HW: NIK: Nik's Sphynx album

[david hall]

The original Sphynx LP released in 1978 I think. I have a hazy memory of
buying it along with Quark (released the year before and my first HW LP
purchase), a Steve Hillage LP (Green?), some Gong trilogy stuff and
Tangerine Dream "Phaedra". The 1978 Sphynx LP is by far the best stuff that
Nik has put out outside of Hawkwind; it has been recently released on CD
albeit with modified artwork and minus the booklet
Gilli Smyths "Fairy Tales" was recorded at about the same time and some of
the musicians on Sphynx are on her LP.

Dave
-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Pearson <ceres at SIRIUS.COM>
To: Multiple recipients of list BOC-L <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
Date: 19 November 1999 23:50
Subject: Re: HW: NIK: Nik's Sphynx album


>On Fri, 19 Nov 1999 22:15:52 +0000, Dave Berry <daveb at TARDIS.ED.AC.UK>
wrote:
>>At 01:09 19/11/99 , flossbac wrote:
>>>Wow Doug, it's crazy how opinions vary, because I've always thought the
>>>Sphynx CD (Cleopatra version) was WAY better than Prophets of Time.
>
>That's one of the things I love most about boc-l is being able to share
>opinions that we strongly disagree on - at least we can all agree on being
>Hawkwind fans, and that's about it!  I may be biased in favor of 'Prophets
>of Time' since I like those Inner City Unit songs so much (although the
>only one that betters the original IMO is "Stonehenge Who Knows", purely
>for Simon House's violin soloing).  But 'Prophets' sounds like a much more
>coherent effort to me, like something approaching a "real" band.  Too much
>of 'Sphynx' sounds to me like musicians screwing around in the studio
>without much focus.  I can do that anytime I want and make my own noise,
>dammit :^).  And Nik's vocals sound "phoned-in" (which they essentially
>were, actually) on both albums, although more so (IMO, of course) on
>'Sphynx'.  Of course, if you can't stand 'Prophets' because of the voice of
>Genesis P. Orridge being all over it, I certainly won't disagree with you
>on THAT :^).
>
>>I'm with John on this.  I found most of Prophets of Time very
>disappointing.   Past or
>>Future was better, but still wasn't great.  Sphynx beats both of them,
>IMO, especially
>>"Thoth".
>
>I agree that "Thoth" is the best track on 'Sphynx' (except see below), but
>I think the full-band version on 'Space Ritual 94' utterly blows it away.
>I guess I'm a bit surprised that you don't like the live albums as much.  I
>think that's where the Nik/Pressurehed band really shines, for a number of
>reasons: 1) Nik has an audience to perform for, which brings out the
>consummte entertainer in him, 2) songs don't sound like everyone is playing
>along with a click track (the same complaint someone was recently making
>about HW songs like "Blue Skin" and "Space is Their Palestine"), 2.5) real
>drums, 3) crunchier guitars (but like I said before, I'm a big Helios
>Creed/Chrome fan, and IMO he added his own character to the SR94 band's in
>a very positive way - no one else sounds like him on guitar), 4) Del
>Dettmar, still one of the best synth players alive after all these years.
>Then again, there are probably just as many good reasons why I'm wrong :^).
>
>>There's also the 1976 release of Sphynx (or rather "Xitintoday", by
>Sphynx), but
>>that's a different pyramid of mysteries.
>
>With Steve Hillage, Tim Blake & Mike Howlett among others, so it winds up
>sounding like loose jams done by the Radio Gnome-era Gong lineup.  I really
>like that album (doesn't hurt that I'm a Gong fan), and I also love the
>fact that Nik basically did a musical 180 over the next two years before
>his next release (from the prog-influenced 'Xitintoday' to Inner City
>Unit's punkish 'Passout').
>
>>One of the nice things about the Cleopatra
>>release, for those of us that have the 1976 version, is that the Cleopatra
>release
>>includes the original flute recordings from the Great Pyramid.
>
>I like that part a lot, and I'm glad they included it as a bonus track.
>Definitely my favorite part of the Cleopatra 'Sphynx' album.
>
>        -Doug
>         ceres at sirius.com
>