GREEN

For those in the know, this represents Steve's most cohesive and polished album. I have a very hard time choosing between this one and Fish Rising in terms of the musical direction, but despite my love for the first album, Green is clearly the more consistently excellent all-around. For this recording, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason joins the fold, but frankly, drumming is not really his major contribution to this record. Mason produced the record and the effect is simply magical. The music on this record has moments of great excitement but is highly ethereal and atmospheric and is mostly mellow. The record features some subtle changes in musical style, in that paradoxically, some of Hillage's guitar play (despite the overall spaciness of the pieces) is really much more lyrical in nature than some of the echoing, spacey play featured on earlier albums such as Fish Rising. It is truly uplifting and refreshing to here a different side of his playing. The underpinnings of much of the electronic and ambient music to follow can be heard here if one listens enough, and this is done with a strong sense of musicality and taste. It is space prog at its best. Five stars.