THE FUTURE NEVER WAITS

With an album title like The Future Never Waits, these guys surely needed to show more than that spacey stew they usually cook and serve, at least, if they really wanted to impress some serious fans of dystopia. And they do show more, indeed, in the eponymous opener, where the prevailing mood is absolutely pervaded by those Technology-Gods-Doing-Us-So-Wrong mechanical rhythms and screeching synths, gradually coalescing into a moderately interesting pastiche with Tangerine Dream leanings. But they start straying right afterwards.

Track 2, The End, reverts to the old them, with uninteresting (but powerful) ostinato rhythmic section driving the vocals loaded with apocalyptic menace. That good space rocking moment returns in Track 5, Rama (The Prophecy), after two rather dull (to me, at least) atmospheric tracks, involving some completely unnecessary free-form jazz jamming, which adds almost nothing to the proceedings, except for a bit of unavoidable somnolence. Track 6, USB1, starts like a rather bland mélange of the usual space effects, but it gains substance, and builds momentum right passing the middle. In that same vein, Track 7 Outside of Time adds some really tasty floydian vocals. A fine song, however spreading over a couple more minutes than the strictly necessary. Eerie vocals, bubbling synths and Eastern-flavored bass lines converge to haunting us in Track 8, I'm Learning To Live Today, one of the best moments of the album.

And of course, no dystopic look into the near (so much that is almost like present) future can be declared complete without a good taste of the alienation involved in such disgusting environment. And that is what we get in the last two tracks, including a good measure of acoustic guitar underpinning fantastic vocals in The Beginning, and a nice piano doing the same in Trapped In This Modern Age. And don't forget the excellent (if brief) electric guitar solo near the end.

Not a lasting revelation, but fairly enjoyable.

The latest Hawkwind studio album (at the time of writing) finds them leaning even further into soundscapes and away from conventional songs than the preceding Somnia. With the lineup expanded since then, with the prolific Thighpaulsandra providing an extra level of electronic texture, things seem somewhat richer than the preceding album, but the same general musical approach is underway, more in line with It Is the Business of the Future To Be Dangerous than, say, Warrior On the Edge of Time or Quark, Strangeness and Charm. If you like Hawkwind when they delve into abstract electronic realms and don't worry too much about offering something which resembles a song, you'll likely enjoy this.

As a longtime Hawkwind fan, I enjoyed this very much. It is more of a sophisticated chill out session than a rocker, and more in line with "It is the Business of the Future to Be Dangerous" (as Warthur also observes) and the Hawkwind Light Orchestra albums. Certainly quite spacey, beautifully recorded and played, with Dave Brock's jaunty perspective on things in his wise old age running through. If you want a good Hawkwind heavy duty space rock workout, their latest live album, "We Are Looking In On You" (2022) is the perfect complement. Also, I want to recommend the Hawklords albums from the last 11 years, which I hope Progarchives will someday admit to the sacred canon.

This new effort from Hawkwind is lush and beautiful. Very melodic and song based but with the typical space vibe. I feel similarities between this and the latest Agusa and Ozric Tentacles efforts. The new kids in Tangerine Dream did something similar with Edgar's music on the Quantum Gate and Raum efforts. The same here - recognizable but more polished and produced. Masterfully put together in the studio, dreamy and smooth but with some of the typical heavy driving bass. I enjoy their 70s stuff but that seems downright low fi and garag-like compared to this as far as production goes. Color me impressed. This is really smooth almost ambient at times yet clearly guitar driven space rock. Easily 4 stars. An excellent addition to any proghead collection for sure. No bad songs or filler at all and decent vocals too.