RUPERT HINE

Surface Tension: The Studio Works 1981-1983 ESOTERIC

Compiling three of Hine’s early 80s albums – with six bonus tracks.

Probably best known to Prog readers as a sometime producer for Rush, much-missed English gentleman Rupert Hine also had a hand in records by Tina Turner, Kevin Ayers and The Waterboys, among countless others. Like fellow producers Brian Eno and Todd Rundgren, he enjoyed a parallel (though less visible) career as a very capable artist in his own right, his unique compositional gifts evident on albums such as 1973’s Unfinished Picture, and the three typically idiosyncratic LPs featured here.

Newly remastered by Hine’s righthand man Stephen W Tayler, Immunity (1981), Waving Not Drowning (1982), and The Wildest Wish To Fly (1983) demonstrate Hine’s thirst for innovation and experimentation. His distinctive, husky voice anchors quirky, often mildly obtuse songs which dared to push fairly primitive electronic tech to its limits, the results always fascinating. TWWTF’s The Saturation Of The Video Rat sounds both ahead of its time and slightly hamstrung by the technology of the period, but Hine’s off on a treasure hunt regardless, fearlessly following his muse.

He and Tayler made this triumvirate of LPs in close collaboration with featured lyricist Jeanette Obstoj, whose darkly intriguing ruminations obviously proved inspirational for Hine. These records were also hugely influential. Kate Bush, for example, thought Immunity “very special”, and it’s not hard to trace a line between Waving Not Drowning’s curious opener Eleven Faces and Bush’s own outlandish innovations on Hounds Of Love.

It’s indicative of the esteem in which Hine was held that guest players on these records include Phil Collins, Marianne Faithfull, Caravan’s Geoffrey Richardson, Eric Clapton/Dire Straits collaborator Phil Palmer and Saga drummer Steve Negus, whose band asked Hine to produce their 1983 album, Heads Or Tails. Roop, as he was known to his friends, died in 2020. Stephen W Tayler’s restorative work is a fitting tribute to Hine’s skewed genius, and to Jeanette Obstoj, who died in 2015.