took enough time to build a real friendship with him.
On »The Old School Tie«, maestro Hammill is once again in a choleric fit over piano, venting (once more) in a socially conscious lyric about the incompetence and greed of politicians. It’s another splendid track with a whole series of shifts in mood. The dark acoustic lament »Time For a Change« was written together with Steve Robshaw and Chris Judge Smith, the original VDGG drummer before Guy Evans came along. »Imperial Walls«, with its trademark militaristic, marching rhythm, is inspired by the first lines of an 8th-century Anglo-Saxon poem titled »The Ruin«. They refer to the ancient Roman outpost of Aquae Sulis, which stood in the middle of the town of Bath in Somerset. Here maestro Hammill uses a special synthesizer effect to conjure up an interesting manipulation of layered falsettos.
The apocalyptic-conspiratorial »Mr. X (Gets Tense)« is by far the most brutal creation on the album, with a mass of rolling, irritated electric guitar riffs, mischievous violin accompaniment and Hammill in his most choleric phase possible, so parallels with the mighty VDGG legacy suggest themselves, especially in the utterly chaotic finale. The post-apocalyptic »Faculty X« is a somewhat calmer follow-up that likewise stirs up plenty of VDGG associations, when all that’s left is a smoldering wasteland and a handful of survivors, meaning the worst of their kind (an old Hammill poetic habit). Jackson’s playful flute accompaniment, the rowdy violin, the jittery build-up on piano, the effect-processed layered vocals and the sharp-tongued doctor’s increasingly inconsolable vocal raging from minute to minute all contribute a great deal.
As befits a musician of his caliber, »ph7« was yet another stylistically wildly variable album, sailing successfully between the white and the black of Hammill’s ambient palette while also serving as a mighty farewell to Charisma Records, closing an important chapter of his creative career and opening a new one.
Line-up
Peter Hammill – vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion
Graham Smith – violin (1,3,10,11)
David Jackson – saxophone, flute (2,3,11)
Production
Peter Hammill
Track list
1. My Favourite
2. Careering
3. Porton Down
4. Mirror Images
5. Handicap and Equality
6. Not For Keith
7. The Old School Tie
8. Time For A Change
9. Imperial Walls
10. Mr X (Gets Tense)
11. Faculty X
