OFF: style of Hillage music?
Moonglum .
sjyoules at VISTO.COM
Thu Dec 6 13:56:10 EST 2001
To add my two-penn'orth to the Hillage topic. The dates/sequence are my
best guesses, and may be way off:
1973: Fish Rising
=================
Very Gong-like, an excellent album of whatever genre you would put old
school Gong into. Spacey pysch with strong French, jazz and feminine
influences. I think Fish Rising differs from Gong chiefly in having these
specific influences diminished by comparison.
1975: L
=======
Probably Hillage's biggest seller, but not my favourite. Straightforward
spacey psych with a guest appearance from Don Cherry, IIRC. Less Gong
influence, I think of this as one stop along Hillages' journey from Gong to
New Age to Commercial to Techno...
1976: Live Herald
=================
Not heard this but my interest was certainly piqued by the earlier posts in
this discussion.
1977: Motivation Radio
======================
Moves on from Fish Rising and L in that there are the first appearances of
Steve's pop leanings, and Miquette Giraudy has more influence. As Nick
pointed out, the lyrics start to get more New Age, but overall a pretty
good album, essential for Hillage fans. Hello Dawn has some nice flanger!
1978: Green
===========
My favourite. A number of different kinds of song on this album, from the
funk of Unidentified Flying Being to ambient stuff. But there is a
commonality running through it, consisting of the warm synthetic sounds
someone already mentioned. Lots of vocoder and guitar synth. THIS is the
album that has the Glorious Om Riff, i.e. a reworking of Gong's Master
Builder. It has a nice change to the time signature.
1979: Open
==========
Awful attempt to go commercial. There is one song I like on this album,
which might be Earthrise. It sounds a little bit like the Police! The
rest of it is dire, including Don't Dither Do It (it was never in any dream
of mine, y'see!)
1979: Rainbow Dome Musick
=========================
Lovely ambient stuff consisting of guitar and synth only. A must.
1982: For To Next / And Not Or
==============================
The Open vein gushes in full flood. I don't know the And Not Or album so
nothing to say about that, but For To Next is surely the most ill-advised
Steve Hillage record ever, and that includes the System 7 stuff. Thin,
weak, vacuous....
System 7
========
Everything after 1982 I suppose. Doesn't do it for me, I have tried
listening to it and it just makes no impression at all. I suspect I am
turning into my father...
Steve
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