V D G G The Aerosol Grey Machine 01 Afterwards

Van der Graaf Generator's debut is another one of the prog debuts that gets written off as an unnecessary part of a band's discography, as is the case with Genesis, Jethro Tull, and Yes. Just like these other bands' debuts, if this album isn't great, it is at least, very interesting. People usually consider the next album, "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other" as the band's first essential album. However, I think that "The Aerosol Grey Machine", released in 1969, is another key part of early prog history. The album was entirely written by Peter Hammill, so you get a great sense of his intimate lyrical style and super dramatic vocals. Like most of these early prog albums, it's significantly lighter than what they would release in the next few years, but Van der Graaf Generator's strange, heavy jazz style is previewed here as well as the unconvential melodicism of Hammill's solo career. The CD release also includes as bonus tracks the two songs from the band's first single. These were recorded earlier and if you compare them to the LP tracks you can clearly see the jump forward they made with "The Aerosol Grey Machine". This CD is very hard to find, so pick it up if you see it for cheap.