System 7 (band)

System 7
System 7 playing the album Phoenix at the London nightclub Heaven, February 2008
Background information
Origin	United Kingdom
Genres	Techno, ambient, Tech house, progressive trance, psychedelic trance
Years active	1989–present
Labels	A-Wave, Big Life Records, Virgin/EMI Records
Associated acts	Gong
Website	a-wave.com/system7
Members	Steve Hillage Miquette Giraudy

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 of the band's formation, 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 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), who Steve and Miquette famously 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 (of The Orb), 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 4 albums, until 1999 when they founded their own label A-Wave for all future releases, also re-releasing their Butterfly catalogue.