Angels Egg

Mid-line reissue, originally released in 1973. The companion piece to the 1973 album The Flying Teapot, Angels Egg is not your usual progressive rock album. Very quirky, with many, mostly brief compositions, the album is a tad less spacey than Teapot, with just a few psychedelic-inspired lyrics, and it's very technically adept. Angels Egg opens with a true space rock cut (one of the few on the album), filled with the usual Smyth space whispering and Daevid Allen voicings, then leads into the cleverly titled '"Sold to the Highest Buddha," with Steve Hillage and Didier Malherbe as prominent figures. The instrumental "Castle in the Clouds" finds Hillage coming into his own, with a sound identical to his solo work. "Givin' My Love to You" sounds like a bar song, with no music and a cluster of seemingly drunken fellas trying to sing. The instrumental "Flute Salad" gives way to "Oily Way" a showcase for Malherbe's jazzy flute. "Inner Temple," an instrumental space rock track, moves along with a jazz edge, provided by Didiers sax. The final three tracks are the real highlights on Angels Egg: "I Never Glid Before" is a fantastic prog-rock tune, replete with blistering Hillage solo, primo Allen lyrics and vocal, and the precise percussion of new bandmember Pierre Moerlen. This eclectic composition travels through several movements and time changes, and comes across as a perpetually progressing piece. The imaginative and jazzy "Eat That Phone Book Coda" brings the album to a close.