pH7

Artist: Peter Hammill
Label: Blue Plate Caroline
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 017046169622
EAN: 0017046169622
ASIN: B000000HUX

Release Date: 1990-08-30

pH7

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Tracks:

My Favourite
Careering
Porton Down
Mirror Images
Handicap And Equality
Not For Keith
The Old School Tie
Time For A Change
Imperial Walls
Mr. X (Gets Tense)
Faculty X

Similar Items:

Over
The Future Now
A Black Box
Nadir's Big Chance
Sitting Targets

Customer Reviews:

pH7-protest songs for the future (now).......2006-11-27

pH7, released in 1979 and cousin to Peter Hammill's masterpiece predecessor The Future Now, mixed simple folk songs with artful experimental rock.

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.

pH7 has a certain accessibility where previous Hammill/VDGG albums did not have as much, mainly due to some of the less challenging material like My Favorite, Not For Keith, and Time For A Change. That's not to say the strength of spirit is not there, but now he let the ideas come up more gracefully.

Still, there are plenty of fascinating and challenging songs that can get your mind working overtime to follow. Porton Down hums in your ears as the lyrics warn of the future dangers of chemical warfare. Mr. X and it's correlating Faculty X brim with catchy electronic experimental waves and piano-base mixing a melody that would have fit in nicely with VDGG last 70's work Quiet Zone/Pleasure Dome, and brilliant lyrics that speak of the decline of the search for spiritual depth as mankind becomes imprisoned by technology and useless information. Imperial Walls and Old School Tie are two other songs that are impressive sonically and lyrically.

pH7 comes close to another P.H. masterpiece except for a few misses here and there. Handicap and Equality, for instance certainly has it's heart in the right place, being a song about how many prefer to ignore the hardships of people with disabilities, but the overdramatic approach to the song comes off as a bit too heavy-handed and preachy these days (bur like chemical warfare, I'm sure it was a different issue in '79). And although I continually enjoy hearing Mirror Images, a song that has an eerie sound that is reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange soundtrack, it does not seem to reach it's full potential.

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.

In general the production is superb and possibly his most fascinating sounding album he made. The new remastered albums (both of Hammill and VDGG) sound amazing, clearing up details and showing the fullness of the music. Make sure to get those and not the earlier versions.

Highly Recommended.
Some other albums of Peter Hammill I would recommend are Future Now, 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.

Prog's most articulate lyricist.......2004-04-11

Peter Hammill is one of my favorite performers. His lyrics never fail to provoke thought and emotion, his musical ideas are almost always interesting, and his singing style never fails to provoke a response.
PH7 finds our hero in familiar territory: exploring social issues,politics, ancient and future history, love, death, the dangers of giving advice and taking photographs of topless women.
The favorites are many: Careering, Mirror Images, Handicap and Equality, Polaroid, The Old School Tie, Imperial Walls, Mr.X, and of course, Faculty X. But all the songs are strong.
A solid CD, and a must-have for fans.
And remember kids, it won't be the drug, it won't be the sex, it's gotta be the Faculty X!

...and this guy is from what planet?.......2004-03-04

This is Peter at his devastating best - if this album doesn't kill brain cells I dont know what would- I thought I was MR.X until I heard this -
If you have ever heard of Peter Hammill then thats enough to qualify you to get this album right away.
******WARNING****** do not take any illegal substances prior to listning to this for the first time. You may never return to the real world and instead may spend an eternity careering through the dreaded "Facilty X"
For those of us its too late to save - a "must have" album!

One of the best kept secrets.......2001-07-05

Any serious prog-rock listener should have this one. Peter Hammill writes about pH7 (on his sofasound.com site): "both jokey and in disguise". I guess neither can fit with my impressions of it, but this goes to show how diverse a reaction this album creates. Hammill goes on to describe the album as: "divides more or less evenly between traditional and radical work.". This is far more accurate account of an album brimming with great masterpieces, such as "Careering", "Porton Down", "Not for Keith", "Mr X (gets tense)" & "Faculty X", but one which also shows signs of stress, with tracks as weak as "Mirror images" & "My Favourite".

When strong, a Hammill song is a marvel of pure genius - Hammill is by far one of the best poet singers, but, unlike many before him (as great as Bob Dylan), he was able to write truly complex and demanding music to accompany his words. pH7 benefits in this respect from the prolonged presence of both David Jaxon (on saxs & flute) & Graham Smith (on violins). Both are at their peak here, making one feel almost like the good old Van Der Graaf days are back.

Another reason to purchase this album is the inclusion of Judge Smith's "Time for a change" - one of Hammill's often played live pieces. Those of you who like this song should check the original version, now available, at last, on Judge Smith's own "Democrazy" CD.

Some of the North American LP versions of this CD came with a bonus track - Rikki Nadir's "Polaroid". Try to get hold of that one - it's sure to make you laugh, something a Hammill song rarely (if ever) does.

It is an album which ends a period in Hammill's creative life, a period many regards as his best. However, pH7 is still one which lurks in the shadows of Hammill's more familiar albums of the same period, notably "Over" & "The Future Now". Although lacking somewhat when compared to these two great masterpieces, this is still one of Hammill's best recordings to date.

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