| Do Not Disturb | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 30 September 2016 | |||
| Recorded | End of 2015/ Spring 2016 | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock, art rock | |||
| Length | 57:07 | |||
| Label | Esoteric Recordings | |||
| Van der Graaf Generator chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| RTÉ |   [1] |
Do Not Disturb is the thirteenth studio album by British progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. It was released, on Esoteric Recordings, on 30 September 2016. [2] [3]
Reviewing the album for TeamRock, Kris Needs reported that vocalist Peter Hammill had sent organist Hugh Banton and drummer Guy Evans a CD of the new songs, which they spent a week rehearsing, another week recording backing tracks, then six months overdubbing and tweaking at their home studios. Of the album, Needs said:
If, as Peter Hammill has indicated, this is the last Van der Graaf album, these winners of Prog’s Lifetime Achievement award this year are going out with the kind of mind-joltingly gorgeous roller coaster that made them one of the greatest genuinely progressive bands of all time. But there’s also a noticeably reflective aura and sense of closure around their 13th album... [4]
Reviewing the album for RTÉ, Paddy Kehoe describes the track "(Oh No I Must Have Said) Yes" as "so prog it kind of parodies the genre itself.. " In the tracks "Brought to Book" and "Go", Kehoe sees the spirit of Richard Wright "somehow wafting about." [5] Kehoe writes:
There is sometimes on the album a languorous air of Pink Floyd’s haunted pastoralism, or you could imagine Floyd’s keyboards maestro, the late Richard Wright singing one or two of the songs. "Alfa Berlina" opens with choral voices looped backwards and traffic noises. “I’ve got a lifetime's library of unreliable mementos” begin the lyrics – these guys have lived, and then some. Forever Falling's Gibson guitar groove is reminiscent of Jethro Tull, and, like many of the other tracks, it suddenly shifts tempo about a minute in. How on earth did they rehearse these things? One gathers a lot of earnest work went into the creation of this record. [5]
Reviewing the album in The Quietus, Richard Rees Jones suggested it did not match the group's earlier work, and suggested that those unfamiliar with that begin with Still Life , Godbluff or Pawn Hearts . Nevertheless, he called the album ".. a worthy addition to the group's canon and – if this is indeed their last album – a fitting end to an illustrious career":
"To a greater extent here than on previous trio outings, VdGG make efforts to compensate for the absence of Jackson with a more varied instrumental palette. These songs are like compressed multi-part epics, lurching deliriously from moments of piano-led tranquillity to ragged guitar-and-drums freakouts. Banton augments his organ work with deep, resonant bass and tender washes of accordion, there’s a (tad overlong, to tell the truth) jazzy break in the middle of the exuberant rocker "(Oh No I Must Have Said) Yes", while the frenetic instrumental coda to "Almost the Words" is as wild and driven as anything you’ll hear all year. Only on the plaintive closing track “Go” does the mood finally darken, with Hammill’s tone of weary resignation looming over Banton’s desolate organ: "more or less, all for the best, in the end it’s all behind you." [6]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Aloft" | 7:20 |
| 2. | "Alfa Berlina" | 6:40 |
| 3. | "Room 1210" | 6:48 |
| 4. | "Forever Falling" | 5:40 |
| 5. | "Shikata Ga Nai" | 2:29 |
| 6. | "(Oh No! I Must Have Said) Yes" | 7:44 |
| 7. | "Brought to Book" | 7:57 |
| 8. | "Almost the Words" | 7:54 |
| 9. | "Go" | 4:35 |
| Chart (2016) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [7] | 96 |
| Italian Albums (FIMI) [8] | 48 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC) [9] | 57 |
| UK Albums (OCC) [10] | 88 |
| UK Independent Albums (OCC) [11] | 17 |
| UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC) [12] | 6 |
Godbluff is the fifth album released by English progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. It was the first album after the band reformed in 1975 and was recorded after a European tour.
Pawn Hearts is the fourth album by English progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator, released on 12 November 1971 on Charisma Records. The original album features just three tracks, including the side-long suite "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers". The album was not commercially successful in the UK, but reached number one in Italy. It has since seen retrospective critical praise and was reissued on CD in 2005 with extra material.
H to He, Who Am the Only One is the third album by the British progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. It was released in 1970 on Charisma Records.
Still Life is the sixth album by English progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator, originally released in 1976. It was their second album after reforming in 1975, the first being Godbluff. One live bonus track was added for the 2005 re-mastered re-release. A new re-master, with 5.1 surround sound re-mixes by Stephen W Tayler, was released on 3 September 2021.
The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other is the second album by the British progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator, released in February 1970 on Charisma Records. It was the group's first album to be released in the UK and the only one to chart in the top 50 in that country.
The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome is the eighth album by British progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Released in 1977, it was their last studio album before their 2005 reunion. The album features a more energetic, new wave sound than its three immediate predecessors, anticipating singer and songwriter Peter Hammill's late 1970s solo work.
Vital: Van der Graaf Live is the first live album by English progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. It was recorded 16 January 1978 at the Marquee Club in London and was released in July, one month after the band's 1978 break-up. The album was credited under the abbreviated name Van der Graaf, like the previous year's The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome (1977), and featured the same line-up plus newcomer cellist/keyboardist Charles Dickie, who had officially joined the band in August 1977, and original saxophonist and flautist David Jackson, who re-joined the band for this recording.
Hugh Robert Banton is a British musician and electronic organ builder, most widely known for playing organ and keyboards with the group Van der Graaf Generator.
The Aerosol Grey Machine is the debut studio album by English progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. It was first released in the United States in 1969 by Mercury Records.
World Record is the seventh studio album by the British progressive rock group Van der Graaf Generator, originally released in 1976 on Charisma Records. Bonus tracks were added for the 2005 rerelease.
Present is the ninth studio album by British progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator, released in 2005. It was the band's first studio album since The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome in 1977, and the first with the 'classic' line-up since World Record in 1976. The Charisma Records label was re-activated for its release, as well as a re-issue series of Van der Graaf Generator's catalogue and Peter Hammill's solo releases from 1972-86.
Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night is the second solo album by British singer-songwriter Peter Hammill. It followed in the aftermath of the breakup of Hammill's band Van der Graaf Generator, and other ex-members of Van der Graaf Generator perform on the album.
Van der Graaf Generator are an English progressive rock band, formed in 1967 in Manchester by singer-songwriters Peter Hammill and Chris Judge Smith and the first act signed by Charisma Records. They did not experience much commercial success in the UK, but became popular in Italy during the 1970s. In 2005 the band reformed, and are still musically active with a line-up of Hammill, organist Hugh Banton and drummer Guy Evans.
Real Time: Royal Festival Hall, London, 06.05.05 is a live album by Van der Graaf Generator, released in 2007 on Fie! Records. It contains the entire recording of the group's reunion concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London, England on 6 May 2005. The album includes at least one song from every album released between 1970-1976, plus their 2005 reunion album Present. Nothing is included from 1969's Aerosol Grey Machine and The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome, released in 1977 after Hugh Banton and David Jackson left the group. The album also contains "(In the) Black Room", a song performed live by Van der Graaf Generator in 1972 ; following the band's August 1972 breakup, it was released on Peter Hammill's 1973 solo album Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night, with Banton, Evans and Jackson all performing on the track.
Trisector is the tenth studio album by the British rock group Van der Graaf Generator. It was released on Virgin/EMI Records in March 2008. It is the first album the band has recorded as a trio. Saxophonist David Jackson departed the band following the 2005 tour.
Time Vaults is an album by Van der Graaf Generator. It was originally released in 1982 on cassette only, almost four years after the break-up of Van der Graaf Generator in 1978. Later it was released as a vinyl LP, and in 1992 it was released on CD.
Maida Vale: The BBC Radio One Sessions is a compilation album by Van der Graaf Generator, containing eight songs from four different recording sessions at Maida Vale Studios for BBC Radio 1 in 1971, 1975 and 1976, three of which were Peel Sessions. It was released in June 1994 on Band of Joy Records.
A Grounding in Numbers is the eleventh studio album by the British rock group Van der Graaf Generator. It was released on 14 March 2011. This date, if written as 3,14, comprises the first three digits of the number π. The second track, "Mathematics", refers to Euler's identity, sometimes known as the mathematical poem. The album's release signals a continuation in the direction set by the current trio lineup, but it is released on a new label, Esoteric Recordings, a departure from previous releases on Virgin/Charisma. Hugh Padgham is the mixer of the album.
ALT is the twelfth studio album by English progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. It was released 25 June 2012. There are only instrumental songs on the album.
Merlin Atmos: Live Performances 2013 is a live album by English progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator, released in February 2015. The album was recorded during the band's European tour in June 2013 and includes a full onstage performance of the suite "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers", originally recorded for Pawn Hearts in 1971.
