FISH RISING

"Fish Rising" is the debut full-length studio album by UK music artist Steve Hillage. The album was released through Virgin Records in April 1975. Some of the material featured on "Fish Rising" was written to be included on the second full-length studio album by Khan, but as Khan disbanded in 1972 Hillage opted to save his compositions for future projects. At the point of recording "Fish Rising" (between September 1974 and January 1975) Hillage was still a member of Gong, but he would depart that band shortly after the release of "Fish Rising".

Both the Gong and especially the Khan connections are heard on "Fish Rising", which is a psychedelic rock album with progressive ideas and the occasional nod towards the jazz/fusion influenced Canterbury scene (the album includes several session musicians from that scene too). Hillage is not only an incredibly skilled and well playing guitarist, but also a skilled vocalist with a strong voice and a personal delivery. He rocks hard, but also delivers mellow and spaced out psychedelic parts. So "Fish Rising" is a relatively varied release. Especially the hard rocking parts remind me of Hillage´s contributions to Khan´s sole studio album "Space Shanty" from June 1972.

Side 1 of the original vinyl release features the 16:55 minutes long "Solar Musick Suite" (and a few shorter tracks) and it´s quite the brilliant progressive/psychedelic rock song. Dynamic, hard rocking, mellow and psychedic and featuring some wonderful musicianship. Side 2 of the original vinyl version features "The Salmon Song" and "Aftaglid", which are both relatively long tracks too, but Hillage always comes up with something interesting or captivates his listeners with some blistering guitar solos or nice arrangements. Maybe there are a few parts which are a bit long drawn and noodly, but other than that "Fish Rising" is a pretty brillant debut album from Steve Hillage. Featuring an organic, powerful, and detailed sound production is a good quality release and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.