ELECTRIC TEPEE

The first halve of the seventies gave birth to the most famous albums of Hawkwind. One could easily be forgiven for believing the rest of their career is dispensable when looking at the mediocre scores of most of their eighties and nineties albums. I myself found some great studio albums and live albums in their later career. Most notably Levitation (1980), Electric Tepee (1992) and the fine Alien 4 (1996) are more then worthwhile. Live records like Live Chronicles (1986), Palace Springs (1991), The Business Trip (1994), Love in Space (1996) stand out and I expect to find some more.

Electric Tepee stands out as a milestone in their career for forming the perfect bland between the spacey punk rock and their modern electronic explorations. Well produced for a change. With extended simple and effective songs as vehicles for sonic exploration the band creates a great train of though that seems to progressive without stopping at any stations. The continuity of the music makes this a particularly interesting experience in the progressive rock world, which can be quite fragmentary. In the mean while the Hawkwind beat is pumping and electric guitars thrive in the abstract environments. The electronic moments without drums, bas en guitars are like mediations between the songs. It is natural to drift away with your attention when you listen to music and Hawkwind seems to anticipate. Just when you forgot you were listening music ? which can be pleasant ? they fire up the space rock engine and lift of with a catchy tune. The last ten minutes of the record sees the band slowly drifting away from the listener with the electronic Going to Hawaii and Electric Teep (the title track), an interesting ending.

For me this is a perfect studio album, especially for when traveling. Time just flows by - as does the music. On their next album 'It is the Business of the Future being Dangerous' the band would change the formula in favor of much more electronic exploration and little rock galore, but still an interesting mix. Some songs of Electric Tepee can also be found on The Business Trip live album, but for me the essence of this record isn't covered anywhere else then on this studio album. In contrast, the core material of Alien 4 was indeed played on the Love in Space recording - and some would argue improved upon.

I tried to explain away nineties Hawkwind in this review and I hope I can excite some more listeners in this great Hawkwind line-up of Brock, Chadwick and Davey. For this release I will give the full score because of its enjoyability, interesting vision and production.

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