OPEN

I suppose at this point, in 1979, most prog musicians were having a difficult time releasing good prog albums. What with the press ignoring the genre, except to occasionally put it down, most prog bands were going commercial (with a dismal effect), and even Robert Fripp was calling prog band "dinosaurs", it's no surprise that Hillage waters his sound down here.

I have the CD version, with all those extra songs, but I don't feel any richer for it. Sure, Hillage can still play some great guitar solos, but except for a couple of good tracks, the music is a mix of electronica (mostly sounds that Tangerine Dream had already worn out), new wave, white funk, and even disco. For the most part, the songwriting is bland and tired.

The only real prog points are Earthrise (the only song that sounds like it would fit on one of Hillage's early albums), and The fire inside and fusiony song, that has some nice synth work by Miquette Giraudy. Two good songs don't make up for the rest of the drivel here.

2.5 stars.