System 7

System 7 are a UK-based electronic dance music band. Due to the existence of another band called System Seven they were initially billed as 777 in North America. System 7 was also the name of the current version of the Macintosh operating system at the time, although this was not the reason for the temporary name change. Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy, both formerly of Gong, formed System 7 in 1989, after a period of several years becoming gradually immersed in the developments of electronic and dance music in the UK while Steve was working mainly as a record producer for other artists. A key early collaborator was DJ Alex Paterson (of the Orb), whom Steve and Miquette heard playing Hillage's 1979 ambient record Rainbow Dome Musick in an ambient DJ set at the London club Heaven. They soon became part of the underground dance scene in London. While Hillage and Giraudy form the core of System 7, it is an extended collaborative project with artists such as A Guy Called Gerald, Paul Oakenfold, Carl Craig, Laurent Garnier, Derrick May, Alex Paterson, and Youth. System 7 makes extensive use of Hillage's electric guitars. Hillage and Giraudy later launched a chill-out and downtempo sister project called Mirror System, and have also worked under the name Groovy Intent. The first System 7 album was released on Virgin's 10 Records dance music label, followed by the vinyl-only Derrick May collaboration Altitude (featuring Ultra Naté). In 1992, System 7 moved to Youth's Butterfly label, releasing four albums, until 1999 when they founded their own label A-Wave for all future releases, also re-releasing their Butterfly catalogue. In addition to the albums, System 7 have released a number of club singles with notable remixes from, among others, Richie Hawtin (aka Plastikman), Dubfire, James Holden, Liquid Soul, and Son Kite.