DARK SUN

This is a hell of a space rock collection from this Finnish band named DARK SUN. Eight archive jams taken from 2004/2005 studio sessions which fortunately were made available in the end. The given line up information is a mystery for me, they use kind of aliases, at least core members Janne and Mikko Kuokkanen are on board, I'm quite sure. The recordings however make it clear, they are experienced space cowboys. First the crew picks up Pink Floyd's 'Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun' and the groovy interpretation of this classic marks a highlight, no doubts. Towards the end they even seem to move into Hawkwind's 'Master Of The Universe' a bit.

The tracks are often faded out respectively in, which means are extracts from more extended excursions. As usual they are alternating between relaxed moments and grooving parts. I especially like A Journey Through Space - the title exactly matches the mood first but then the jam picks up pace furthermore featuring two nicely corresponding electric guitars. This applies to the wonderfully melancholic Celestial Waves in the same way

Hope Turns Into Fear comes in a different vein with electric piano and vocal support, probably from another session. To name related bands I'd say this is close to Oresund Space Collective and My Brother The Wind. Designated space rock warlords who love to hear extended guitar jams can grab this without hesitation ... unless they are able to reach for one of the few produced copies. Otherwise you easily can pick up the stream samples on the DARK SUN bandcamp page.

I liked quite much this live album of The Finnish group Dark Sun, the devoted disciples of mythical space rock legend Hawkwind. It is great that Nik Turner played with the band also, bringing an original element from the seventies to these tribute sounds. The versions of the Hawkwind songs here are musically good, and follow the original style quite faithfully. Musically there are really great jam sequences captured here, mostly I liked the hypnotic aural causeways allowing Nik to blast out saxophone solos. Also there's a really nice crunchy sound in bass guitar, especially in the song "Psychedelic Warlords". The conjured electronic space tones are also quite pleasant, and the group plays together very well. I personally think that the biggest value of tribute-oriented bands might be giving fine concert experiences for those fans, which cannot time warp to 1970's Stonehenge to see the original thing. Another aspect of covering would be doing new arrangements from very different perspective, but this is not the case here, and I feel uncomfortable with this approach to that music which feels sacred for myself. Maybe due this attitude of mine I liked this live recording more than the earlier studio album of this band I heard. This enthusiasm is enhanced quite strongly with the personal nostalgia value to me, as I participated some of these gigs in the late 1990s'. In the clubs there were interesting possibilities, for example disappearing to the smoke attempting to participate dancing with charming hippie ladies, or engaging to civilized discussions with local Lemmy clones, possibly reaching intellectual heights of enlightenment era philosophers' debates; All this surrounded by the sonic attack of most awesome space rock tunes. Even here in the record audience voices out loudly the enjoyment, and they were really great happenings. Would be fun to hear the limited pressing "Astral Visions" CD's also, as the last track is not from the concerts, but band's own studio jam with Nik, sounding extraordinary fine. If you are a Hawkwind fanatic, consider checking out this record drilling nicely to the core of your most sacred source of fascination. I have understood the band has not been very active lately, but luckily the members of this group are very active in local psychedelic scene, and they have arranged many fine clubs with prolific selection of international and local psychedelic bands. So onward flies the bird, one way or another.

This Finnish band is technically quite interesting, as the guys create a purist vintage space rock sound, and voyage in aesthetically pleasant cosmic musical realms. But what troubles me with this record is the too evident effort of replicating Hawkwind's sound. I have seen the band on concert stage few times, and once half of the material was their own, and half of them Hawkwind covers. So in my opinion with their good skills and carefully considered style they reach more interesting levels when innovating more personal elements to open jams. On this record, the output staying in lesser personal paths, most of the compositions being pastiches of their own innovator's songs. Though this works well on visual-illuminated dance halls, I would prefer their later released underground jams for listening at home. Surely some pleasant space rock also on this one, if the listener won't mind the similarities of their innovator band, but I would recommend searching the later rehearsal improvisation discs for the ultimate spacey experiences.

DARK SUN are a Psychedelic band from Finland who are greatly influenced by HAWKWIND. So no surprise as to their instrumental sound, but the vocals weren't what I expected. They really reminded me of some of the singers from eighties pop bands and a lot of the time it's like he's yelling the lyrics.

"Tiny The Man" has a spacey into (surprise !) for almost 2 minutes when guitar, drums and vocals come in changing the melody completely. Lots of spacey synths and the guitar sounds good. "Feed Your Mind" sounds like he's yelling the vocals. Good song though. His singing here reminds me of the singer for CHALK CIRCLE. "Black Spires" opens with a guitar melody as drums and vocals come in. The guitar is great as are the bass lines. "Our Man Inside" has such a full sound. The guitar solos late in the song are terrific.

"Astral Magic" has a catchy guitar melody that builds. HAWKWIND lives through this song. "Phantastica" opens with water flowing and vocals that echo. This is a cool but short song. "Abduction Files" opens with lots of spacey synths and slow playing guitar that lasts for almost 3 minutes then it speeds up. Some spoken words later as well as some great guitar. "The Next Step" opens with synths firing off, as the sound of a countdown for a launch is heard. Later in the song is a synth / guitar melody that reminds me a lot of PINK FLOYD.

So overall I like it, just not too fond of the vocals. It's worth checking out if your a Space- Rock fan.

2,5 stars really!!!

Without wanting to sound too harsh this album proves the one thing I was afraid of. Dark Sun are nothing more than a Hawkwind tribute band. Ice Ritual (sounds familiar, eh?) is a live album, with only one Dark Sun song. The rest of the stuff is Hawkwind's material. One cannot help but wonder what is the purpose of this album?

As far as I know, Hawkwind have released 15-30 live albums throughout their exhausting career, so what on earth can Dark Sun give us that those albums don't already have? Well, beats me, to be honest. The fact that they managed to get Nik Turner to do the vocals here is great and it's the one thing that separates Ice Ritual from other Hawkwind tribute albums. But still... If Dark Sun would've tried to do something really daring and new with these songs, I could understand the need to release this album, but no... The songs are more or less carbon copy's of the original versions.

But let's put all this aside for a second. Had this been a Hawkwind album or had the songs been Dark Sun's own material, I would have given this at least three stars. Maybe even the fourth one on a sunny day. The band plays really well, with great, warm interplay and the whole concert has a very energetic feel. Turner performs his duties nicely, although he sings out of tune a couple of times. This must have been a fun gig to attend.

The album has many highlights, including D-Rider, Assault And Battery, Golden Void and the only Dark Sun track, Dream Circuit. It's actually a studio track, showing their more electronic side and reminding me more of Ozric Tentacles and Hidria Spacefolk than Hawkwind.

So, all I can say that this is an interesting live album, and it breaks my heart to give this album such a low rating, but in my eyes (and ears), Ice Ritual is unfortunately just a pointless release. If you still want to hear a live album full of Hawkwind's classics, then by all means, do check this out as this is better than some of Hawkwind's own live albums, but I'm afraid I cannot recommend Ice Ritual to others.

I believe Dark Sun are making a new album right now. Hopefully they'll try something more daring this time.

When I first heard Feed Your Mind, I was severely disappointed. I had heard good things about this band, and was expecting a crazy psychedelic space-rock trip along the lines of Hawkwind - and that's exactly what I got. What I did not expect is the album to be so terribly derivative.

Feed Your Mind has all the same ingredients that made Hawkwind so succesful, the spacey synths, almost grunge-like heavy guitars, strong vocals, even the "space-whispers" are included in the opening track Tiny The Man. It took me a lot of spins to accept this and let go of my frustration, but when I finally did, I really enjoyed what I heard.

Dark Sun's music is at the same time a bit heavier than Hawkwind's, but it's also more pop-oriented, for example Tiny The Man & the title track have some seriously catchy sections that you could sing along to. The album flows nicely from start to finish, and Dark Sun actually managed to dodge the mistakes Hawkwind often made - there are no fillers (well perhaps Phantastica, but it's not exactly a "song", more of an intro).

My favorites are Tiny The Man, Black Spires and The Next Step which is a haunting, nicely flowing calm (almost) instrumental, with lots of hypnotic synths and strong melodies. It's strongly reminiscent of Wish You Were Here era Pink Floyd, maybe that's why I like it so much, as I prefer PF over Hawkwind. Astral Magic sounds so much like Hawkwind that it could be straight from Warrior On The Edge Of Time and no one would notice that it's not their track...

In conclusion, I could say that this is a very enjoyable effort, but nevertheless, just a bit too derivative to make this anything but a good copy cat. Worth a spin, though, for those who crave for more Hawkwind-like space-rock (assuming you can find this somewhere...)