Down On The Road By The Beach, by Steve Hiett

Down On The Road By The Beach

by Steve Hiett

supported by

more...

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$666 AUD
CD
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
** Please note that this re-release could only be licensed for CD and LP. A download will not be included in your purchase **

Includes unlimited streaming of Down On The Road By The Beach via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Sold Out
Steve Hiett LP Bundle
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Both Down On The Road By The Beach + Girls In the Grass LPs bundled together

Includes unlimited streaming of Down On The Road By The Beach via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Sold Out
LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
** Please note that this re-release could only be licensed for CD and LP. A download will not be included in your purchase **

Includes unlimited streaming of Down On The Road By The Beach via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Sold Out

Album samples (no digital release - available on LP/CD only) 12:44 video

about

For the first time since its inception 36 years ago, Steve Hiett’s elusive 'Down On The Road By The Beach' is finally made available outside of Japan. Most recognized in the fashion sphere as an English photographer and graphic designer, Hiett's transportive audio portraits amplify his serpentine guitar to the infinite blue, recorded across Paris, Tokyo and New York with no coastline in sight. Now widely celebrated as a desert island disc, very little is actually known of its unfathomable genesis.

A career devotee of Brian Wilson’s ground breaking harmonies, Hiett shot The Beach Boys for Rolling Stone - as well as The Doors, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix (in one of his final performances at the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival) - while establishing himself as a fashion photographer. Decamping to Paris in 1972, he began what would become 20-year collaborations with Vogue Paris and Marie Claire, printing his signature warm, saturated and vibrantly hued snapshots.

In 1982, representatives from Tokyo's Galerie Watari visited him to propose a solo exhibition. Asking if he could insert a 7” of original music into the back of the exhibition catalogue, Hiett laid down ‘Blue Beach - Welcome To Your Beach’ in a Parisian radio station, playing all of the instruments himself, and two more cuts in New York with Yoko Ono, The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan hired-gun Elliott Randall. Once dispatched, the phone began ringing off the hook with requests for him to fly to Tokyo. Assuming these long-distance callers were wanting him to check proofs for the book, it wasn’t until he arrived that he discovered CBS/Sony had facilitated an entire album. Heitt hastily gripped some petty cash, bought a guitar and retreated to his hotel room to start writing.

Entering the studio the following day, he was further surprised by a waiting room of session players known as Moonriders - one of Japan's most acclaimed rock bands of the 1980s. Intimidated by their indecipherable sheet music, Hiett suggested Randall join them and with money being no object for major labels at the time, his wingman was on the next plane out of New York to finalise the high production indulgence. Near-ambient arrangements that float in a space between The Durutti Column, Steve Cropper and Ashra, 'Down On The Road By The Beach' also crowns Hiett the master of recontextualization with his zero-gravity blues visions of Roll Over Beethoven, Santo & Johnny's 'Sleep Walk' and the 1967 Eddie Floyd soul hit 'Never Found A Girl'.

Produced in coordination between Be With, Efficient Space and the artist, this definitive reissue is restored from original masters with vivid reproductions of the 'Down On The Road By The Beach' exhibition catalogue, intended to accompany its original release, and extensive liner notes penned by fellow Steve Hiett obsessive Mikey IQ Jones.

credits

released September 20, 2019

license

about

Efficient Space Melbourne, Australia

Label operated by Noise In My Head

contact / help

Contact Efficient Space

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Down On The Road By The Beach, you may also like:

69
by Wilson Tanner

supported by 42 fans who also own “Down On The Road By The Beach”

If Bruce Springsteen ever made an album called "Born To Ambient" it would probably contain all of these tracks. Keith is just sublime, I could (and have) listened to it on loop for hours. BrianMc
go to album
II
by Wilson Tanner

supported by 41 fans who also own “Down On The Road By The Beach”

ambient, drone, new-age, field recordings, modular sketches, and analog experiments by masters of their craft what more could u ask for? wynston lee
go to album
Overworld
by Art Wilson

supported by 34 fans who also own “Down On The Road By The Beach”

I remember.... Summer holidays.... farish18
go to album
Eye Of I
by James Brandon Lewis

The new album from the jazz musician is full of unexpected occurrences. Bandcamp Album of the Day Feb 6, 2023
go to album
candid.
by IVY SOLE.

Help bring Ivy Sole’s brilliant new record—a collision of soul and hip-hop—to vinyl with this crowdfunding campaign. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 5, 2023
go to album
Anarchist Gospel
by Sunny War

Beautifully played and full of moving vocal performances, the Bay Area singer/songwriter's latest is a stellar work of art. Bandcamp Album of the Day Feb 3, 2023
go to album
Promises
by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra

supported by 31 fans who also own “Down On The Road By The Beach”

This has become one of the most important albums of my life. It’s essence is indescribable. Every sound from the start of the record through the end is placed delicately and with care. The album cover is by Julie Mehretu. It’s absolutely an incredible release for which I shall be eternally grateful. Aniket
go to album