View source for Xitintoday

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox album
| name       = Xitintoday
| type       = studio
| artist     = [[Nik Turner's Sphynx]]
| cover      = Nik Turner Xitintoday.jpg
| alt        =
| released   = 1978
| recorded   = [[Rockfield Studios]]; Flute recorded in the sarcophagus in the Kings Chamber of the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]]
| venue      =
| studio     =
| genre      = [[Space rock]]
| length     =
| label      = [[Charisma Records|Charisma]]
| producer   = [[Steve Hillage|Stiv Hillage]]
| chronology = [[Nik Turner]]
| prev_title =
| prev_year  =
| next_title = Sphynx
| next_year  = 1993
}}
{{Music ratings
|rev1 = [[Allmusic]]
|rev1score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/xitintoday-mw0000561619 |title=Nik Turner: Xitintoday |last1=Thompson |first1=Dave |publisher=Allmusic |access-date=11 April 2014}}</ref>
}}
'''''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).
==History==
In the Winter of 1976–7, after Turner had been dismissed from [[Hawkwind]], he traveled to [[Egypt]] and made some portable recordings playing [[flute]] in the King's Chamber of [[Great Pyramid of Giza]]. He persuaded [[Tony Stratton Smith]] of [[Charisma Records]], who were Hawkwind's record company, to fund his working of these tapes into an album by regaling him with stories of his adventure.<REF NAME="LOUD">{{cite web |title=Nik Turner: "Acid created Hawkwind's reputation" |date=24 December 2017  |last=Banks |first=Joe |url=https://www.loudersound.com/features/nik-turner-acid-created-hawkwinds-reputation |publisher=loudersound |access-date=13 July 2022}}
</ref>
[[Steve Hillage]] had joined [[Gong (band)|Gong]] for their one-off [[Gong est Mort, Vive Gong|re-union]] event in [[Paris]] on 28 May, then in July travelled to [[Los Angeles]] with [[Miquette Giraudy]] to work on his [[funk]]-tinged ''[[Motivation Radio]]'' album with [[Malcolm Cecil]] at the [[Record Plant]]. Hillage took Turner's original tapes with him for some pre-production work at [[Westlake Audio]].<ref name="BKLT">{{cite AV media notes | title = Xitintoday | year = 1978 | type = booklet | publisher = [[Charisma Records]]}}</ref> In the interim, Turner had performed with [[Harry Williamson (musician)|Harry Williamson]] at the 7/7/77 impromptu [[Glastonbury Festival]].<ref name="GLAST1977">{{cite web |url=https://www.ukrockfestivals.com/glasto77.html |title=A history of Uk rock festivals -1960-92: Glastonbury 1977 |access-date=13 July 2022}}</ref>{{refn|Williamson had been a sometime member of the Devon based group Ark, who had befriended and supported Hawkwind. Williamson also brought drummer Anderson into the project, the pair along with Harvey Bainbridge having recorded demonstration tapes of Williamson's project ''Descent into Atlantis''.<ref name="ATLANTIS">{{cite web |url=https://planetgong.co.uk/archives/interviews/harry-williamson-1997-anthony-phillips.shtml |title=Anthony Phillips  |publisher=Big Bang Magazine |year=1997 |access-date=18 June 2023}}</ref>|group="nb"}}
A loose group was assembled to work-up the recordings at [[Rockfield Studios]], joining Turner, Williamson, Hillage and Giraudy were Gong musicians [[Mike Howlett]] (bass) and [[Tim Blake]] (synthesiser).<ref name="BKLT" /> There was a plethora of drummers and percussionists including Michael Ashmore, [[Andy Anderson (drummer)|Andy Anderson]], [[Alan Powell (drummer)|Alan Powell]] ([[conga]]), Shelley Morris (conga), [[Morris Pert]] ([[vibraphone|vibes]], [[timpani]]), Jhalib ([[tabla]]) and Baron Sanyata ([[timbales]]).<ref name="BKLT" /> Jeremy Gilbert contributed [[harp]] and [[Georges Kazazian]] added [[rebab]], while Turner adapted lyrics from the Egyptian ''[[Book of the Dead]]''.<ref name="BKLT" />
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]] incorporating [[concrete poetry]].<ref name="DISCOG1978">{{discogs release|1512644|type=album}}</ref> It has been re-issued several times, the last in 2007 by [[Cherry Red Records|Eclectic]] with a bonus track of the original flute recordings.<ref name="DISCOG2007">{{discogs release|2191116|type=album}}</ref> [[Dave Thompson (author)|Dave Thompson]] described it for [[AllMusic]] 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."<ref name="ALLMUSIC">{{AllMusic |class=album |id=mw0000561619 |first=Dave |last=Thompson}}</ref>
The group performed live, particularly on the festival circuit with a revolving body of performers that included drummers [[Edgar Broughton Band|Steve Broughton]] and [[Dino Ferari|Ermanno Ghisio-Erba]], guitarists [[David O'List]] and [[Here & Now (band)|Steffe Sharpstrings]] (Stephan Lowry), and singer [[Androids of Mu|Corrina]].{{refn|Also known variously as Katalin Barrat and Karina Peggoty|group="nb"}} Turner organised a ''Bohemian Love-In'' event at the [[Roundhouse (venue)|Roundhouse]] on 17 June to promote its release.{{refn|Joining Turner and Williamson for the ''Bohemiuan Love-In'' was O'List, Howlett and Broughton. Also on the bill were Tanz Der Youth (fronted by [[Brian James (guitarist)|Brian James]] with Powell and Andy Colqhoun), [[Michael Moorcock]]'s Deep Fix (with [[Ade Shaw|Adrian Shaw]]), Blood Donor (with [[Keith Hale]]), [[Patrik Fitzgerald]], [[Lightning Raiders]], [[Steve Took's Horns]] (with future Inner City Unit members Trev Thoms and Erba), [[John Cooper Clarke]], [[Ron Geesin]] and [[Roger Ruskin Spear]].|group="nb"}}<REF NAME="HWSAGA">{{cite book |last=Clerk |first=Carol |isbn=978-0857120175 |title=The Saga of Hawkwind |publisher=[[Omnibus Press]] |date=4 November 2009 |chapter=12 Quark Strangeness and Punk}}</ref><ref name="HORNS">{{cite web |url=https://www.stevetook.mercurymoon.co.uk/love-in.html |title=BOHEMIAN LOVE-IN REVIEW, By Mike Scott of the Waterboys |access-date=13 July 2022}}</ref> Other appearances included Glastonbury in June and July,<ref name="GLAST1978">{{cite web |url=https://www.ukrockfestivals.com/glasto78.html |title=A history of Uk rock festivals -1960-92: Glastonbury 1978 |access-date=13 July 2022}}</ref> [[Stonehenge Free Festival]],<ref name="SH1978">{{cite web |url=https://www.ukrockfestivals.com/henge-history-78.html |title=A history of Uk rock festivals -1960-92: Stonehenge 1978 |access-date=13 July 2022}}</ref> [[Deeply Vale Festivals]] on 25 July,<ref name="DV1978">{{cite web |url=https://www.ukrockfestivals.com/deeply-vale-1978-sphynx.html |title=A history of Uk rock festivals -1960-92: Deeply Vale 1978 |access-date=13 July 2022}}</ref>{{refn|A mixing-desk recording was released in 2000 as ''[[Live at Deeply Vale]]''. Listed personnel in addition to Turner and Williamson are incomplete, but include Corrina, Erba, Lowry and an unknown "Baggins" (bass). Williamson remembers others as Jerry, Baron [Sanyata] and Sukie.|group="nb"}} 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]].<REF NAME="GONGXMAS">{{cite web |url=https://www.planetgong.co.uk/gigs/archive/1978.shtml |title=Gong gigs archive 1978 |access-date=13 July 2022}}</ref>
With Williamson, Turner conceived the protest single "Nuclear Waste" recorded with Hillage, Howlett and Broughton, and lead vocals from [[Sting (musician)|Sting]].{{refn|Sting was the singer of Howlett's [[Strontium 90 (band)|Stontium 90]] group that had performed at the Gong re-union concert, who made some demonstration recordings before separating to become [[The Police (band)|The Police]].|group="nb"}} Williamson had become emotionally involved with [[Gilli Smyth]] 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.{{refn |Joining Turner, Williamson, Erba and Corrina were Trevor Darks (bass), Mo Vicarage (keyboards). Additionally on the album ''Fairy Tales'' were [[Didier Malherbe]] (saxophone), [[Eduardo Niebla]] (acoustic guitar), Ronnie Walthen ([[Uilleann pipes]]) and Marianne Oberasher (harp)|group="nb"}} Turner's band would continue into 1979 evolving into [[Inner City Unit]], appearing as both Sphynx and ICU at the Glastonbury and Stonehenge festivals,<ref name="GLAST1979">{{cite web |url=https://www.ukrockfestivals.com/glastonbury-fayre1979.html |title=A history of Uk rock festivals -1960-92: Glastonbury 1979 |access-date=13 July 2022}}</ref><ref name="SH1979">{{cite web |url=https://www.ukrockfestivals.com/henge-history-79.html |title=A history of Uk rock festivals -1960-92: Stonehenge 1979 |access-date=13 July 2022}}</ref> Turner's activities were reported in the mainstream media in 1979, principally by [[Jeremy Sandford]] who was taking an interest in [[reincarnation|re-incarnation]], some filming done by [[BBC Television]] for the programme ''I Have Seen Yesterday'' by [[Hugh Burnett (producer)|Hugh Burnett]].<REF NAME="IHSY">{{cite web |title=I Have Seen Yesterday |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/55927b05e28e4e59ac9b7bce7941e7a3 |publisher=[[BBC One]] |date=5 August 1980 |access-date=14 July 2022}}</ref><ref name="TERRA">{{cite web |url=http://www.terrascope.co.uk/Features/Nik_Turner.htm |title=Terrascope meets the Mighty Thunder Rider – a conversation with Nik Turner |author=Ian Fraser |publisher=Terrascope Online |year=2012 |access-date=13 July 2022}}</ref>
== 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 ==
[[File:Sphynx-Mother-Gong-1976-1984.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|Sphynx and Mother Gong Personnel Chart 1976 to 1984]]
*[[Nik Turner]] - [[vocals]], [[flute]] (1,2,4-8), [[Moog synthesizer|Moog]] (3), [[Bianzhong|Chinese bells]] (3,7), [[saxophone]] (9)
*[[Harry Williamson (musician)|Harry Williamson]] - [[acoustic guitar]] (7), [[piano]] (1,6), Chinese bells (3,9), [[zither]] (5)
*[[Steve Hillage]] - [[electric guitar]]s, synthesiser (3,6), Moog bass (5), bells (7), bass (9)
*[[Miquette Giraudy]] - vocals (7,8), synthesiser (1,3-6), [[Tingsha|Tibetan]] and Chinese bells
*[[Mike Howlett]] - [[bass guitar|electric bass guitar]] (2–4,7,8)
*[[Tim Blake]] - synthesisers (1,3-7), [[Music sequencer#Analog sequencer|sequencer]] (5), Moog bass (9)
*Malcolm Ashmore - [[drum kit|drums]] (3,7,8)
;with
*Jeremy Gilbert - [[harp]] (7,8)
*[[Georges Kazazian]] - [[rebab]] (2,7)
*[[Alan Powell (drummer)|Alan Powell]] - [[conga]] (5,7-9)
*Shelley Morris - conga (9)
*Jhalib - [[tabla]] (2,6,9)
*[[Morris Pert]] - percussion (2–4), [[vibraphone|vibes]] and [[timpani]] (8)
*[[Andy Anderson (drummer)|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]] - engineering (Rockfield)
==References==
'''Footnotes'''
{{Reflist|group="nb"}}
'''Citations'''
{{reflist}}
==See also==
* [[Paul Horn (musician)]], another musician who recorded music inside the Great Pyramid (1976)
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:1978 debut albums]]
[[Category:Albums produced by Steve Hillage]]
[[Category:Charisma Records albums]]
[[Category:Albums recorded at Rockfield Studios]]
[[Category:Nik Turner albums]]