GREEN

Steve Hillage finally settled on a distinctive solo sound for himself on Green. No longer upstaged by Utopia as on L, and no longer competing for attention with the TONTO synthesiser system as on Motivation Radio, Steve developed the sound of this album in close collaboration with Miquette Giraudy. As in their later trance music albums under the name of System 7, Hillage and Giraudy base their sound around the interplay between Giraudy's synthesisers and guitar and synthesiser work on Steve's part, and this time around the result is an intringuing space rock sound that's just on the cusp of future synth styles - an intense, trippy atmosphere reminiscent of the best of Steve's work with Gong whilst retaining an identity of its own.

Even Steve's characteristic New Age optimism and goofy lyrics work well on this album, with Unidentified rising above previous Hillage songs in the same "let's clap hands and welcome the space brothers" vein by having a gloriously funky foundation. The album also benefits from having better instrumental sections than the preceding two, and even though The Glorious Om Riff is a reworking of Steve's guitar part from Master Builder on You, the part in question is good enough that it's still an entertaining listen by itself. Of all of Hillage's albums in what I'd call his "hippy singer-songwriter" style - the run from L to For To Next/And Not Or, not counting Rainbow Dome Musick which is in a different style altogether, I'd say Green is the best of the lot, beaten in Hillage's back catalogue only by Fish Rising.