“Overwhelming to the uninitiated… it’s progressive as hell, of course, but also utterly unique”: Peter Hammill’s The Charisma & Virgin Recordings 1971 – 1986

Peter Hammill – The Charisma & Virgin Recordings 1971 – 1986.

All-encompassing and assuredly eccentric, Peter Hammill’s solo catalogue is almost too vast to be contained. This expansive box set does a pretty fine job of tackling at least part of it.

It contains every record he made as a solo artist between 1971’s Fool’s Mate and 1986’s Virgin Records swansong And Close As This, with a huge amount of bonus material, BBC sessions, fresh remixes of two pointedly revolutionary classics, and a gorgeous 78-page hardback book.