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Hawkwind - Quark, Strangeness And Charm CD (album) cover

QUARK, STRANGENESS AND CHARM

Hawkwind

 

Psychedelic/Space Rock

3.69 | 254 ratings

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Bonnek
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
3 stars The muse of Hawkwind moves in mysterious ways.

After the space crash that was called Astounding Sounds and Amazing Music, Hawkwind found their inspiration back and everything that didn't work on the preceding album turns out for the good here. Calvert is in fine form and the band sounds clean and crunchy.

What we get on our plate is a completely revamped Hawkwind. They still maintained that typical guitar strumming, the rhythmic pace, the eastern melodies and their excellent song writing, but the style and sound are completely updated: the style is something that comes close to arty punk pop and the sound is fresh and new, closer to the art-rock of David Bowie or Roxy Music than to their original space drone.

The sound has lost most of its space feel: out are the swirling saxophones, guitar effects, mellotrons and moogs. They are replaced by a battery of the then modern keyboards that many new wave groups like Japan, Magazine and countless others would start using just a year later.

By consequence they fit in wonderfully with the punk/new wave movement that was about to take off. In fact I would dare to say QSAC starts a 3 year period where Hawkwind became something of a punk-pop-prog band, that strangest of combinations :-) As such, they proved to be one of those few early 70's bands that were able to blend in with the new times successfully.

Hawkfans be warned, this is something completely different.

Bonnek | 3/5 |

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