ASTOUNDING SOUNDS, AMAZING MUSIC

"Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music" is the 6th full-length studio album by UK psychadelic/space rock act Hawkwind. The album was originally released through Charisma Records on vinyl in August 1976 but Griffin Records re-released "Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music" on CD in 1995. The original LP contained 7 tracks while the CD re-release version features 3 additional bonus tracks. After bassist Lemmy Kilmister departed (was kicked out) to form the now legendary Motörhead, the band recruited new bassist Paul Rudolph to replace him. Except for that change and the return of Robert Calvert on vocals, the lineup is the same who recorded what is arguably one of Hawkwind´s strongest and most classic albums in "Warrior on the Edge of Time (1975)".

The music on "Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music" isn´t much of a surprise if you are familiar with Hawkwind´s first five albums. Repetitive driving beats, Spacy synth and keyboard sounds/effects, psychadelic vocals, stoned sci-fi lyrics, heavy bass and guitars, and Nik Turner´s occasional sax and flute playing.

The album features some brilliant tracks like "Reefer Madness", "Steppenwolf", and "Katmandu Flyer" but all tracks add up to one great quality album. The bonus tracks are pretty great too but don´t add anything spectacular to the album. The rock´n´roll oriented track "Back on the Street" is probably the track that stands out the most among the bonus tracks. Not that it´s better than the other two, it´s just different.

The musicianship are on a high level and the sometimes sloppy playing from previous albums are now completely eliminated. And don´t get me wrong I actually loved the sloppy playing, which provided the older releases with a raw and authentic sound. This is organic and well sounding too though. The same can be said about the sound production which is warm and pleasant but still powerful and raw when it needs to be.

While the "classic" period for Hawkwind arguably ended with "Warrior on the Edge of Time (1975)" and the material on this album are slightly less groundbreaking and the quality of the material has dropped just slightly too, "Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music" is still an excellent album by Hawkwind deserving a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating.