HAWKWIND

The album starts out innocently enough with "Hurry On Sundown" which is a pleasant blues rock track with harmonicas wailing and a nice groovy upbeat bassline belying the fact that this is really a space rock album which begins as soon as the opener ends. The second track begins with a trippy Floydian spacy synth that eventually gives way to a background guitar line that builds and builds and then takes control while some serious cymbal action is giving a percussive icing to this just dessert. The eponymous debut album from HAWKWIND is generally not considered one of their best and almost universally rated lower than the later more sophisticated releases but I really love this album. Right here on their debut they pretty much have their own sound down pat from the getgo. The fact that they are a key link between the hippie dippy flower children and FTW punk cultures is clear right on this little piece of sonic bliss from 1970.

This album is really brilliant as a debut. It incorporates the bluesy hard rock of the 70s and adds high energy tribal drumming to infuse a nice punky energy. There is also a smokin' sax, fluttering flute and beefy bass drive that keeps this music humming and intense even though a lot of it is actually a bit repetitive. That could be the problem for some but this is space rock after all and it is just done so well as to incorporate some of the spaciest elements of psychedelic 60s with an energetic feel that would become the 70s and beyond. I think this album is way underrated and deserves as much attention as all the greats that come after. HAWKWIND was and still is a unique psychedelic force in the universe and they wasted no time proving that on this first psychedelic spaced out frenzy. I also really love the album cover. One of my all time freaked out faves.