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Plain and Fancy

Music gives soul to universe, wings to mind, flight to imagination, charm to sadness, and life to everything.

Plato

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Steve Hillage - L (1976 uk, progressive space rock, 2007 remaster)



After a stint with Gong as their trippy, hippy, new agey guitar guru of cosmically and extremely raga-esque trance rock and improv heaven, Steve Hillage went solo. He branched out to carry his own version of the Gong gospel of personal freedom via his special blend of cosmic brotherhood, Eastern religion, new age, pyramids, ley lines, crystals, and some ferocious jazz fusion and progressive rock guitar blended with space rock synths.

Hillage reinterprets some well-known tunes by other artists like Donovan and George Harrison here as well as penning some of his more memorable sonic treats. His awesome riffing and speedy solos on his Fender Strat rival those of Hendrix and Frank Marino but go further compositionally via exotic scales from other cultures. Add in Todd Rundgren's engineering and production genius, his Utopians guesting, and several others like Don

Cherry on brass and Tibetan trumpet along with a 15th century Hurdy Gurdy and you have a wild romp into eclectic rock. The 12-minute-long "Lunar Musick Suite" is the pinnacle moment of the release and "Om Nama Shivaya" comes in a close second for Hillage's most blissed-out trance rock. Both Gong and Hillage's solo career have brought such superb musical echoes and legends such as veteran space rockers, the Ozric Tentacles.
by John W. Patterson


Tracks
1. Hurdy Gurdy Man (Donovan Leitch) - 6:32
2. Hurdy Gurdy Glissando (Steve Hillage, Miquette Giraudy) - 8:54
3. Electrick Gypsies (Steve Hillage, Miquette Giraudy) - 6:24
4. Om Nama Shivaya (Kesar Singh Narula, Uma Nanda) - 3:33
5. Lunar Musick Suite (Steve Hillage, Miquette Giraudy) - 11:59
6. It's All Too Much (George Harrison) - 6:26
7. Eight Miles High (Bonus Track) (David Crosby, Gene Clark, Roger McGuinn) - 4:34
8. Maui (Bonus Track) (Steve Hillage, Miquette Giraudy) - 4:41
9. Shimmer (Bonus Track) (Steve Hillage, Tim Blake) - 3:50

Musicians
* Joe Blocker – Drums
* Don Cherry – Trumpet, Horn, Tambourine, Voices, Bells
* Miquette Giraudy – Keyboards, Vocals, Vibe Master
* Peter Hillage – Performer
* Steve Hillage – Synthesizer, Guitar, Vocals, Arp, Shenai
* John Holbrook – Engineer
* Larry Karush – Percussion, Tabla
* Sonja Malkine – Keyboards
* Roger Powell – Synthesizer, Piano, Keyboards, Moog Synthesizer
* Todd Rundgren – Record Producer, Engineer
* Kasim Sulton – Bass Guitar
* John (Jon) Wilcox – Drums

Free Text

5 comments:

  1. poly space kitharistas me tromeri thiteia stous gong. eixe tropo paiksimaton mprosta ths epoxis tou wraios diskos

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  2. Hey man. Thanks for the links.

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  3. ...........Steve Hillage L reset......

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  4. I love it when I stumble upon a review of mine for an artist on someone's blog!

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  5. Fantastic post, thank You, Marios

    ReplyDelete