ELECTRIC TEPEE

This album certainly seemed like a re-birth for the band back in 1992. They were down to a trio at this point and they knew that each member of the band had to make more noise when they played live so did it by using MIDI. "Dave had a MIDI guitar and was triggering massive amounts of sound modules and keyboard settings in his equipment rack. MIDI gave us the ability to maintain that wall of sound, which is the trademark of the band." They also recorded this at Dave Brock's Earth Studio in Devon instead of the usual studio, so everthing about this recording was new and fresh. And it shows ! I really like how they contrast the two styles of heavy and spacey on here. For me it all works to near perfection.

"LSD" sounds so good with that heavy rhythm and vocals. Sounds like a classic HAWKWIND track. "Blue Shift" on the other hand is an atmospheric beauty. Simply heavenly spacey sounds wash in and out of the soundscape. "Death Of War" is spacey as guns fire away with manic laughter then spoken poetry. A beat comes in at 1 1/2 minutes. "The Secret Agent" is a spoof of Spy movies. It kicks in hard and it's uptempo with fast paced vocals. Check out the drumming after 3 1/2 minutes.

"Garden Pests" has these strange sounds to open then it kicks into a great sounding rhythm. "Space Dust" is spacey throughout and it blends into "Snake Dance" where a beat joins in quickly as it continues to be spacey. A Middle Eastern vibe on this one as well. "Mask Of The Morning" has a lyrical re-working from "Mirror Of Illusion" from HAWKWIND's debut. What a great sounding vocal track this is. It settles back 2 1/2 minutes in as it turns spacey with a beat. It kicks back in with vocals after 4 1/2 minutes.

"Rites Of Netherworld" is a short,dark and dramatic piece. "Don't Understand" has an electronica flavour with some samples. It's excellent. "Sadness Runs Deep" is powerful with almost spoken vocals at first. It does pick up. It's more intense with gutiar before 3 minutes.Nice. "Right To Decide" is uptempo and fun. "Going To Hawaii" is an ambient instrumental with spacey waves. A beat 1 1/2 minutes in. Amazing sound ! "Electric Tepee" is very spacey as well with some native chanting.

A very solid 4 stars and another classic from these masters of the universe.