LIVE HERALD

After you've soaked in Hillage's main studio albums, and love them and know what they're all about, get Live Herald and prepare to die. I'll be 'blunt' (haha) -- this is some of the most stoned, spaced out, mind gratifying music I've ever heard in my life. Basically you get two main ingredients: endless waves of swishing synthesizers flying around your speakers like UFOs invading the planet, and the most heaven-storming psychedelic guitar solos ever recorded. Hillage's guitar philosophy isn't one of "let's play intricate chords, and never repeat myself, and try to impress everybody with how well-versed a player I am..." He doesn't care! He's all about heaping on ridiculous amounts of echos and phasers and flangers, then ripping his fretboard to pieces over and over and over again! So basically, he's my kind of guy. You need your Holdsworths, but you also most definitely need your Hillages. The recording quality is great -- you won't even remember you're listening to a live album, until the crowd explodes after each song -- and every track is equally amazing (you've never heard "Hurdy Gurdy Man" like this). Go try "Searching for the Spark" on for size. Final word: lovers of music from the Gong tip of the equation, you will eventually come to worship this album as your holy grail.