LOVE IN SPACE

Last week I bought a vinyl copy of Hawkwind's legendary Warrior on the Edge of Time. I began to read more about the band on PA and found some high rated live albums, Love in Space being one of them. Space rock is a genre that is spread out all over the archives, one will find good examples on the Krautrock, Canterbury, Symphonic and of course Psychedelic/Space rock pages. Hawkwind is seen as the main band of the space rock genre, playing and developing it for forty years.

Though the ratings of their eighties and nineties output in the studio are low, the live material is still very good. Love in Space is an eighty minute live concert in which the stream of sound is continuous (which is good!) and the listener is overwhelmed by it's atmosphere. The sound of synthesizers, electronics and effects gives the band a warmth sound, whilst the rhythms and blues rhythmical section sounds very steady and professional. The styles Hawkwind has used for it's interplanetary rock experience differ from symphonic, electronic, metal to even punk. Often song have spoken work elements with sci-fi stories that are kind of cool (or at least funny). Furthermore Hawkwind uses voice-manipulation for robotic/alien sounds.

This is the kind of live album that doesn't have many stand-out songs, but the overall performance and continues space atmosphere is very relaxing. It's a great way to get out of your normal life and enter a totally new world. I like the fact Hawkwind takes itself quite serious and pulls of a dedicated show which clearly shows that the band is confident about it's view on music.

Now, this album might not be extremely progressive in the technical or compositional areas of music, but it's pretentious (80 minutes of non-stop space atmosphere!), refreshing, it has lot's of great synthesizers and electronics and it has a sophisticated un-earthly vibe. I think a lot of fans of the symphonic and space genre might be surprised by this outstanding live album, as well as fans of other sub-genres of our beloved PA. A big four star rating.

I've been listening to this album quite a lot, usually when traveling by train. This has become one of my favorite live albums and I think Eetu Pellonpää was right when stating this is perhaps the legal and equal sequel of Space Ritual. I changed my rating to five stars.

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