Peter Hammill
 

Any Peter Hammill/Van Der Graaf Generator fans out there?

Peter Hammill is one of those guys that I have some serious problems with stylistically, and that I find sort of embarrassing, in that most of his albums I won't play around other people, but I find him intriguing enough that I own virtually everything album he's put out, which is something close to one a year since 1969.

He's got this overblown Shakespearean vocal delivery and a very distinctive way of constructing instrumental parts, including his route to prog, which seems to be taking a somewhat abrasive riff in, say, 5/8 and repeating it over and over.

This doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement, but a lot of his stuff is really strikingly beautiful and/or tough as nails, and the lyrics are consistently thoughtful if sometimes (especially in the 70s) on the pretentious side.