HAWKWIND

There is so much about this album that warms my heart and lifts my spirit and then there's not. The cover fills me with so much progg-joy I want to skip and jump and the title... Aaaah, the title. Warrior on the edge of time. Brilliant. If it's just those things to review I'll give it five stars. Easy. But no, there is also the musical content.

First of all I can't help but feeling that the record is dated, even back in 1975. When I thinkof 1975 I do not think of this kind of sound. It belongs back in 1971, or something. And maybe, just maybe the band felt i too, completely changing their sound on the next album, Astounding sounds. That aside, there are quite a few things to like. The opener, Golden void, Magnu and The demented man for instance. I do like the album as a whole but I only like it. It does not make me feel like I want to lean back and go for a ride. it's more of an album I listen to in the background. Warrior on the edge of time i simply, I guess, a part of the 70's albums I do not fully grip, still it's more enjoyable than many other from the decade.

In short it's an album well crafted but the overall result does not thrill me. It pleases me, somewhat.

Hawkwind. The great, the bold, the magnificent. You have to give them one thing and that's their ability and will to transform, to change, to expand their sound. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The previous albums from 1970-1975 are all quite hard to crack, I think. I don't get them and maybe I never will. I've stated on quite a few occasions that the 80's Hawkwind is my Hawkwind. The 70's are kind of a lost cause, a battle I cannot win. And then ASAM hits me from and leaves me baffled. Again. Unlike previous efforts and those to come ASAM is somewhat of an offshoot, an album that differs from everything else in their canon. There's certainly Hawkwind ingredients but the seasoning is so different.

ASAM is more of a jazzy, brass-laden, british jazz-rockish and down to earth affair than many other albums from the 70's, especially the early part of the decade. The opener, Reefer madness, is wonderful with. Quirky lyrics and jazzy interludes. The rest of the tracks ranges from spacey stuff to hard rock. Apart from Back on the streets and Hunky dorky (the not so wonderful tracks) it's areally joyous affair throughout. But the main course have to be Steppenwolf. Now, there's a track if there ever was written one. Magnificent! Lengthy, great organ, lovely brass and intriguing lyrics. Iam loss for words when it comes to Steppenwolf. Listen and be amazed.

When listening to ASAM I hear things coming. The sound of New wave on the following albums from the 70's but also hints of what Calvert MIGHT have been listening to and been inspired by. I hear IF, Raw Material, Mogul Thrash and slicker sounds of the jazzy progg bands from this era. Now, the bands I've mentioned all hail from the first part of the decade but I hear the influences. Oh, there's also Roxy Music in there and it's not a bad thing. Sometimes boldness goes a long way and on ASAM it really does.

But then the question arises, is this Hawkwind? Well, that depends on your point of view and what Hawk-sound you prefer. I prefer the 80's but really like ASAM from 1976. Alot, at that. Not only because the contents are so amazing but also, which is quite endearing, is the fact that they never really sounded like this again. There are, as I wrote, clear elements of Hawkwind (like City of lagoons) and then there's not. But like Never say die (Sabbath's 1978 offering) the album is a lovely one off, an oddity but a great one.

Live albums aren't really my thing. Generally I'd rather go for the studio offerings. In most cases they satisfy me more. Although, there are some albums of great worth: Camel's Pressure points or Deep Purples Made in Japan. These are albums where one really feel the music in a live setting. Another great leve album is this one, Complete '79.

I do agree with some reviewers, that the single disc album is a tighter album in some sense but this one gives more of a true feel of what it must have been like that night, witnessing Hawkwind on stage. First one must say that Complete '79 is one of the hardest live albums made. It's really, really furious and storming. Shot down in the night opens up the album with enormous energy and rage. And it carries on in that way for the remainder of the album, except for New Jerusalem and Lighthouse, which are two electronic pieces. Quite ambient and peaceful, in a way. It's soothing, especially since the band after those songs kick off Brainstorm, a version capable of kicking the Earth out of it's orbit. It's really something extra.

The reason for me to buy it was the fact that there are quite a few songs from the upcoming Levitation, by then not yet released. They are all great live adaptions and it's great fun hearing them like this.

The sound quality is not top notch. There are a few weird anomalies and sometimes it's quite rough, like a soundboard bootleg. But that's fine, actually. The music is so magical, enthralling and mezmerising that it ultimately leaves little to wish for. A great live album!

I have to declare something and that is the fact that I am not what you'd consider a true Hawkwind fan. I'm more of an occasional fan, delicately tipping my toes into the pool of Hawks and then diving in head first but only in certain areas. I have discovered that I am a fan of Hawkwind's 80'soutput. I do consider Levitation being one of the greatest albums ever made and I adore The xenon codex, thoroughly enjoying every second of it.

Now, that being said I fins The chronicle of the black sword not disappointing but not up to par with some other albums of the decade's recordings. As a whole I love the album. Everything visible about it is really, really thrilling and intriguing. Everything from the great cover with it's different shades of blue, to the albums's fantasy themes and the titles of the songs and well, the whole package. Visually meaning. Then there's the songs in themselves. The rockier side of TCOTB I do not love. I like the songs, for sure, but it's liking more than loving. As far as I'm concerned I could skip them everytime and go for the softer, gentler, more ambient stuff. On Levitation the spacey hard rock seemed truly vibrant and committed, energetic and really entertaining. On TCOTB they're sometimes on the verge of being slightly easy, meaning they are (at least at times) kind of boogie-ish in a way Whitesnake do it, filling the album with excellent rockers and then finishing off with a couple of tired boogie or blues numbers. It's not quite that bad, actually. The worst I can say about the rock-songs are that they're not the best Hawkwind ever made but at least they entertain in that 80's sort of way. And to top things off the vocals seem to be sung by a german. Not that it really matters but I get the feeling I'm listening to Eloy (which is great thing in itself) and not the truly british Hawkwind when listening to Song of the swords, for instance. Let's put it this way, they are alright but nothing more. Except Needle gun which is a storming track I really enjoy.

The ambient songs, like The pulsing cavern or Zarozinia, gets my votes though. There is something about the way Hawkwind (or Brock) seem to stir up a brew of electronic landscapes able to really get my mind going far into the vast galaxies of my imagination. Just like on the later Xenon codex it's like floating through space, visualising everything from reality to fantasy, history, presence and future all wrapped up in one. The pulsing cavern is a great travelling song, along with Zarozinia, setting music to your journey in the most excellent way. I guess that the ambient side of Hawkwind bears resemblence to Tangerine Dreams output from the same time.

In short I'd say that the album is really good, just not great. It has highs and lows but it never reaches the abyss. It's interesting, entertaining and the lyrics are great.

This album was my introduction to Hawkwind. All I knew of them previously was the repeated references in the Michael Moorcock books I devoured. Having since heard every album Hawkwind released before this one, and some of what came after (including their most recent releases), I can say that I don't think they ever sounded better than they did here.

Make no mistake, this isn't the Hawkwind of the legendary early '70s. Dave Brock and Simon King are the only survivors here of the Space Ritual era. Huw Lloyd-Langton returns, not having been seen since Hawkwind's debut album. Harvey Bainbridge continues on from the short-lived Hawklords, and Tim Blake fills the synth chair for the band for the first time.

The result is a glorious, raucous blast of energy, presented excellently by an intricate mixing job which does much to disguise the problems of Dave Brock's guitar performance and which adds interest to those moments when the churning would otherwise become monotonous.

The album opens with a Steve Swindells-penned number from the Hawklords rehearsals, Shot Down In The Night. (This album was the first time I heard of Steve Swindells, and it led me to discover his wonderful Fresh Blood album.) Tim Blake provides the bubbling synth swooshes and everything kicks solidly into gear. I can't listen to this one without bobbing my head.

The energy drops a little for the introduction to Motorway City, all slow-release synth chords and tinkling guitar before Dave Brock funks it up with a phased rhythm guitar riff which I think is my favourite of all the parts I've heard him play. A simple song but deadly effective.

Spirit Of The Age, which follows, is a variation on the version which Calvert intoned at previous Hawkwind concerts. I prefer this one, even if it does sound as though Dave Brock forgets the words halfway through and segues awkwardly into a different piece. The track follows the general pattern of side 1 (yes, I bought this album on vinyl): Tim Blake's synths introduce the song, then there's the song, then the jam, then the song ends.

Side 2 breaks that pattern in favour of opening with the full-frontal guitar attack of Brainstorm. As with Spirit of the Age, this is not the same as the Nik Turner original. Having since heard Nik Turner perform the original when he fronted Hawkwind, I prefer this version.

The energy drops down again for Tim Blake's synth intro to his own song, Lighthouse, from his album Blake's New Jerusalem. (This album was also my introduction to Tim Blake, whose work I fell in love with on Live Seventy Nine.) The version here is bolstered by a solid Hawkwind jam.

Then it's back to high-energy guitar with Master of the Universe. I suspect the highly-effective pre-echo on Dave Brock's vocal might have been added while mixing the album - it seems to me to be something which would have been difficult-to-impossible to pull off onstage in 1979. Either way, a good time is had by all.

My one disappointment when I first heard the album was Silver Machine. The song had achieved legendary status by the time I first heard it on this album, where it cuts off before the first chorus, reportedly due to Dave Brock having grown tired of performing the song. Disappointing - but then, how many other albums end in an explosion mid-song?

This album never fails to lift my spirits, and I believe that the imperfections of it are part of that charm. Hawkwind have never sounded this good to my ears, before or since; and what the album lacks in elaborate structures, it more than makes up for with its abundant energy, its solid musicianship (Dave Brock being the only one of the crew whose performance I could wish to improve), and one of the cleverer mixing jobs I've heard. My first taste of Hawkwind, and still my favourite. Alongside it, I find the rest of the Hawkwind oeuvre a disappointment.

I honestly believe I started out in the wrong end of the Hawkwind legacy. I truly struggled with the classic 70's output, all the way through the first half (in particular) and all the way up to "Quark, strangeness and charm". The previously named album I kind of liked but I wasn't hooked. So, accordingly I put Hawkwind on hold and headed elsewhere. Until I found "Levitation", possibly one of the greatest albums ever made and I was hooked instantly. After that I have discovered Hawkwinds 80's output and finding it to suit my taste.

If "Levitation" was a stroke of genius, bordering on five stars, "The xenon codex" is a four star album. The songs are truly mesmerizing. Apart from "The war I survived" (a song I struggle with) the album is filled with atmospheric, harsh, delicate, moving, surreal, dreamy, spacey, groovy stuff. The opener is more of a 80's heavy metal, kind of song. Not bad, just not as great as the other tracks. "Wastelands of sleep", "Tides", "Sword of the east" and the rest of the songs (although those named being somewhat the highlights) are all amazing.

A part of me wonders if the ambiance of the album leads me to rate it as high as four stars. Is it really an album worthy such high praise as four stars? Well... Yes, i do think so. I do belive it is. It is such a great album, well crafted and well played I can't see anyreason not to rate it like I do. Great stuff!

Hawkwind's 1990 album Space Bandits, also known as "the one with the woman singer", is quite good. I would even go so far as to say it's an underrated album.

The biggest thing that stands out about Space Bandits is, of course, that it has Bridgett Wishart on lead vocals - at least on a couple of tracks. I think her vocals are a great fit for the music on this album, which very much sounds like one might expect Hawkwind to sound in the late 80s/early 90s. It's too bad she didn't record any more studio albums with the band, because she does quite well here.

The album starts off with the mini-epic "Images", an energetic nine-and-a-half minute opener of awesome space rock and it is hands down the best track on the album.

"Black Elk Speaks" begins with a sampled spoken word narration before Wishart's vocals take over in a trance-like manner as a heavy drumbeat plays over ambient music. This track may be an acquired taste, but as far as giving the listener a sense of some sort of ancient mysticism, it works.

"Wings" sees Wishart joined by mainstay Dave Brock on vocals to pretty good effect. The song has an overt environmental theme. It is also quite repetitive at times, but for some reason I still dig it. The track has a very deliberate pace with a lot of ambient sounds and noises that help to keep it from being monotonous.

"Out of the Shadows" picks things up again though by putting the rock back into space rock. This one has Brock on lead vocals and is noticeably more aggressive than the previous two tracks. This makes it easily the second best track on the album.

Now a lot of people have criticized the rest of the second side of Space Bandits as being a letdown after the very solid first half and to an extent that's true, but I don't think I'd go so far as to say that it's a disappointment.

"Realms" is an almost three-and-a-half minute ambient piece that is nothing special, but it's a good breather after the excitement of "Out of the Shadows". In terms of the overall pacing of the album I think it works, but I can see why it could be called "filler".

This segues directly into "Ship of Dreams", which again has Brock on vocals. I like "Ship of Dreams". It's a good experimental track with an interesting violin bit behind the all of the effects and noises (and Brock's chanting).

Finally, the album proper ends with "TV Suicide" with keyboardist Harvey Bainbridge on lead vocals interspersed between some multi-tracked vocals. This song starts heavy on keys and synth during the vocal section, but then it changes into another ambient track as the album fades out at the end. It's a decent track, but a bit of a weak way to end the album.

I also happen to have the remastered edition with three bonus tracks on it: Live studio versions of "Out of the Shadows" and "Snake Dance" and the single version of "Images".

The live version of "Out of the Shadows" sounds better than the album version in my opinion. You can hear the violin and keys a lot more clearly. "Snake Dance" is a really cool track. It begins with a key/synth sequence before guitars kick in to give the track some bite. This instrumental is highly recommended. The single version of "Images" is just that. The album version is better.

Overall,Space Bandits is a very good album with a few obvious flaws. The addition of Bridgett Wishart on vocals works much better than I would have ever expected before hearing the album - although, admittedly the second half of the album is not quite a good as the first. If you're a fan of Hawkwind or space rock in general, I say give this one a try. It may surprise you.

I would give Space Bandits a 3.5 out of 5 stars, rounded up to 4.

Highlights: "Images", "Black Elk Speaks", "Out of the Shadows", "Ship of Dreams"

I'd always wanted to hear this, because it seems to be one of the seminal albums of prog, although (beforehand, at least) I always thought of Hawkwind as a 'metal' band.

If you accept that my only exposure to them was 'Silver machine', then I'd say that that particular song represents the tip of an iceberg. Same sound, but much more of it, and the effect of 'Space rock' is born!

It ends up being a forerunner to 'Drum'n'bass', and similar such stuff. It goes on, and on... and on! But not in a bad way. It's where you put your head. There's a strong rhythm sound underpinning it all. I found it similar in a way to 'Rush', but thankfully, Geddy Lee doesn't come in and upset the flow.

Whilst it ISN'T my favourite type of music, this is really strong stuff, and absolute top quality.

Onward, always onward, high esteem - HAWKWIND, a band which - not only perceived - is underway for ages now, where the sound has not significantly changed over the course. As for that it's really astonishing how - respectively where - they are obtaining this spirit over and over. Fair enough at least when it comes to the amazing forerunner 'Blood Of The Earth', especially due to the new collaboration with Niall Hone. And now - beforehand - my summary concerning this new effort: there's nothing to complain here. Okay, the formula is clear - true to their principles the band once more is offering rock music featuring mindblowing spaced out atmosphere as well as some minor wild garage/punk attitude.

You can detect some real treasures again, whereat I will concentrate on furthermore. On CD1 we have the shining Mind Cut for example, a highly melodic ballad with acoustic guitar support. Death Trap works with garage/punk ingredients similar to Krankschaft, whereas the fluffy Southern Cross - while showcasing extraordinary synth contributions - follows as a wonderful atmospheric thingy with oriental touch due to the percussion. The groovy The Drive By rounds the first medium up with soaring guitar, charming organ and spooky synths.

This is how it also flows on CD2 basically - with the exception, that three live tracks are added here, where The Flowering Of The Rose appears as a truely inspiring uptempo jam, even provided with some headbanging qualities. Finally the untitled heavy rocking finish transforms into a spacey synth excursion towards the end. 'Onward' sounds like a new concept album quasi - at least the songs mostly blend into each other, building up a rather entertaining collection. Okay, of course this could have been compressed on a single CD in the end, but ... what the hell ... take it as it comes, basta!

This is essentially Hawkwind Hawkwinding. If you've familiarized yourself with a couple of Hawkwind releases from around this time period, HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN GRILL is not much of a surprise. Thick, psychedelic guitars, extended spaced-out jams, synth sound effects, a consistent rhythm section, the occasional break into acoustic rock to alter dynamics; it's all here in chunks that newcomers can adjust to fairly well. The addition of veteran keyboard/violin player Simon House only adds a few touches to the already established sound of sci-fi raucous guitars.

There are more regular pianos on this album than memory serves, and it's what makes the title cut so haunting and intriguing. The song ''Web Weaver'' is in practice much like the acoustic driven songs of earlier lore, but with much more jangle and an overall happier tone, something out of character for the band. ''Lost Johnny'' has a more straight blues-rock approach to it (it was written by Lemmy, go figure) even if there are still psychedelic undertones.

As for the rest, the style that Hawkwind had mastered on DOREMI FASOL LATIDO makes a return appearance here. Yes, ''Disappear in Smoke'', ''You'd Better Believe It'' and ''Paradox'' fall into some of their better songs in this style, the whole album feels too much like Hawkwind is on cruise control, losing the mystique that made the previous DOREMI FASOL LATIDO so intriguing.