DREAMWORKERS OF TIME (THE BBC RECORDINGS 1985-1995)

Hawkwind's extensive live catalogue is a blessing and a curse - a blessing in the sense that there's lot to explore, and a curse in the sense that there's some real stinkers foisted off on the paying public in there.

The Dreamworkers of Time boxed set, however, is a solid release, as expected from the Atomhenge label, Esoteric/Cherry Red's home for Hawkwind material - the band and the Atomhenge crew perhaps realising that careful custodianship and curation of the archives is what's called for. It's a collection of various recordings the band made for BBC radio between 1985 and 1995, which means that it's not only a good companion piece to the At The BBC release (which hails from the early 1970s) but also has a decent sound quality.

The first disc presents a 1986 appearance at the Reading Festival that was previously released as the Friday Rock Show Sessions disc - the version here has all the material on that, with a sufficiently careful sprucing-up as to render that disc redundant. The other two discs, however, represent rarer material. There's a 1988 show from the Xenon Codex era that's pretty solid, and then the third disc rounds off the collection with two live-in-the-studio sets, one from 1985 and one from 1995 - this one having a different line-up from the rest of the set, from the incarnation of Hawkwind who would give us Alien 4.

None of the material here will make you radically rethink your opinion on Hawkwind's work in this era, but if you enjoyed the sound of The Xenon Codex you'll find a lot to like here.