NIGHT OF THE HAWKS (EP)

The Night of the Hawks release was subtitled "The Earth Ritual Preview", because it was supposed to be pioneering material which would make up a new conceptual concert piece, much like Space Ritual did back in Hawkwind's prime. However, lineup changes - and in particular the loss of Nik Turner - scuppered the plans, and we got The Chronicle of the Black Sword instead.

Still, whatever Earth Ritual was going to be, it sounds like it would have been pretty fun. The title track here is a rockier number that features Lemmy guesting on bass, and though it would perhaps have been too much to expect him to return for the main Earth Ritual performances it's an interesting mashup of Hawkwind's past with some of their more straight-ahead rock-oriented songwriting of the 1980s. Green Finned Demon takes a more electronic and progressive approach, and is perhaps closer to what the Earth Ritual would have actually sounded like. Dream Dancers is an odd ambient piece, whilst EP closer Dragons & Fables is perhaps the best song on here, a nostalgic reminiscence about the joy of fantasy which later got a memorable workout on Live Chronicles.