''Xitintoday'' (pronounced as Exit into day) is a studio album released by Nik Turner's Sphynx in 1978. It was produced by Steve Hillage (listed as Stiv Hillage). In the Winter of 1976-7, after Turner had been dismissed from Hawkwind, he traveled to

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

and made some portable recordings playing

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedles ...

in the King's Chamber of

Great Pyramid of Giza The Great Pyramid of Giza is the biggest Egyptian pyramid and the tomb of Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu. Built in the early 26th century BC during a period of around 27 years, the pyramid is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient Worl ...

. He persuaded Tony Stratton-Smith of

Charisma Records Charisma Records (also known as The Famous Charisma Label) was a British record label founded in 1969 by former journalist Tony Stratton-Smith. He had previously acted as manager for rock bands such as The Nice, the Bonzo Dog Band and Van d ...

, who were Hawkwind's record company, to fund his working of these tapes into an album by regaling him with stories of his adventure. Steve Hillage had joined Gong for their one-off re-union event in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

on 28 May, then in July travelled to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

with Miquette Giraudy to work on his

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mi ...

-tinged '' Motivation Radio'' album with Malcolm Cecil at the

Record Plant The Record Plant is a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and currently operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it has produced highly influential albums, including Blo ...

. Hillage took Turner's original tapes with him for some pre-production work at

Westlake Audio Westlake Recording Studios is a music recording studio in West Hollywood, California. History Westlake Recording Studios was founded in the early 1970s by the American audio engineer Tom Hidley under the name Westlake Audio. Hidley was experien ...

. In the interim, Turner had performed with Harry Williamson at the 7/7/77 impromptu Glastonbury Festival. A loose group was assembled to work-up the recordings at

Rockfield Studios Rockfield Studios is a residential recording studio located in the Wye Valley just outside the village of Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales. It was originally founded in 1963 by brothers Kingsley and Charles Ward. Facilities Rockfield is a two- ...

, joining Turner, Williamson, Hillage and Giraudy were Gong musicians Mike Howlett (bass) and Tim Blake (synthesiser). There was a plethora of drummers and percussionists including Michael Ashmore, Andy Anderson, Alan Powell ( conga), Shelley Morris (conga), Morris Pert ( vibes,

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...

), Jhalib (

tabla A tabla, bn, তবলা, prs, طبلا, gu, તબલા, hi, तबला, kn, ತಬಲಾ, ml, തബല, mr, तबला, ne, तबला, or, ତବଲା, ps, طبله, pa, ਤਬਲਾ, ta, தபலா, te, తబల� ...

) and Baron Sanyata ( timbales). Jeremy Gilbert contributed harp and Georges Kazazian added rebab, while Turner adapted lyrics from the Egyptian ''

Book of the Dead The ''Book of the Dead'' ( egy, 𓂋𓏤𓈒𓈒𓈒𓏌𓏤𓉐𓂋𓏏𓂻𓅓𓉔𓂋𓅱𓇳𓏤, ''rw n(y)w prt m hrw(w)'') is an ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom ( ...

''. The album was released in April 1978 attributed to Nik Turner's Sphynx, with a cover and 16-page booklet put together by

Barney Bubbles Barney Bubbles (born Colin Fulcher; 30 July 1942 – 14 November 1983) was an English graphic artist whose work encompassed graphic design and music video direction. Bubbles, who also sketched and painted privately, is best known for his distinc ...

incorporating

concrete poetry Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct me ...

. It has been re-issued several times, the last in 2007 by

Eclectic Eclectic may refer to: Music * ''Eclectic'' (Eric Johnson and Mike Stern album), 2014 * ''Eclectic'' (Big Country album), 1996 * Eclectic Method, name of an audio-visual remix act * Eclecticism in music, the conscious use of styles alien to th ...

with a bonus track of the original flute recordings. Dave Thompson described it for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

as a "magical, mysterious, and, most of all, moody album. Songs as such do not exist; rather, lyrics and arrangements follow an atmosphere-licked destiny of their own making, to take the listener deep inside some forgotten pyramid, to witness the spectral rituals being enacted therein." The group performed live, particularly on the festival circuit with a revolving body of performers that included drummers Steve Broughton and Ermanno Ghisio-Erba, guitarists David O'List and Steffe Sharpstrings (Stephan Lowry), and singer Corrina. Turner organised a ''Bohemian Love-In'' event at the Roundhouse on 17 June to promote its release. Other appearances included Glastonbury in June and July, Stonehenge Free Festival, Deeply Vale Festivals on 25 July, and '' Rock Against Racism'' Festival at Harwich on 5 August. The group appeared at the ''Gong Christmas Party'' on 19 December at Camden Town Electric Ballroom. With Williamson, Turner conceived the protest single "Nuclear Waste" recorded with Hillage, Howlett and Broughton, and lead vocals from

Sting Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-earth ...

. Williamson had become emotionally involved with

Gilli Smyth Gillian Mary Smyth (1 June 1933 – 22 August 2016) was an English musician who performed with the bands Gong, Mother Gong, and Planet Gong and released several solo albums and albums in collaboration with other members of Gong. In Gong, s ...

after her separation from Daevid Allen and the pair embarked on a new project as Mother Gong. Their first album ''Fairy Tales'' was effectively by the Sphynx group from the Gong Christmas show, or vice versa. Turner's band would continue into 1979 evolving into

Inner City Unit Inner City Unit were a London based popular music group active from 1979 through to 1985, their music style encompassing psychedelia and punk rock. They recorded four studio albums, one studio EP and one compilation album of previously unrele ...

, appearing as both Sphynx and ICU at the Glastonbury and Stonehenge festivals, Turner's activities were reported in the mainstream media in 1979, principally by Jeremy Sandford who was taking an interest in re-incarnation, some filming done by BBC Television for the programme ''I Have Seen Yesterday'' by

Hugh Burnett Hugh Burnett (July 14, 1918 – September 29, 1991) was an African-Canadian carpenter and a civil rights leader. A descendant of slaves, Hugh Burnett was a carpenter in the rural Canadian town of Dresden, Ontario. He was active in the National U ...

Track listing

All tracks composed by Nik Turner, arranged by Sphynx #"The Awakening (Life on Venus)" - 4:20 #"The Pyramid Spell" - 4:18 #"The Hall of Double Truth" - 6:00 #"Anubis" - 4:39 #"Thoth" - 3:40 #"Horus" - 5:18 #"Isis and Nephthys" - 5:46 #"Osiris" - 5:10 #"God Rock (The Awakening)" - 8:09 #"Pyramidaflutenik" - 29:51 (bonus track)

Personnel

Nik Turner Nicholas Robert Turner (26 August 1940 – 10 November 2022) was an English musician, best known as a member of space rock pioneers Hawkwind. Turner played saxophone and flute, as well as being a vocalist and composer. While with Hawkwind, T ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

(1,2,4-8), Moog (3), Chinese bells (3,7),

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

(9) * Harry Williamson - acoustic guitar (7),

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

(1,6), Chinese bells (3,9), zither (5) * Steve Hillage - electric guitars, synthesiser (3,6), Moog bass (5), bells (7), bass (9) * Miquette Giraudy - vocals (7,8), synthesiser (1,3-6),

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken diale ...

and Chinese bells * Mike Howlett - electric bass guitar (2-4,7,8) * Tim Blake - synthesisers (1,3-7),

sequencer Sequencer may refer to: Technology * Drum sequencer (controller), an electromechanical system for controlling a sequence of events automatically * DNA sequencer, a machine used to automatically produce a sequence readout from a biological DNA sam ...

(5), Moog bass (9) *Malcolm Ashmore -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

(3,7,8) ;with *Jeremy Gilbert - harp (7,8) * Georges Kazazian - rebab (2,7) * Alan Powell - conga (5,7-9) *Shelley Morris - conga (9) *Jhalib -

(2,6,9) * Morris Pert - percussion (2-4), vibes and

(8) * Android Anderson - drums on (9) *Baron Sanyata - timbales (5,9) ;Production *Steve Hillage - production *John McAfee - engineering (King's Chamber) *Lyn Peterzel - engineering (Westlake Audio) *

Dave Charles Dave Charles, also known as David Charles is a British drummer, recording engineer & record producer. He often appears under both names on the same album, e.g. Help Yourself's ''The Return of Ken Whaley'', where Dave Charles is credited with dru ...

- engineering (Rockfield)

References

Footnotes Citations

Track listing

Personnel

References

See also