Steve Hillage - L (1976)

(English 1975-92)

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Steve Hillage was born in London 2nd August 1951.
He was a member of 'Uriel'/'Arzachel', 'Khan' and the seminal space fusion band 'Gong'. In 1975 he made his first solo album "Fish Rising", soon after he left Gong and released a series of studio LP's between '76 ("L") and '83 ("And Or Not") and two live-albums entitled "Live Herald" ('78) and "BBC Radio 1" ('92). Steve Hillage, 'the hippie from outer space', will be remembered as one of the main inventors of the space rock, his unique guitar play inspired later progrock bands like 'Ozric Tentacles' and 'Porcupine Tree'. The first solo-album "Fish rising" is the Hillage's most acclaimed record but my favorite album is definately 'L'.
'L' was recorded primarily in New York, at the Secret Sound, Woodstock, N.Y., and was produced and engineered by Todd Rundgren, using musicians from Todd Rundgren's band Utopia and others.
According to liner notes supplied with the US pressing, Rundgren had only just become aware of Hillage, and following a letter from Hillage to Rundgren, and a reply from Rundgren, Hillage travelled to New York to meet, and the agreement to work together flowed from that.
The cover features a clean shaven Hillage (most of the publicity shots of Hillage during the 1970s show him with a full beard) holding his guitar, brightly backlit.
Unusually for Hillage, half the songs on this album are covers. "Hurdy Gurdy Man" was written by Donovan "Om Nama Shivaya" was written by Kesar Singh Nariula and Uma Nanda and "It's All Too Much" was written by George Harrison and originally appeared on the 1969 Beatles album, Yellow Submarine. It is also interesting to note that the track "Electrick Gypsies" was featured in an episode of the British T.V series "The Young Ones" when Neil, while working as an English Bobby, has to raid his hippie friend's party for drugs and ends up sharing a joint with him instead !

The original Virgin catalog number for this album on vinyl was V2066. An American pressing was issued on Atlantic Records, catalog number SD 18205.

The rip provided here was taken from vinyl at 256kps and includes full album artwork.

Track Listing

01 Hurdy Gurdy Man

02 Hurdy Gurdy Glissando

03 Elecktrick Gypsies

04 Om Nama Shivaya

05 Lunar Musick Suite

06 It's All Too Much

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Band Members:

Steve Hillage (electric guitar, guitar synthesizer, vocals, synthesizers, shenai)

Don Cherry (trumpets, bells, voice, tamboura)

Miquette Giraudy (voice, vibes)

Larry Karush (tabla)

Sonja Malkine (15th century hurdy gurdy)

Roger Powell (piano, synthesizers)

Kasim Sulton (bass)

John Wilcox (drums)

Sorry, but album appears to be available from Amazon
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