HAWKWIND

Hawkwind's debut is a great way for a band to launch a career. Indeed Hawkwind launch their starship into the stratosphere with some of the trippiest spaciest material of the early 70s. It is nice to hear Hawkwind indulging in their inimitable space rock style at the birth pangs of prog. A majority of the album is focused on psychedelia and hyper strangeness beginning with the weird instrumentals that would permeate their albums for years, 'The Reason Is', runs into 'Be Yourself, a space jam session, and then into the creepy 'Paranoia' tracks, and finally culminating in 'Seeing it as you really are' which is a lengthy psychedelic work of experimentation. The only real songs as it were are the opening and closing tracks on the original vinyl, namely the excellent rocking 'Hurry on Sundown', and the best track on the album, brilliant spacey 'Mirror of Illusion' with great Brock vocals and guitar riffing.

The bonus tracks are all good, not as trippy but infectious melodies mixed with chugging guitars. The blues driven 'Bring it on Home' is a surprise in its concentrated blues guitar riffs, but I am particularly taken with the wonderful rockout of 'Kiss of the Velvet Whip', one of the best bonus tracks I have heard. It ends with the balladic melancholia of 'Cymbaline' with a nice wah-wah guitar and Brock terrific on vocals. The CD packaging booklet is nice with original liner notes and lots of photos of the band in those days. Overall the debut is a great start of things to come; Hawkwind have arrived on planet earth!