sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog) (06/09/91)
"The Long Hello" is a series of instrumental albums with the ex-members of Van Der Graaf Generator. The albums does not seem to be group efforts, but rather solo albums or as in this case a duo album. Potter played bass and guitar to and from in Van Der Graaf, while Guy Evans was the drummer throughout. On this album Potters also plays synthesizers. David Jackson, also from Van Der Graaf plays sax on five of the tracks. The tracks on side one are all Potter compositions, while the tunes on side two are co-written by Evans/Potter or written by Evans alone. Thus, you can say that this is two half solo albums brought into one. And the two sides are also very different. Potter's side are melodic decent instrumentals with a light flavour of "progressive" and fusion. The last track "Broken Chain" is guitar focused, the other mainly keyboard-oriented. The tracks are decently made, and there is some humour. Still... Evans' side is percussion-oriented as you can guess, and as much such music, more experimental in nature, and thus requires more of the listener. I don't know if I'm really that excited. As much instrumental music, the album never catch me. Clean, and a little too clean. Actually I think I liked the album better when I played the album the first time than the fourth, so it doesn't seem to be an album that grows on me, but rather the opposite.