Return to Forever Featuring Chick Corea - Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy (1973)

With Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, Corea continues his streak of simply timeless fusion albums. The best of the electric RTF albums.

Tracks
01 Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy Corea
02 After the Cosmic Rain Clarke
03 Captain Senor Mouse Corea
04 Theme to the Mothership Corea
05 Space Circus, Pts. 1 & 2 Corea
06 Game Maker Corea

Review @ cduniverse
HYMN OF THE 7TH GALAXY, its hyper speed momentum aside, shares many of the characteristics of prog rock: flashy playing, incredibly complex instrumental passages and arrangements, awry and tangled time signatures, and a propensity towards raw … Full Descriptionenergy intermingled with electronics. Everyone here plays as if there were no tomorrow.

Chick Corea's supercharged electric piano and organ licks alternate between fire-breathing tone clusters and atmospheric grace. Guitarist Bill Connors plays like a comet circling a supernova; Stanley Clarke's earthquake-inducing bass lines are both monstrous and finger-poppin' funky, while drummer Lenny White simply beats his kit to jelly. Feel the power: the protoplasmic funk of "After the Cosmic Rain," the Fender Rhodes symphonies and ecstatic drumming of "Captain Senor Mouse," the far-out space-bop of the title track. Super hot stuff from one of jazz-rock's cornerstones.

Digitally remastered by Joseph M. Palmaccio.

Live Recording. Recorded in August 1973.

Personnel: Chick Corea (acoustic & electric pianos, organ, harpsichord, gong); Bill Connors (acoustic & electric guitars); Stanley Clarke (electric bass, bell tree); Lenny White (drums, bongos, congas, percussion).


Review by Daniel Gioffre
The second incarnation of Chick Corea's influential fusion group released only a single record, the magnificent Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy. Featuring a more rock-oriented approach than the Flora Purim-Joe Farrell band that was responsible for both Return to Forever and Light as a Feather, Corea and old standby Stanley Clarke join forces here with propulsive drummer Lenny White and electric guitarist Bill Connors. Although Connors lacks the sophistication of Al Di Meola, the young guitarist who replaced him, he possesses a deliciously raw sound that keeps Corea's heady compositions firmly grounded. White introduces a funk aspect to the music, replacing Airto's Latin grooves from the first two records. Clarke is as good, wrenching some truly frightening sounds out of his electric basses. This increased emphasis on electric instrumentation, also displayed in Corea's heavy use of synthesizers, is another thing that separates this record from the previous Return to Forever releases. And as good as the band performances are, it is the quality of the compositions that marks Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy as an indispensable disc of '70s fusion. "Captain Senor Mouse," one of Corea's finest fusion compositions, receives an excellent treatment here. Likewise, the two-part "Space Circus" is a fantastic mix of haunting and grooving elements, with some simply incredible solos thrown into the mix. With Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, Corea continues his streak of simply timeless fusion albums. The best of the electric RTF albums.