Nik Turner – Sphynx – Album Review
Organ No. 35
It was a genuinely nice surprise to find this in our
PO Box one Autumnal morning. Nik Turner sightings, rather like genuine crop
circles, have been reported here and there all summer, even Pinkwind performances.
Nik played with Atom Gods the other day over at the Robey and Inner City Unit
have been stirring again. Meanwhile over in America there’s a new Nik Turner
album, his first official recordings for some seven years. His band Sphynx were
always well ahead, The Orb fifteen years before The Orb did it. This album,
Sphynx is a return to those pre Inner City Unit day and of course it’s
perfectly in tune with what’s happening now. Organic ambient trances, flutes,
Moogs, (actually we just noticed the total lack of saxophone anywhere). Helios
Creed contributes some guitars, and Sphynx is truly in the spirit of Hawkwind
at their most experimental. Most of this, besides the final track, was recorded
in Los Angeles
in early ’93. the last track is a recording Nik made of his flute playing
inside the Great Pyramid in ’76 just after he first departed Hawkwind. Some of
this is spiritual, some of it is the sound of paranoia. In Helios Creed Nik
seems to have found a guitarist who understands musical breathing space: Nik had
told us back in Organ 6 – when we interviewed him at an early All Stars gig –
that he never wanted to work with a guitarist again. Some of this is classic
Nik Hawkwind style, some of it is more in line with Transglobal Underground or
Zuvuya, a fine mix, a welcome, and a top form return. Contact Cleopatra Records
for price details, we don’t think it’s out in the UK.
