''Xitintoday'' (pronounced as "Exit into day") is a studio album released by

Nik Turner's Sphynx 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, Tur ...

in 1978. It was produced by

Steve Hillage Stephen Simpson Hillage (born 2 August 1951) is an English musician, best known as a guitarist. He is associated with the Canterbury scene and has worked in experimental domains since the late 1960s. Besides his solo sound recording and reprodu ...

(listed as Stiv Hillage).

History

In the winter of 1976–1977, after

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, Tur ...

had been dismissed from

Hawkwind Hawkwind are an English rock band known as one of the earliest space rock groups. Since their formation in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including hard ...

, he travelled to

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and made some portable recordings playing

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

in the King's Chamber of

Great Pyramid of Giza The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It served as the tomb of pharaoh Khufu, who ruled during the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom. Built , over a period of about 26 years ...

. He persuaded

Tony Stratton Smith Tony Stratton Smith (born Anthony Mills Smith; 11 August 1933 – 19 March 1987) was an English rock music manager, and entrepreneur. He founded the London-based record label Charisma Records in 1969 and managed rock groups such as the Nice, V ...

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.

had joined

Gong A gongFrom Indonesian language, Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and ...

for their one-off re-union event in Paris on 28 May, then in July travelled to Los Angeles with

Miquette Giraudy Miquette Giraudy is a French keyboard player and vocalist, best known for her work in Gong (band), Gong, and with her partner Steve Hillage. She and Hillage form the core of the Ambient music, ambient band System 7 (band), System 7. She has also ...

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 ...

-tinged ''

Motivation Radio ''Motivation Radio'' is the third studio album by British progressive rock musician Steve Hillage, released by Virgin Records in September 1977. Whilst touring in the United States in promotion of his previous album '' L'' (1976), Hillage grew d ...

'' album with

Malcolm Cecil Malcolm Cecil (9 January 1937 – 28 March 2021) was a British jazz bassist, record producer, engineer, electronic musician and teacher. He was a founding member of a leading UK jazz quintet of the late 1950s, the Jazz Couriers,Record Plant The Record Plant was a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and last operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it produced highly influential albums, including the New York ...

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

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

. In the interim, Turner had performed with Harry Williamson at the 7/7/77 impromptu

Glastonbury Festival The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (commonly referred to as simply Glastonbury Festival, known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most su ...

. 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 founded in 1963 by brothers Kingsley and Charles Ward. Recording studios Rockfield is a two-stu ...

: joining Turner, Williamson, Hillage and Giraudy were Gong musicians

Mike Howlett Michael John Gilmour Howlett (born 27 April 1950) is a bass guitar player, record producer and teacher based in the United Kingdom and Australia. Career In the late 1960s, Howlett was the bassist in Sydney pop band the Affair, which included ...

(bass) and

Tim Blake Timothy Blake (born 6 February 1952, in Shepherd's Bush, London) is an English keyboardist, synthesist, vocalist, and composer, who is known for working with Gong, Hawkwind and his synthesizer and light performances as Crystal Machine, with th ...

(synthesiser). There was a plethora of drummers and percussionists including Michael Ashmore, Andy Anderson,

Alan Powell Alan Powell may refer to: * Alan Powell (actor) (born 1985), American actor and singer * Alan Powell (drummer), British musician * Alan Powell (entrepreneur) (born 1967), American businessman * Alan Powell (historian) (1936–2020), Australian hist ...

(

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest ...

), Shelley Morris (conga),

Morris Pert Morris David Brough Pert (8 September 1947 – 27 April 2010) was a Scottish composer, drummer/percussionist, and pianist who composed in the fields of both contemporary classical and jazz-rock music. His compositions include three symphonies, p ...

( vibes,

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...

), Jhalib (

tabla A ''tabla'' is a pair of hand drums from the Indian subcontinent. Since the 18th century, it has been the principal percussion instrument in Hindustani classical music, where it may be played solo, as an accompaniment with other instruments a ...

) and Baron Sanyata (

timbales Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfic ...

). Jeremy Gilbert contributed

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

and

Georges Kazazian Georges Kazazian () (born 25 Jan 1953) is an Egyptian-Armenian composer and oud player. He moved between two cultures in the vicinity of his cosmopolitan society, a feature of the social and demographic structure of Cairo at that time, which cont ...

added

rebab ''Rebab'' (, ''rabāba'', variously spelled ''rebap'', ''rubob'', ''rebeb'', ''rababa'', ''rabeba'', ''robab'', ''rubab'', ''rebob'', etc) is the name of several related string instruments that independently spread via Islamic trading rout ...

, while Turner adapted lyrics from the Egyptian ''

Book of the Dead The ''Book of the Dead'' is the name given to an Ancient Egyptian funerary texts, ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom of Egypt, New Kingdom (around 1550 BC) to around 50 BC ...

''. 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 distin ...

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 mea ...

. 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 Mus ...

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 David O'List (born 13 December 1948) is an English rock guitarist, vocalist and trumpeter. He has played with The Attack, The Nice, Roxy Music (before being replaced by Phil Manzanera), and Jet (replaced by Ian Macleod). He also briefly dep ...

and Steffe Sharpstrings (Stephan Lowry), and singer

Corrina Corrina is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Corrina Gould, Californian Native American activist *Corrina Hewat (born 1970), Scottish harpist and composer *Corrina Joseph, British singer who collaborated with Basement Jaxx *Corri ...

. 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 The Stonehenge Free Festival was a British free festival from 1974 to 1984 held at the prehistoric monument Stonehenge in England during the month of June, and culminating with the summer solstice on or near 21 June. It emerged as the major fr ...

Deeply Vale Festivals The Deeply Vale Festivals were free festivals held near Bury in northwest England in 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1979 and at a different site in 1980 and 1981. They are regarded as significant events that united punk music into the festival scene. Anni ...

on 25 July, and ''

Rock Against Racism Rock Against Racism (RAR) was a political and cultural movement which emerged in 1976 in reaction to a rise in racist attacks on the streets of the United Kingdom and increasing support for the far-right National Front at the ballot box. Betwe ...

'' Festival at

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-o ...

on 5 August. The group appeared at the ''Gong Christmas Party'' on 19 December at

Camden Town Camden Town () is an area in the London Borough of Camden, around north-northwest of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is identified in the London Plan as one of 34 major centres in Greater London. Laid out as a residential distri ...

Electric Ballroom The Electric Ballroom is a 1,500-capacity performance venue (primarily for rock and roll, rock bands) and indoor market located at 184 Camden High Street in Camden Town, London, England. History The Electric Ballroom started as an Irish ballr ...

. With Williamson, Turner conceived the protest single "Nuclear Waste" recorded with Hillage, Howlett and Broughton, and lead vocals from

Sting Stimulator of interferon genes (STING), also known as transmembrane protein 173 (TMEM173) and MPYS/MITA/ERIS is a regulator protein that in humans is encoded by the STING1 gene. STING plays an important role in innate immunity. STING induces typ ...

. Williamson had become emotionally involved with

Gilli Smyth Gillian Mary Smyth (1 June 1933 – 22 August 2016) was an English musician best known for co-founding the psychedelic rock group Gong with her partner Daevid Allen in 1967. She also released music with spinoff groups Mother Gong and Plane ...

after her separation from

Daevid Allen Christopher David "Daevid" Allen (13 January 1938 – 13 March 2015) was an Australian musician. He was co-founder of the psychedelic rock groups Soft Machine (in the UK, 1966) and Gong (band), Gong (in France, 1967).McFarlane, 1999, Biograp ...

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 unrelea ...

, 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 Christopher Jeremy Sandford (5 December 1930 – 12 May 2003) was an English television screenwriter who came to prominence in 1966 with ''Cathy Come Home'', his controversial entry in BBC1's ''The Wednesday Play'' anthology strand, which w ...

who was taking an interest in re-incarnation, some filming done by

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

for the programme ''I Have Seen Yesterday'' by

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

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

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

(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 woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

(9) * Harry Williamson -

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

(7),

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

(1,6), Chinese bells (3,9),

zither Zither (; , from the Greek ''cithara'') is a class of stringed instruments. The modern instrument has many strings stretched across a thin, flat body. Zithers are typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the fingers or a ...

(5) *

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

s, synthesiser (3,6), Moog bass (5), bells (7), bass (9) *

- vocals (7,8), synthesiser (1,3-6), Tibetan and Chinese bells *

electric bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

(2–4,7,8) *

- synthesisers (1,3-7), sequencer (5), Moog bass (9) *Malcolm Ashmore -

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

(3,7,8) ;with *Jeremy Gilbert -

(7,8) *

(2,7) *

(5,7-9) *Shelley Morris - conga (9) *Jhalib -

(2,6,9) *

- percussion (2–4), vibes and

(8) * Android Anderson - drums on (9) *Baron Sanyata -

(5,9) ;Production *Steve Hillage - production *John McAfee - engineering (King's Chamber) *Lyn Peterzel - engineering (Westlake Audio) *

Dave Charles 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 drums and vocals Allmusic cre ...

- engineering (Rockfield)

References

Footnotes Citations

History

Track listing

Personnel

References

See also