Let’s begin with some introductions. System 7 is an electronic dance music duo consisting of ex-Gong members, Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy. Rovo is a Japanese post-rock band with electronic elements to their sound.
With Gong and with his own band, Hillage blazed a psychedelic comet through the sky in the mid-to-late 70’s. Along with Miquette he pioneered the use of sequencers and synthesizers in rock music. His signature use of tap-delay, chorus-drenched lead guitar and early experiments in ambient electronica formed the double helix bonds that would engender Ozric Tentacles, Eat Static, The Future Sound Of London and The Orb. He is a shamanic figure who presaged Intelligence Dance Music by almost 20 years, later embracing the form himself and eschewing the rock band format altogether. In collaborating with Rovo is he bridging the decades-old gap between those seminal shroom-fuelled wig-outs and IDM’s tranced-out bliss? Not quite. This is something different altogether.
While the addition of two live drummers/percussionists and bass does add an earthy foundation, pulling the grooves into their gravity field, the bubbling electronic sequences and swirling synth pads ensure we’re still floating in space. Hillage’s guitar work has not featured this extensively with System 7 in a long time. In recent years he has formed kaleidoscopic soundscapes with occasional bursts of his old fire. Perhaps egged on (pun for the Gong fans there) by his recent reunion shows with his former band and the brief resurrection of the Steve Hillage Band, he lets loose and proves again what a master improviser he is.
Rovo’s electric violinist provides a foil for that laser-like guitar tone. The two converge and dance around one another like birds in flight. Nowhere is this more prominent (or apt) than on ‘Meeting of the Spirits’. Yes that’s right, it’s a remarkably faithful rendition of the seminal fusion track by the Mahavishnu Orchestra and it’s an absolute treat.
The highlight here, however, is the 14-minute long ‘Cisco (Phoenix Rising)’. An extended intro of repetitive delayed guitar brings to mind 'Aftaglid' from 1975’s Fish Rising before a motorik beat edges its way into the consciousness and from then on it’s an in-yer-face Hawkwind/Neu! spacerock jam given the System 7 treatment that builds to a huge crescendo. 1995‘s Power of 7 album featured Interstate, a tribute to the classic Hallogallo from Neu!’s hugely influential debut LP - oh to hear this current group play that live!
Neither post-rock nor trance nor krautrock nor something in the Venn diagram intersection, this is a life-affirming collection that pushes at genre boundaries with a tribal verve that will feed your mind and your body.
