MOTIVATION RADIO

Motivation Radio was Steve Hillage's third solo album, and finds him once again changing up his solo sound. Fish Rising was a Canterbury piece heavily influenced by his concurrent work in Gong, whilst L found Steve in a more transitional phase, still prone to an extended instrumental workout but also vaguely interested in trying something more catchy (though the cover songs there are substantially better than his own attempt at a New Age pop anthem, the toe-curling Electrick Gypsies).

This time around he was free both of Gong and Todd Rundgren and able to make a musical statement without the influence of either of them, and he seems to have decided to turn his hand to shorter tracks and finally crack the art of producing a tune which doesn't require ten minutes or so to really unpack its ideas. As such, it's another quite transitional album, and a musical blueprint for the likes of Green and Live Herald. Motivation Radio contains all you expect from a Hillage album - glissando guitar, space whispers, New Agey lyrics that tend towards the laughable - and so it's worth a listen if you are a fan. At the same time, other solo albums of his have assembled these parts into more pleasing wholes and are perhaps worth looking to first - Fish Rising is his best for long-form works, whilst Green is pretty decent when it comes to shorter pieces.