The Noise is an album by the English singer and songwriter Peter Hammill

Peter Hammill

Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill is an English singer-songwriter, and a founding member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Most noted for his vocal abilities, his main instruments are guitar and piano...

.

As the title implies, the album is a collection of uptempo rock songs, in sharp contrast to Hammill's previous album, Fireships

Fireships (album)

Fireships is an album by English singer and songwriter Peter Hammill. Originally released in 1992, it was the first release on Hammill's own Fie! Records label. It was reissued in remastered form in 2006....

, which consisted mainly of ballads. The album was announced on its sleeve as "Number 1 in the A Loud series" (Fireships had similarly been labelled as "Number 1 in the BeCalm series"). At the time, Hammill intended these labels to continue, and to separate his loud and quiet songs between different albums. The idea did not, however, continue beyond these two albums.

The song "Primo on the Parapet" is a tribute to the writer and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi

Primo Levi

Primo Michele Levi was an Italian Jewish chemist and writer. He was the author of two novels and several collections of short stories, essays, and poems, but is best known for If This Is a Man, his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland...

, and has been performed many times by Hammill in concert.

Track listing

1. "A Kick to Kill the Kiss"
2. "Like a Shot, the Entertainer"
3. "The Noise"
4. "Celebrity Kissing"
5. "Where the Mouth Is"
6. "The Great European Department Store"
7. "Planet Coventry"
8. "Primo on the Parapet"

Personnel

• Peter Hammill – vocals, guitar, keyboards
• Manny Elias
  Manny Elias
  Manny Elias is an English drummer, notable for being the original drummer with Tears for Fears during the 1980s.Originally a member of the rock band Interview from Bath, Somerset. Elias began working with Tears For Fears in 1982 and drummed on the albums The Hurting and Songs From The Big Chair,...
  
   – drums
• Nic Potter
  Nic Potter
  Nic Potter is a British bassist, composer and painter, best known for his work with the group Van der Graaf Generator in the 1970s.-Career:...
  
   – bass
• John Ellis
  John Ellis (guitarist)
  John Ellis is an English guitarist and songwriter.-Career:He was a co-founder of the pub rock band Bazooka Joe in 1970 and a founding member of the punk rock band The Vibrators. Ellis formed The Vibrators in 1974 while still at art school studying illustration. The Vibrators released two albums...
  
   – guitar
• David Jackson
  David Jackson (rock musician)
  David Nicholas George Jackson , nicknamed Jaxon, is a British progressive rock saxophonist, flautist, and composer. He is best known for his work with the band Van der Graaf Generator and his work in Music and Disability...
  
  – saxophone, flute