1978 Albums

but Hemispheres for me

I've been into prog för 45 years and never heard of any but three.

without any doubt Nik Turner's "Xitintoday". one of my favorite albums of all time.

here my review of the album:

This is one of the forgotten gems of prog. Of Nik Turner, sax and flute player of Hawkwind, one would expect something on the heavy side, but this wonderful album is very quiet and spacy (though not completely without rhythm, and in the last track it even rocks a little - but don't expect anything like Hawkwind). With half of Gong plus former Hawkwind drummer Alan Powell and Morris Pert of Brand X on percussion the lineup is exquisite. But the biggest surprise is Nik Turner himself. His flute clearly dominates the album, and one really feels the ancient Egyptian Gods evoked by it. The music makes a lot of use of vocoder, which adds to the feeling that supernatural beings are around. This is not an album to play in the background; listen to it late at night by candle light. In my opinion clearly the best album of 1978. Warning: The 1994 CD of Nik Turner of the same name - "Xitintoday" - only has the lyrics in common with this album. The music of that release is completely different though, not even the same compositions. It is not a bad album itself, but no competition for this masterpiece. So stick to the vinyl, if you can find it somewhere (unless Virgin decides to reissue this gem on CD). And then "Hommage to Thee, Oh Ra, in Thy Rising".