A Black Box
A Black Box | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by Peter Hammill | ||||
Released | August 1980 | |||
Recorded | November 1979 – April 1980 | |||
Studio | Sofa Sound, Wiltshire | |||
Genre | Art rock | |||
Label | S-Type Records | |||
Producer | Peter Hammill | |||
Peter Hammill chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [1] |
Record Mirror | (elusive) [2] |
A Black Box is the ninth studio album by Peter Hammill, originally released on S-Type Records in August 1980.
Hammill performed nearly all the instrumentation himself, including the drum parts, a task he had first undertaken on his previous album pH7. His ex-Van der Graaf Generator colleague David Jackson also made a guest appearance, along with David Ferguson of the new-wave band Random Hold, whose debut album Hammill had produced.
Side 1 of the record featured a collection of songs, while side 2 was devoted to "Flight", a lengthy multi-section song. This was the first time Hammill had included a lengthy song of this type on one of his solo albums.
The short-lived S-Type label (the name was a pun on "stereo-type"), on which the album was originally released, was set up by Hammill and his then manager Gail Colson. Colson had formerly been a director at Hammill's previous record company, Charisma Records, who had dropped him from their roster just prior to the recording of A Black Box. The S-Type label does not appear to have been a successful business project, and the album was later licensed to Virgin Records, who have since also acquired Hammill's Charisma catalogue.
Track listing
All songs written by Peter Hammill, except where noted.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Golden Promises" | 2:55 | |
2. | "Losing Faith In Words" | 3:38 | |
3. | "Jargon King" | 2:43 | |
4. | "Fogwalking" | 4:06 | |
5. | "The Spirit" | 2:38 | |
6. | "In Slow Time" | Hammill, David Ferguson | 3:26 |
7. | "The Wipe" | 1:51 | |
Total length: | 21:15 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Flight"
| 19:37 |
Total length: | 19:37 |
Personnel
- Peter Hammill – vocals, guitar, keyboards, drums, bass
- David Jackson – saxophone, flute on 4 and 8
- David Ferguson – synthesizer and tambourine on 4, 6 and 7
Technical
- Peter Hammill - recording engineer (Sofa Sound, Wiltshire)
- David Lord – mixing (Crescent Studios, Bath)
References
- v
- t
- e
- Fool's Mate (1971)
- Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night (1973)
- The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage (1974)
- In Camera (1974)
- Nadir's Big Chance (1975)
- Over (1977)
- The Future Now (1978)
- pH7 (1979)
- A Black Box (1980)
- Sitting Targets (1981)
- Enter K (1982)
- Loops and Reels (1983)
- Patience (1983)
- Skin (1986)
- And Close As This (1986)
- Spur of the Moment (1988)
- In a Foreign Town (1988)
- Out of Water (1990)
- The Fall of the House of Usher (1991)
- Fireships (1992)
- The Noise (1993)
- Roaring Forties (1994)
- X My Heart (1996)
- Sonix - Hybrid Experiments 1994-1996 (1996)
- Everyone You Hold (1997)
- This (1998)
- The Appointed Hour (1999)
- None of the Above (2000)
- What, Now? (2001)
- Unsung (2001)
- Clutch (2002)
- Incoherence (2004)
- Singularity (2006)
- Thin Air (2009)
- Consequences (2012)
- Other World (2014)
- ...All That Might Have Been... (2014)
- From the Trees (2017)
- In Translation (2021)
- The Margin (1985)
- Room Temperature (1990)
- There Goes the Daylight (1993)
- The Peel Sessions (1995)
- The Union Chapel Concert (1997)
- Typical (1999)
- The Margin + (2002)
- Veracious (2006)
- Pno Gtr Vox (2011)
- Pno Gtr Vox Box (2012)
- Peter Hammill & The K Group Live at Rockpalast 26/11/81 (2016)
- X/Ten (2018)
- Not Yet Not Now (2019)
- "Red Shift" (1973)
- "Birthday Special" (1975)
- "Crying Wolf" (1977)
- "If I Could" (1978)
- "The Polaroid" (1979)
- "My Experience" (1981)
- "Paradox Drive" (1982)
- "Film Noir" (1983)
- "Just Good Friends" (1985)
- "Painting by Numbers" (1986)
- A Fix on the Mix (1992) (CD, EP)
- In the Passionskirche (1992)
- Live at Rockpalast - Hamburg 1981 (2016)
- Vision (1978)
- The Love Songs (1984)
- The Essential Collection (1986)
- The Storm (Before the Calm) (1993)
- The Calm (After the Storm) (1993)
- Offensichtlich Goldfisch (1993)
- After the Show - A Collection (1996)
- Past Go: Collected (1996)
- The Thin Man Sings Ballads (2002)
- Judge Smith
- David Jackson
- Guy Evans
- John Ellis
- Nic Potter
- Roger Eno
- Stuart Gordon