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Peter Hammill: Loops & Reels

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Fie! Records
Released: 1990
Time:
 44:13
Category: Progressive Rock
Producer(s): Peter Hammill
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.sofasound.com
Appears with: Van der Graaf Generator, David Jackson
Purchase date: 2001.02.15
Price in €: 15,99





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] A Ritual Mask (Peter Hammill) - 5:51
[2] Critical Mass (Peter Hammill) - 8:13
[3] The Moebius Loop (Peter Hammill) - 2:56
[4] An Endless Breath (Peter Hammill) - 3:28
[5] In Slow Time (Peter Hammill) - 3:21
[6] My Pulse (Peter Hammill) - 15:38
[7] The Bells! The Bells! (Peter Hammill) - 4:09

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Peter Hammill plays on:
A Ritual Mask - vox, kora, bodhran, chinese drum, shaker
Critical Mass - piano/guitar transduction, loops
The Moebius Loop - loop vox, loops
An Endless Breath - breath organ, loops, manipulation
In Slow Time - synths, guitar, tambourine, vox
My Pulse - piano, guitar, vox, loops, manipulation
The Bells! The Bells! - rhythm box, loops, manipulation

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


"My pulse" was the music for a ballet choreographed by Nikolas Dixon
"In slow time" was the backing track for a dance / vocal perfomance, also choreographed by Nikolas Dixon
"A ritual mask" first appreared on "Music and rhythm", the WOMAD Benefit Album

These recordings were first released in 1983 on cassette only
SOFA SOUND: PO Box 66, Freshford, BATH, UK.

Hammill's 23rd solo album album. Not quite pop, rock, jazz or even modern classical, though containing elements of all those. 8 tracks including 'Touch And Go' and 'Naming The Rose'. 2000 release. Standard jewel case.

This Album is Mature and Considered Music which is Not Quite Pop, Rock, Jazz Or Even Modern Classical - Though it Contains Elements of all These.



This album is simultaneously released with There Goes The Daylight, on which Hammill & The Noise, his first band in nearly a decade, are nailed down in the harsh light of live performance. Loops And Reels lives at the opposite end of the ex-Van Der Graaf mentor's ever-expansive spectrum, being a collection of 'tape' moments-outtakes, improvs, continuations, and noise captured out of sync with `real time' recording and stitched into shapes. First released in 1983 on cassette only, the album finds Hammill on the tip of his avant-rock phase, mirroring the High Gothic ambience of his 1974, In Camera days, at a tangent to Krautrock and Eno, where found and incidental noise and rhythm form murky undercurrents. On three tracks (one being "A Ritual Mash," stained by kora and percussion), the ambience is permeated by ghostly snippets of Hammillsong, his tremulous voice eerily disembodied (no wonder he was inspired to write an opera based on Poe's The Fall Of The House Of Usher). The guitars on "In Slow Time" echo Robert Fripp's `tronic sculptures; 15 minutes long, "My Pulse"'s beautiful, dazed piano echoes the ballet movements for which it was commissioned; "The Bells! The Bells" trawls the bottom of the ocean, looking for light, or the way down (and out). Your synapses will loop; your senses will reel.

Martin Aston
CMJ New Music Report Issue: 361 - Dec 13, 1993



Peter Hammill fans should be warned that Loops & Reels is a bit of an experiment, and not comparable to any of his other releases (Hammill himself calls this album an abnormal work). Originally an inadequate-sounding, tape-only release in 1983, it has since been remastered as a CD, which obviously helped clear up the muddy sound. And although it contains some interesting compositions, a few too many self-indulgent tape experiments keep the album from becoming anything more than an oddity. The first track on the album, "A Ritual Mask," features Hammill's voice accompanied by a foreign stringed instrument called a kora, with primitive drumming being added later in the tune. And "The Moebius Loop" turns out to be a successful experiment, with Hammill singing over a repetitive loop of simple piano and unearthly backing vocals. But it's pointless and overtly long tracks like "An Endless Breath" and "My Pulse" that test one's patience after awhile, since they contain no real music, just sonic scraps and buzzes. Loops & Reels is of interest only to the Peter Hammill completist; casual fans should begin with one of his "proper" albums.

Greg Prato - All Music Guide
 

 L y r i c s


Ritual Mask

A ritual mask
up on the wall
furnishes his surroundings
that he thinks thats all
A ritual mask
its power still strong
a memento of his travel
that he got for a song
He got it for a song
It was the song of the centuries, undisturbed
it was the song of secrets and power words
it was the song of the culture, not grown immune
to the virus of progress, to the depth of the tune
The ritual mask
the evil eye
inhabits his appartment
inhabits his mind
The song of vengeance, the song of a debt repaid
the song of justice, the song of a heavens day
the song of a culture as old as the hills
[that its uneasy to live a hole like a snake or how to kill]
The ritual mask
It wont take long
before he finds out the bargain
has turned out dreadfully wrong
Oh, he got it for a song


Critical Mass

Instrumental


The Moebius Loop

Indicision and uncertainty
catch you now as they never have before
How come you didnt recognize
the revolving door?
Oh, youre gonna take sides
on the checkered floor
It used to be so easy
You saw everything in black and white
but when you lost track of all the moves youd made
you lost faith in wrong and right
It doesnt seem conceivable
look whats handing in your hands
Oh, is it a trick of comprehension
or a master plan?
Oh, a change in your perspective
from the gutter now used to
How come you didnt recognize
the fiery room
How youre gonna take sides
Now youre on the moebius loop


An Endless Breath

Instrumental


In Slow Time

Dance the dance
dance the dance
till show time.

Dance the dance
dance the dance
in slow time.

Dance the dance
dance the dance
in no time
in no time
dance the dance
It's show time
dance the dance
It's show time.


My Pulse

Instrumental


The Bells! The Bells!

Instrumental

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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