electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...

System 7 System 7, codenamed "Big Bang", and also known as Mac OS 7, is a graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers and is part of the classic Mac OS series of operating systems. It was introduced on May 13, 1991, by Apple C ...

Big Life Big Life was a record label established in 1987 by Jazz Summers and Tim Parry. It featured hundreds of releases from artists such as The Orb, Stare, Yazz, Junior Reid, Coldcut Coldcut are an English electronic music duo composed of Mat ...

Hypnotic Records Hypnotic Records is an American independent record label specializing in electronic music. History Hypnotic Records is the sub-label to Cleopatra RecordsSteve Hillage's A-Wave label in 2003. After establishing themselves as

ambient house Ambient house is a downtempo subgenre of house music that first emerged in the late 1980s, combining elements of acid house and ambient music. The genre developed in chill-out rooms and specialist clubs as part of the UK's dance music scene. It ...

producers in the early 1990s, System 7 recorded ''777'' at Butterfly Studios in September 1992, sharing the album's name with the 1992 American version of their first studio album, ''

System 7 System 7, codenamed "Big Bang", and also known as Mac OS 7, is a graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers and is part of the classic Mac OS series of operating systems. It was introduced on May 13, 1991, by Apple C ...

''. Compared to the group's ambient-styled debut album, ''777'' has a stronger emphasis on

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded da ...

, incorporating styles of

techno Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...

and

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

. The record also features collaborations with

The Orb The Orb are an English electronic music group founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty. Known for their psychedelic sound, the Orb developed a cult following among clubbers "coming down" from drug-induced highs. Their influential 19 ...

and producer

Youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...

. Released at the height of the popularity of ambient music in the UK, ''777'' peaked at number 30 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

, and received critical acclaim.

Production and composition

In the 1990s, musician Steve Hillage and his former

Gong A gongFrom Indonesian and ms, gong; jv, ꦒꦺꦴꦁ ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ja, , dora; km, គង ; th, ฆ้อง ; vi, cồng chiêng; as, কাঁহ is a percussion instrument originating in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Gongs ...

bandmate

Miquette Giraudy Miquette Giraudy is a French keyboard player and vocalist, best known for her work in Gong, and with her partner Steve Hillage. She and Hillage form the core of the ambient band System 7. She has also worked as an actress, film editor and write ...

formed System 7, an

ambient house Ambient house is a downtempo subgenre of house music that first emerged in the late 1980s, combining elements of acid house and ambient music. The genre developed in chill-out rooms and specialist clubs as part of the UK's dance music scene. It ...

group who operated more as a recording collective than a band. The formation of the group was inspired by Hillage befriending Alex Paterson of

the Orb The Orb are an English electronic music group founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty. Known for their psychedelic sound, the Orb developed a cult following among clubbers "coming down" from drug-induced highs. Their influential 19 ...

, who played Hillage's '' Rainbow Dome Musick'' (1979) at the Heaven nightclub in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

while Hillage was there. Paterson persuaded Hillage to record ambient house music with his guitar as prominent in the mix as it had been in his solo work. System 7's debut single "Sunburst" was released in late 1990, followed by debut album ''

System 7 System 7, codenamed "Big Bang", and also known as Mac OS 7, is a graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers and is part of the classic Mac OS series of operating systems. It was introduced on May 13, 1991, by Apple C ...

'' (1991) which featured collaborations with acts like Derrick May. The group then signed to Astralwerks in the United States who released ''System 7'' there in 1992 with the new name ''777''. Killing joke paris 06

After releasing the standalone singles "Freedom Fighters" and "Attitude," System 7 began preparing for their second album. They named it ''777'', sharing its name with the 1992 American release of their debut album. The group had been briefly known as 777 when a

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band named System Seven complained, but System 7 reverted to their original name after System Seven dissolved. System 7 recorded ''777'' at Butterfly Studios in September 1992, with recording assistance from Jody Sherry, Neal Snyman and Scruff. "7:7 Expansion" features additional co-producing and mixing from

Youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...

, and is the only track on the album not to feature Giraudy. The Orb feature on "A Cool Dry Place", with Alex Paterson providing "ambience & navigation" and Kris Weston featuring on keyboards alongside Giraudy. The Orb also co-produced and mixed the track. Unlike the

ambient pop Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It ...

of System 7's early work, ''777'' moves the group towards straightforward

techno Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...

, contributing to what biographer John Bush felt was "a completely different work than the earlier LP." The album places an stronger emphasis on

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded da ...

than its predecessor, with "its feet firmly on the dancefloor" according to writer Ben Hogwood. Candy Absorption of ''

Rough Guides Rough Guides Ltd is a British travel guide book and reference publisher, which has been owned by APA Publications since November 2017. In addition to publishing guidebooks, the company also provides a tailor-made trips service based on custome ...

'' wrote that, compared to System 7's debut album, ''777'' saw the group's "blissed-out

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

textures and rhythms take over." Ben Hogwood of '' Resident Advisor'' cites "Sinbad" as proof that "Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy know how to make a crowd dance." "Quest" and "7:7 Expansion" also feature "solidly rocking grooves." "A Cool Dry Place" features a

soundscape A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term was originally coined by Michael Southworth, and popularised by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, ...

style.

Release and reception

''777'' was released in the United Kingdom by

Big Life Records Big Life was a record label established in 1987 by Jazz Summers and Tim Parry. It featured hundreds of releases from artists such as The Orb, Stare, Yazz, Junior Reid, Coldcut, De La Soul, and Damage. In 1999, the label was put into receiver ...

in March 1993. It reached number 30 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

, spending two weeks on the chart in total, and it remains their most successful album on the chart. Absorption felt the album's British Top 40 success was because it was released at the peak of "ambient fervour" in the region. The artwork for ''777'' features photography from Trevor Key with design and art direction from David James Associates. Key's photograph for the cover depicts an early, primitive version of the typeface Metsys used for the band's name; the type and effects are part of the original photograph and were not added to the image in post-production. The liner notes and back cover use Gerstner Original, a typeface with a "fluid, techy and sci-fi quality" similar to Metsys. "7:7 Expansion" was released as the album's first single in February 1993, and it reached number 39 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, becoming the band's first and highest charting single. A double A-side of "Sinbad" and "Quest" was issued as the album's second and final single in June, and it reached number 74 on the chart. Although System 7 wanted to release ''777'' in the United States, the record went unreleased the country until

Cleopatra Records Cleopatra Records is an American independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1992 by Brian Perera. The record label has since grown into a family of labels, including Hypnotic Records, Purple Pyramid Records, D ...

and

Hypnotic Records Hypnotic Records is an American independent record label specializing in electronic music. History Hypnotic Records is the sub-label to Cleopatra Records After Hillage acquired the rights to ''777'' and other System 7 albums, he re-released ''777'' on his label A-Wave on 26 May 2003. In a contemporary review, Rupert Howe of '' Select'' described ''777'' as taking the "directionless jumble" of the group's debut and " ammeringsome kind of form out of Hillage's druidic fantasies." He wrote that the collaborations with The Orb and Youth were the album highlights, both offering what he described as a "rhythmic toughness that drops out of the later trips through the Hillage fretboard repertory." Andrew Boyd of the ''

Reading Evening Post The ''Reading Post'' (until 2009, the ''Reading Evening Post'') was an English local newspaper covering Reading, Berkshire and surrounding areas. The title page of the paper featured the Maiwand Lion, a famous local landmark at Forbury Gardens. T ...

'' expressed disappointment that the group "abandoned the vocals which enlivened many of the best tracks on their debut album," instead making an album of "Orb-like meanderings" that are "very pleasant, but no more than that." While Dave Simpson of '' Melody Maker'' described ''777'' as sounding like the Orb, whom he said Hillage "virtually invented" with his album '' Rainbow Dome Musick'' (1979), he conceded it was a "fine LP" which he hoped would achieve commercial success. John Bush of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

highlighted "7:7 Expansion" and "Sinbad" as among the best tracks on ''777'' in a retrospective review. In a review of the 2003 reissue, Ben Hogwood of '' Resident Advisor'' wrote that ''777'' had "stood up well" as a result of its emphasis on dance music, and felt that "Sinbad" alone was proof that the System 7 reissues held "value." He also wrote that the reissues of ''777'' and other albums by the group would remind listeners "of the surprising weight and influence that System 7 hold within dance music."

Track listing

"Quest (Moon Mix)" was not included on the early versions of the album.

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes. * Steve Hillage – production, guitar, keyboards, programming *

Miquette Giraudy Miquette Giraudy is a French keyboard player and vocalist, best known for her work in Gong, and with her partner Steve Hillage. She and Hillage form the core of the ambient band System 7. She has also worked as an actress, film editor and write ...

– production, keyboards, programming *

Youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...

– production, keyboards * Tony Thorpe – production, keyboards *

The Orb The Orb are an English electronic music group founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty. Known for their psychedelic sound, the Orb developed a cult following among clubbers "coming down" from drug-induced highs. Their influential 19 ...

– production * Lewis Keogh – production, keyboards * Matt Austin – programming * Kris Weston – keyboards * Alex Paterson – ambience, navigation

Charts

References

External links

*
''777''
at A-Wave {{Authority control 1993 albums Albums produced by Steve Hillage System 7 (band) albums