Steve Hillage: Fish Rising (1975)

Steve Hillage was best known as the guitarist for Gong. He was also in bands like Khan and Arzachel, and more recently, in a techno outfit called System 7. Fish Rising was his first solo effort, released in 1975.

If you’re a Gong fan, it’s a no-brainer, you need this album, members of Gong appear on this album: Tim Blake, Didier Malherbe, Pierre Moerlen, Mike Howlett, and Miquette Giraudy are all here. Other members include Dave Stewart (not of the Eurythmics, but of Hatfield & the North, Egg, Arzachel, and National Health fame), and Lindsay Cooper (of Henry Cow).

The lyrics to this album have strong Eastern and mystical overtone, and the album largely consists of suites. The first suite is “Solar Musick Suite”. One of the suites, “Canterbury Sunrise” sounds a whole lot like Hatfield & the North (no surprise, thanks to Dave Stewart’s involvement). The rest of the suite consists of both vocal and instrumental passages.

The next cut is a short one, “Fish”, which sounds like Gong during their more quirky moments, with silly babbling about fish. “Meditation of the Snake” is basically a solo guitar piece, but because of the use of tape delay, the result is quite mindblowing. Looks like I also hear some synthesizer from Tim Blake here as well.

The rest of the album consists of yet more suites, ranging from jamming to more ethnic influences, and more lyrics influenced by Eastern mysticism. Many people regard this as Steve Hillage’s best album, and I have no argument about that. Another great space rock album to add to your collection.