Audio CD review:
Van Der Graaf Generator - The Box

Van Der Graaf Generator - The Box

Band: Van Der Graaf Generator Title: The Box Rating: Release Date: 20 November, 2000 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: People You Were Going To 2: Afterwards 3: Necromancer 4: Refugees 5: Darkness 6: After The Flood 7: White Hammer 8: House With No Door 9: Killer 10: Lost 11: Theme 1 12: W 13: A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers: Eyewitness/Pictures/Lighthouse/Eyewitness/S.H.M./Presence Of The... 14: (In The) Black Room/The Tower 15: Lemmings 16: Man-Erg 17: La Rossa 18: Arrow (Edit) 19: Still Life 20: My Room (Edit) 21: Sleepwalkers 22: Pilgrims 23: Childlike Faith In... 24: Scorched Earth 25: Masks 26: Meurglys III (Edit) 27: When She Comes 28: Wondering 29: The Wave 30: Cat's Eye/Yellow Fever 31: Chemical World 32: Door 33: Sci-Finance 34: The Sphinx In The Face

Customer Reviews All the vdgg you need This is a very good vdgg set, I recommended this set for the more familiar fans of vdgg. the b(oll)ox VdGG were - as all those in the know, er, know - one of the greatest ever prog rock groups. OK, not a 'clunker review' (see my personal page for clarification) but I have to enthuse about this box set. This product puts together a fantastic range of material in an an approriately doomy plasticised card box, and adds a terrific aladdin's cave of a booklet. This is not what counts though. Where The Box really scores is in the decision on what to include to justify putting out a box set in the first place. Too often a decision is made to put out unreleased material. Hence we get something like Genesis Archive which is really inessential and only for completists. The whole box set enterprise is afflicted by this 'odds'n'sods effect': if the stuff did not merit release at the time, why should it now? However - Lo and Hooray! - The Box avoids this problem magnificently. What has been done here is on top of a limited number of high-quality rarities and live cuts, a vast swathe of the studio tracks we already know (including e. g. Refugees, White Hammer, La Rossa, Still Life) get remastered. Before stifling yawns (yeah right - when did anyone ever notice a remaster), this is not just tinkering, it is full-scale revisioning. The sound on these tracks is now just incredible - full, fat, detailed, dynamic, powerful. I have rarely heard any rock production that's even close to this good. The effect is revelatory. When Peter sings 'West is Mike and Susie' it is just fresher and more heartbreaking than ever; and when the band start steaming (Plague of Lighthouse Keepers) I swear it is the heaviest thing that ever roared out of my speakers. These remasters are not available elsewhere. Once heard, you'll never go back. In sum, The Box is a superb product great for newbies as well as devotees, so good it has brought about something of a VdGG renaissance, selling way over what was expected. An object lesson in how to re-present, as well as honour, a legacy. Rough Cuts for Fervent Fans Only Some are almost unlistenable especially in contrast to the remastered studio tracks. Van der Graaf's The Box could have been a "Best Of" if not for the rough live tracks which mar this otherwise excellent set. Far better-sounding live (in studio) tracks can be found on the Maida Vale CD. Unlike Genesis' similarly-styled Archives 1967-75 boxed set, there are only a few rarities ("Theme 1" and "w" among others). It's a shame VdGG didn't put out more shorter single-worthy songs like these. If new to Van der Graaf Generator, buy their monumental Still Life and/or Godbluff recordings! -DW. . You can see a complete list of all Van Der Graaf Generator discography, or go back to the Van Der Graaf Generator tabs