Steve Hillage - Fish Rising. Unashamed prog-psych alert. I discovered this when I went into 3rd Base Records in Dunfermline, Scotland, and told the shop owner I was on a quest for the most psychedelic records ever made. He pulled this out. As soon as I heard the first Leslie swirl guitar arpeggio I knew I had struck gold. When Steve left a multi-album stint as Gongs transcendent guitar maestro, he brought most of the band with him to make this ridiculous, triumphant, and effervescent solo record in 1975. The cover art, pictures - heck, even the names of the band members - will blow your mind. The lyrics are total hippy New Age nonsense, but are as lovely, evocative and fitting to the music as anything youll hear in this genre. I saw all the stars that glimmer above me get off their pegs, and gently flicker down. And all the people of the world dissolve into a sparkling dust. And through the Holy Vortex, for a second it did pass, and then it returned to what it used to Be A key guest player here is Eggs Dave Stewart, whose distorted organ solos are an utterly glorious counterpart to Steves singing guitar leads. Daevid Allen is absent here, along with his scatalogical humour - but the joy of Virgin-era Gong is still in evidence, as are the more serious (for want of a better word) elements of the mythology of that band. Didier Malherbe (here as Bloomdido Glid de Breeze) contributes tasteful sax, Tim Blakes synth bubbles are everywhere, and Gongs ace rhythm section of Moerlin and Howlett completes the scene. The songs are just great - the opening Solar Musick Suite (from which the above lyrics come) is a sublime piece of sonata-form long-form prog - as satisfying as the choicest Yes and Genesis compositions. I defy you to listen to Salmon Songs gleeful riff without breaking into a grin. The rest of Side 2 is rather more varied and less polished, but contains some wondrous playing and beautiful ideas. The concluding Aftaglid is delay-laden victory rock which almost makes you believe that Hillages and his partner Miquette Giraudys peace and love New Age vision could almost be the Answer, particularly in todays violent and broken world. Ok, so theres still a lot of silliness and self-indulgence here, and it will hardly be to everyones taste. But if you like great prog/jazz/rock playing married to really accessible and joyous rock songs and bags of trippy atmospherics, then youll love Fish Rising. I wore out my first copy and bought another!
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 22:10:09 +0000
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