HAWKWIND

After a disappointing decade, Hawkwind regained some of their stamina in the 90's and became a trusted source again for good studio albums and excellent live ones. Generally, all of the 90's albums vary ambient synth pieces with classic Hawkwind hard-rocking trips.

The rocking side is represented by the magnificent opener LSD. Alan Davey lays down a great bass groove that makes us finally stop to regret that Lemmy left in 1975. After the two opening minutes with typical Hawkwind chants, his heavy rolling bass takes the lead in the 6 minute improvisation that follows. More psychedelic punkrock and thumping bass can be enjoyed on The Secret Agent and Right To Decide. But there are also a number of rock songs that feel less inspired, Mask of the Morning and Sadness Runs Deep are average Hawkwind songs that need lots of sparkling effects and Arabian-tinged syrup to make them somewhat enjoyable.

Those 5 rockers make up 35 minutes of the album. The other half is filled with very strong instrumentals that go from Schulzean dreamscapes such as the lovely Blue Shift and Space Dust to mid-paced 'Gong meets Pink Floyd' excursions such as Death of War and Don't Understand. The world-beat of Going To Hawaii almost sounds like an outtake from Peter Gabriel's Passion that was buried under a thick Hawkwind synth gravy. Nice one.

Electric Tepee is a slightly uneven but fine album to extend your Hawkwind experience. Live albums not included, I would place this one a league behind my favourite trio of Warrior, Quark & Levitation. But it's still worth an upped 3.5 stars.

Xenon Codex is appreciated by many fans as a return to form. For me it's a "no, not really". It's a flat and dreary album. Being quite the Hawkfan, this would banish it to that one desolate star. But I think I'll reserve that one for the 1982/1983 albums if I ever get to review them.

The problem is not in the intention. I'm sure the band had the ambition to do a good space-rock album that stayed true to all spaceship commands. But they decided to make it sound up to date, and that wasn't a particularly good idea in 1988. Before the Pixies and Nirvana restored the rock sound and before thrash metal surfaced in the mainstream, a deteriorated plastic pastiche of the early 80's new wave sound was the flavour of the day. For a rock band like Hawkwind that is a let-down. The synthetic drums are so devoid of life, it's painful.

But also the songs aren't much to write home about, too much rock clichés with repetitive vocals that make each track sound like 20 other Hawkwind tunes. There are songs with some potential though. The War I Survived can surely be made into a lot of fun in a live setting. Wastelands of Sleep has a nice spacey guitar that washes over an electronic pulse. Also Heads resides in similar droning trances, but a much better version appears on Palace Springs.

That's all there is to it for me; the remainder pretty much passes me by completely unnoticed.

You can't go wrong with a Hawkwind Live one. It usually comes with the guarantee of a solid setlist and an inspired performance. This California Brainstorm is from the short period when Bridget Wishhart fronted Hawkwind, meaning that the official live album Palace Spring released in 1991 is an obvious point of reference.

Compared to Palace Springs, this one is for completists. First of all there's the recording quality. All instruments are clearly audible but the frequency range is very limited. There's no power in the lower end and the high end is dull. Actually it sounds as if you would rip Palace Springs to a 96kbps mp3. Meaning thin and flat.

The setlist is quite interesting, featuring some old classic and rare live gems such as Ejection, Brainstorm and Reefer Madness (sung by Bridget). But none of these versions are a compulsory listen. The band plays tightly but the rearrangements are generally disappointing. Ejection lacks its original upbeat drive, Brainstorm is reduced to 3 minutes and extended with a reggae improvisation that also ended up on Palace Springs. Reefer Madness is better then its studio version but that wasn't hard to achieve given the lifeless original.

Void's End is better avoided. It's just an improvisation on the instrumental middle part. Nothing like the superb version on Palace Springs. The more recent material is adequate but doesn't deviate too much from the studio originals. Definitely a fan's item.

Hawkwind had a short and exciting fling with artsy punk in the 1977-1979 years. But in 1980 they returned to their usual hard rocking space flare with their solid Levitation. So I really had my hopes up for this one.

And indeed, after 5 minutes of sonic poetry the album finally kicks off with Rocky Paths, a fun blast of space hardrock with a steady upbeat pace, good vocals and piercing guitar soloing. All of it drowned in an abundant cosmic synth soup. A classic!

But there's a notable difference with Levitation. Ginger Baker, who kicked the hell out of his kit on Levitation has left the spaceship and his replacement Martin Griffin restricts himself to basic rock rhythms. The drumkit also suffers from the typical 80's gated drums production (the big reverbed snare-syndrome). It kills off the attack and dynamism, for a drum aficionado like me, that's always a big loss.

A second problem with this album is the lack of ideas. Unless you get a kick out of sci-fi poetry, Sonic Attack, Psychosonia, Virgin of the World and Coded Language won't register any higher then filler status. And Tim Blake is surely missed on the unimaginative synth sequencing of Virgin of The World.

Next to Rocky Paths there's one other memorable song here: Angels of Death, which is also featured on each of the 34 subsequent live albums Hawkwind released since. The remainder of the songs are painful to listen to, seemingly thrown together from half-baked rock clichés with invariably recitative vocals and predictable arrangements. There's an occasional groove as on Trans-dimensional Man but they don't manage to do much with it.

Sonic Coma would have been a more suitable title.

Now this hawkwind dvd is good stuff,prepeare to be sucked dry,it starts with magnu which is a good version with good guitar and bass and drums well everything in fact nice to see huw lloyd langton playing well here as when hes on form he truely can play good and same goes for angels of death hawkwind on great form here every member playing really how they should i think angels of death is probably one of the best tracks on here,and the version of assault and battery isnt as good as original but is still a great version the blood of man is a track of xenon codex [lost chronicles i hink] played by harvey bainbridge and is quite a nice track but thing is the film like fades out[not in bad way and goes into master of the universe which is a good version of master with the band on great form soundiong powerful abit like angels of death,dreaming city by langton and this calms things down abit with langton on great form and with a film in concert background been like old cartoon [black and white[not a bad thing,its nice to hear and see hawkwind play this song a great track,utopia starts with langton guitar and then the singing comes in and this sounds great with brock singing good here[i think brock has a good singing voice as you can understand what hes singing] this track is great stuff and the bainbridge bit is great to hear this track is enjoyable stuff everyone on great form,and brainstorm a good welcome to see this as brock chats for few seconds then they all start playing and this is just as good as angels of death or better although the dancers to me look out of place but they dont look to bad, but they look like there enjoying thereselves so thats good, anyway hawkwind playing great here every member sounding great and enjoying there selves this just plays for the longest track on this dvd and thats a great thing to everything here just sounds great though it does fade out and gets into bainbridge playing keyboards,and the band playing great here and brock sings the brainstorm lyrics this sounds great and it ends with brock saying good night,then sonic attack comes in and with lagton lighting a cigf,and bainbridge saying the sonic attack bit with a voice effect witch sounds good to with fire breathers coming on stage and this version of sonic attack isnt the best version but its still a good version,assassins of allah is great with davey on vocals and he really fits well to this track his voice really goes well with the music and after a little bit brock joins in and then it back to davey singing the main bit again a great version of assassins to then it all ends and about hour long its a great dvd tp put on if got hour spare and if you like hawkwind this is great stuff and is enjoyable stuff to,i would say the dvd comes straight from video as the quality is like that but its not noticeable really just maybe i,m fussy but the sound quality is great this is i think one of the best hawkwind dvds around this a great stuff.4 stars.

— First review of this album —

The liner notes to this one says that it is a collection of outtakes, b-sides and live tracks from the early seventies period of Hawkwind. Since this is the only album of theirs that I own, I can't really say how important these tracks are. But at least I purchased it for a ridiculously low price from a cutout bin.

From this collection, I would wonder why this band is included here. All of the songs are simple, sloppy jams, with mediocre poetry chanted or spoken over it. Nothing is terribly adventurous, even for it's time. Most of it sounds the same.

The recording quality of the live tracks is fair.

If you are a Hawkwind fan, this may be something you want. For the rest of us, if you find it for a dollar, maybe pick it up.

Quirky and strange maybe, but hardly particularly charming!

Hawkwind is not a band I like very much and I often find their music sloppy, noisy and repetitive. While Warrior On The Edge Of Time had some good moments, the rest of the band's output up to this point had been utterly dispensable from my point of view. The present album is also not really my cup of tea but I must emphasise right from the start that this album is very different from what Hawkwind had been doing before and in many respects better. First of all this album is better produced. It is also much more melodic and the playing is also less sloppy than it used to be. All this is very good news since the earlier albums were clearly lacking in these essential (for great music) respects. On the downside, the lyrics here are often extremely silly. A song about Albert Einstein?

The musical influences goes beyond Space Rock here and encompass New Wave, Punk and electronic music. The addition of electric violin is very nice and it is the leading instrument in the without doubt best song here; Hassan I Sahba. Days Of The Underground is not too bad either. Most of the other songs do very little for me, but they are not torture like some stuff from the band's first couple of albums.

A bonus is that this album is very short!

Levitation was for me the first really good Hawkwind album

Hawkwind never ceases to amaze me, such a long and storied live and studio career, consistent with albums that are far from perfect (with the notable exception of "Warrior on the Edge of Time") and still the energy to party along at a slew of festivals (Britain's prog version of the Grateful Dead). Dave Brock is still the lead astronaut steering the mighty Hawkjet, a severely underrated nut case that has had its share of weirdoes like Lemmy of Motorhead infamy, the über-genial Robert Calvert (the only prog-punk icon and one of my heroes), the enigmatic Simon House, as well as Mister Bizarre incarnate Nik Turner. The spirit of Syd Barrett is not far away, boys and girls! These are invincible spirits, sticking to their original space boogie that blasted off with Apollo moon shots and Telstar satellites over 40 years ago! It should boggle any mind, including the sane ones who like adventurism but hate being screwed around by popular music who would affectionately appreciate theses histrionic cosmo-cruisers. This relatively recent recording (1997) is a typical messy affair as per their legend , the title opening track blows in some warm heavenly breeze , complete with babbling voices, creating a compelling sound scape (nice mellotron BTW!) for guitarists Brock and Jerry Richards (a Brock student no less!) to squeeze out some fine ramblings, hard and yet slippery , determined and devastating. Very icy! The fantastic "Phetamine Street" is raunchier as vocalist Ron Tree now mans a wicked bass, bodily slamming this rant into their much maligned punk mode, as binary as one can imagine , filthy guitars crunching galore (hey Porcupine Tree !) and synths bleeping like bleepin' crazy! (that one was for you, Lemming!). Close to the spirit of Bob Calvert (nice gesture!), this is purely infectious and downright slutty! "Waimea Canyon Drive" is a more conventional piece that evolves slowly snail-like until the chugging guitars shove this one along, very veiled and vaporous, almost delirious to the point one wonders what they smoke! "Alchemy" is a rocker with class, a bruising venture that slams forward, metal on metal, unflinching and totally convincing. This is how I know that I am an open-minded fan and reviewer, getting into my raunchier punk side with little pretense of ceremony. Wham bam, thank you captain! The audacity to propose two dissimilar tracks, one named "Clouded Vision"(a waft of fluff) and the other "Reptoid Vision", need I say more! The second is a seven minute explosion of insanity that will blow your sockets off, a true Hawkclassic with an unexpected mid section twist, swirling atmospherics that have a Tangerine Dream zest slowly increasing in beastly aggression as it veers towards a crash landing . Heavy baby, this reptoid! "Population Overload" is an electronic newscast with the usual bizarre narrative, metronome beat and oddball effects (FX), all classic Hawkingredients brewed together to conjure an ambient stew that is quite intoxicating (especially that little reggae shift!) just like with the Ozric lads. Stunning ! "Wheels" rolls down the cosmic highway, a typical murderous riff shoving this one along mercilessly, until it floats into a searing pool of inert invective aimed at oil (again Dave, like on "Hassan I Sabbah"?) and all the stooping highway stars. Nice! "Kauai" is utterly majestic, a welcome dose of surreal elegance and exalted grace that washes gently its benevolence over the mind. "Taxi for Max" is not a reserved cab for our founder but a chill- out bubble that will clear the club after the lights are up. A masterful finale that will appear everywhere on my playlists. "Distant Horizons" is frankly outstanding, an album that deserves an audience beyond the paltry couple of reviews here (c'mon Hawkfans, write !) 4.5 secluded spheres

Quark strangness and charm starts with spirit of the age and one of the best robert calvert vocal tracks with a nice drumming sound and background electronics and the lyrics are interesting here to and calvert in great form here to with background vocals singing sprit of the age which to me gets in side ya head to great effect,every member of the band here in fine form this must be heard,quite calming track to a great start.Damnation alley starts with alarm sound like a nuclear bomb coming then the guitar plays and takes over and then the drums and calvert come in and everything here sounds great,this track is faster than the first with calvert singing about radiation wasteland,it does calm for abit and sounds great and a keyboard solo like and a violin comes in which sounds great a really great sound in hawkwind and a nice bit of guitar comes in after a bit,and then the main singing comes back and then the track ends and another great track everything here sounds great.fable of a failed race startsreally nice and quiet uch a really calm sound and relaxing calvert here singing really good here and the background vocals really nice to and the drumming fitting really well to the track nice bas here calm to and the guitar fx great such a really nice track really addictive and should of been much longer another great track.quark strangeness and charm a song [about einstein] and a track with everything here sounding great with good drumming and a riff that gets stuck in ya head you,ll be humming it for hours and a great bit of guitar playing here another great track,hassan i sahba starts with violin playing and this is good stuff when the song gets going after about 20 seconds the violin really being the main thing here and great to and the bass here is good and calvert on fine form singing hashish,the guitar playing along to great effect here and the drumming great to,i love this,playthis loud it sounds great,the guitar and violin and bass and vocals all just sound great a bit eastern soundoing track i think here another great track.the forge of vulgan starts with synth playing great like a warning sound a sound like a cow bell going[sounds great] with keyboards like organ sound really addictive sound i love it play it loud the last 30 seconds is the best part of this songs as it like explodes like and then ends,days of the underground starts like a sound that the music is bouncing to me,and calverts vocals having fx in them like a robot like[good sound for his voice] this track i dont think is the best track on this album but its still a good track,i like the background ghostly sound to it,and the keyboards sounding more piano abit here like,and then it ends.the iron dream starts with the whole band going for it pity its only like for two minutes like as this is addictive stuff and heavy like and it fades out and the album ends,i thought this is a really short hakwind album which is a shame cause every band member here is on fine form though more keyboard sounding and drums here but guirtar to not so guitar as oth hawkwind but a great album,this is a must hear album.4 stars.

Despite hunting down any 70's prog-related album that I could take hold off in the 80's, it wasn't till 1993 that I got to know the phenomena called Hawkwind, through an excellent cover of Brainstorm by Monster Magnet. I was sold on the spot and with the patience of a saint I tracked down their albums in the ensuing years.

By the time I found Doremi Fasol Latido, I had come to know all featured songs through their superior live versions on Space Ritual, so it is hard to measure this album's importance and relevance, especially with the terrible production here. It is very badly balanced, it is hard to make out what anybody is playing and for a kind of music that is so much relying on it's hypnotizing effect, the muffled drum and bass sound is largely unsatisfying.

On the other hand, it boasts the original versions of some of Hawkwind's best tunes, be it that only the studio versions of Space Is Deep and Down Through the Night differ enough from their live renditions to justify a purchase. Lemmy's The Watcher is pretty lame, especially compared to its later Motorhead version.

To make my quibbles with the album complete, the re-issue added a number of fun tracks that could have boosted my rating to 4, but for the original CD edition I can't go higher then 3 stars. By compensation I'll be a bit generous with Space Ritual