Godbluff

Van Der Graaf Generator split up in 1972, after the release of Pawn Hearts and several tours of Italy (where they were weirdly popular). Three years later, they reunited for this album, which they produced themselves and which demonstrated a shift in their sound. Leader Peter Hammill plays electric guitar on the album, a sound they’d mostly avoided in the past (other than a few guest solos from King Crimson’s Robert Fripp), and David Jackson’s electronically manipulated saxophones and flute gave the music a warped edge, but in some ways the post-psychedelic moroseness in the new songs brought them almost into Pink Floyd territory. The beginning of “Arrow” may also remind some listeners of the trippier Krautrock bands like Amon Düül II, or even ’70s Miles Davis.