THE AMBIENT ANARCHISTS

The thing that really bug me big time about HAWKWIND is their discography is nothing short of a total nightmare. The newcomer must be awfully careful about where to start or he might be turned away from this band for good. This 1997 2-CD collection, luckily, doesn't come from bootlegged live shows or one of their lousy bootleg albums, but from their official albums and official singles. Here you get a 1980s version of "Psychedelic Warlords", the sinister "Utopia" (from "Choose Your Masques"), the 1975 single "Motorhead" (which was obviously by Lemmy and no doubt how Lemmy got the name for the infamous heavy metal band he formed after leaving HAWKWIND), "The Forge of Vulcan" (sounded like they got this title off a Star Trek episode, this song came off "Quark Strangeness and Charm"), "The Joker at the Gate" (from "The Church of Hawkwind"), and so much more. One song worth noting is "Confrontation", as you hear the music, you hear news footage of the British authorities raiding the Stonehenge Free Festival in 1985 (this was the festival that HAWKWIND were regulars, as well as a then-up and coming band called OZRIC TENTACLES), not forgetting this was smack in the middle of the Thatcher administration.

You even get two versions of "Sonic Attack", one from the 1981 album of the same name, and another with Michael Moorcock narrating (not sure where this version came from). But then the problem you get with HAWKWIND compilations is you always don't get the best picture of the band, and this one in places seem a bit drawn out. Luckily you don't get crap sound quality like you do their unofficial and bootleg releases, that's good. Basically "Ambient Anarchists" is basically give or take, a lot better than a lot of their crappy bootlegs, and not quite nearly as good as many of their other official releases.