Shot Down in the Night

A Steve Swindells song which Hawkwind scored a minor hit with in 1980. Personally I prefer this the Swindells version.



Hawkwind version

Robert Calvert Live

erforing live with Inner City Unit in 1985.



How it sounded on Hawind's1979 release PXR5

few favourites from the early 70s

And some Hawkwind

The 1991 album Palace Springs has just been re-released with extra tracks and a live CD (the California Brainstorm set). Will have to get that soon

Arrival in Utopia

Mars Curiosity Rover Theme

 A Facebook page for the Mars Curiosity Rover is asking for suggestions for a soundtrack to the mission. Here's a choice but I doubt Americans would like the lyrics.

Urban Guerilla and The Days of the Underground

Hawkwind Dangerous Vision

A softer Hawkwind song written and sung by Keith Hale, Hawkwind's keyboard player after Tim Blake was sacked (Blake rejoined as a full member of the band a few years ago, performing on Blood of the Earth and Onward)

Dnagerous Visions was recorded at the Lewisham Odeon in 1980. It first appeared on Zones and appeared on the Levitation re-release which features the full Lewisham concert (Ginger Baker drum solo excepted!)

There's still life in Hawkwind continued

This morning the new Hawkwind  album landed on m doorstep. Featuring 18 tracks over two CDs. I couldn't wait to give it a listen. My first impression was this is good, far better than Blood of the Earth. My second impression was THIS IS BLOODY GOOD!

Hawkwind have changed direction a number of times over the years not always for the better (thinks the techno influenced album It's the Business of the Future  to be Dangerous)  but Onward does not mark such a change. It has all of the classic elements of the band: Fast paced, almost punky songs rub shoulders with  with instrumental or soundscape interludes; softer songs rub shoulders with pure Blanga*. And yet it is not merely a rehash of old themes, this album takes the best of the Hawkwind sound and produces something sublime.

I won't go into a long description. Of the 18 tracks, five are re-recordings (most were meant to be bonus tracks for a deluxe edition but it seems that the regular release has the same listing.

Of the new tracks there are a number of absolutely superb offerings: Seasons; The Hills Have Ears (which features original guitarist Huw Lloyd Langton on guitar) Mind Cut; Southern Cross; The Prophecy; Computer Cowards and the last, untitled  track.

There is one longish instrumental, The Drive By which is very listenable - classic Hawkwind but not essential

The remaining tracks are mostly short instrumentals or preludes for longer tracks. This is typical of the band and most of them are perfectly fine.

Of the re-recordings  three are listed as bonus tracks, presumably they were meant to be for the deluxe edition only. Of them, The Right to Decide, The Flowering of Time (an instrumental part of Steppenwolf plus Damnation Alley by sounds of it) and Green Finned Demon are excellent. The new Death Trap (which also appeared on Alien 4 and of course originally on PXR5  and Aeropspace Age are not so good.

Two not so good tracks out of 18 and a total run time of  83 minutes is pretty good going.

To be honest I never thought I would hear Hawkwind produce something this good again. Something tells me that this will be regarded as one of their better albums, although not one of their very best.

* This is perhaps the best description of Blanga (found  here and written by J Eric Smith):  Y'see, there's this obtuse and somewhat obscure form of music that those of us in the know refer to as BLANGA and those of them not in the know refer to condescendingly in stilted critical terms, if at all....

...The drummer drops into a martial 2/2 seigbeat with the bassist and guitarist hammering power-chords in lockstep like the crack rhythm section of hell. Audio generators pulse and chirp as bottom-heavy analog synthesizers shred speakers and tighten sternums throughout the auditorium...

....you have no choice but to move with the beat and your heart picks up the beat and hammers in your chest with the drums... and chokes you 'til you see stars and stars fall and falling falling deep deep deep space space is deep space in case I oh and um crash and it's time we left and BLANGA BLANGA BLANGA BLANGA..... 

That's the BLANGA experience as best it can be writ: free-form noise and a good beat you can dance to. Good BLANGA is liberating, exhilarating, irritating, and enervating all at the same time. Bad BLANGA doesn't really exist, as BLANGA is one of those things like sex and pizza that is (oftentimes) best when it's at its worst. 

Hawkwind to a T, or probably an H!

Hawkwind with Arthur Brown

There's still life in Hawkwind yet!

I am a Hawkwind fan, a statement that will come as no surprise to regular readers but others will wonder what I see in a band that has been going for over forty years and with their best days long in the past.

I started listening to the band in the late 70s, collecting their back catalogue as pocket money, allowed, while avidly awaiting their new releases. My love of the band was cemented by going to see them live for the first time (also my first ever concert) in December 1979. And what a concert it was! The highlight was Tim Blake performing his sublime solo piece New Jerusalem.

After that I was hooked. I saw them live many times and usually came away from their concerts a happy man (okay so they were below par sometimes and I am glad that Ginger Baker's tenure was short - I never wish to hear a drum solo at a Hawkwind concert again!).

Crap cover, great album!

Sadly their studio albums have not always matched their live shows (but that is so often the case). It is almost universally agreed that their best albums were produced in the 70s and perhaps their last classic was 1980's Levitation.

 Again the music is far better than the cover art!

 This is largely true but Hawkwind have produced a number of excellent albums since Levitation: The Chronicle of the Black Sword and Alien 4 really stand out; The remastered Xenon Codex is definitely a good offering as are Sonic Attack and Chose Your Masques; Electric Teepee and The Church of Hawkwind have their moments but Space Bandits and Its the Business of the Future to be Dangerous are not very good at all. I won't discuss their live albums here. Suffice it to say that some are excellent.

 Avoid like the plague!

 But the band hit their lowest point in the late 90s with Distant Horizons, which could have been a lot better (the remastered version is much better but it is still a medioocre album) while  the part live, part studio release In Your Area is appalling and certainly make you wish that you lived in an area whee Hawkwind weren't!

The band did not release another studio album until Take Me To Your Leader in 2005. This album was far better than  the last two mentioned but it was a bit uneven. Still, the re-recording of Spirit of the Age with daytime tv host Matthew Wright (honestly) on vocals, Sunray (sung by Arthur Brown), Angela Android, Digital Nation and the instrumental Out Here We Are all please, Sadly the title track and Letter to Robert are utter duds; the latter I positively hate!

The Following year came Take Me To Your Future, a dual DVD/CD. Basically the DVD side is a sampler for future DVD releases (not all have been forthcoming, sadly) while the CD side is a long EP. It is worth a listen just for what must be the definitive version of Silver Machine

There was a five year wait for their next studio release, Blood of the Earth. While no classic it was a far superior  to TMTYL. I am quite fond of Wraith, Prometheus, Comfy Chair and Inner Visions while the rocking version of Syd Barrett's Long Gone (originally recorded for a Mojo magazine freebie I think) is an utter treat! While it is a good album there is something missing that I can't quite describe in words. Still I thought it would be as good as a forty year old band would produce in their latter years.

How wrong I was......

Hawkwind cover - Spirit of the Age

Not a bad cover at all

The true masters of space

If the North Koreans ever get into space they will probably find Dave Brock and co playing!

New Hawkwind album next month

Hawkwind will be releasing a new album"Onwards" on 30 April.



Seasons



Southern Cross



Footsteps?

 I dont expect the album to be a classic of the sort the band produced in the 70s but I am sure it will be worth a purchase. Their last two albums, Blood of the Earth (2010) and Take Me to Your Leader (2005) certainly had their good points even if neither will appear in my personal top ten album list.

In the Egg

We live in the egg.
We have covered the inside wall
of the shell with dirty drawings
and the Christian names of our enemies.
We are being hatched.

Whoever is hatching us
is hatching our pencils as well.
Set free from the egg one day
at once we shall make an image
of whoever is hatching us.

We assume that we're being hatched.
We imagine some good-natured fowl
and write school essays
about the color and breed
of the hen that is hatching us.

When shall we break the shell?
Our prophets inside the egg
for a middling salary argue
about the period of incubation.
They posit a day called X.

Out of boredom and genuine need
we have invented incubators.
We are much concerned about our offspring inside the egg.
We should be glad to recommend our patent
to her who looks after us.

But we have a roof over our heads.
Senile chicks,
polyglot embryos
chatter all day
and even discuss their dreams.

And what if we're not being hatched?
If this shell will never break?
If our horizon is only that
of our scribbles, and always will be?
We hope that we're being hatched.

Even if we only talk of hatching
there remains fear that someone
outside our shell will feel hungry
and crack us into the frying pan with a pinch of salt.
What shall we do then, my brethren inside the egg?

By Gunter Grass. performed by Robert Calvert  (from Bring me the head of Yuri Gagarin and numerous other unauthorised albums) 

An clearly inspired by "Your Attention Please"

Robert Calvert performs Sonic Attack. From the Space Ritual live album

Classic Album - Quark, Strangeness and Charm (Side 2)

Quark, Strangeness and Charm


Hassan i Sahba


The forge of Vulcan


Days of the Underground/The  Iron Dream

Classic Album - Quark, Strangeness and Charm (Side 1)

Quark Here is Hawkwind's 1977 Album Quark, Strangeness and Charm, It is yer another album I can listen to over and over again, especially now it has been beautifully remastered and with extra tracks!  Although the Forge of Vulcan is filler all of the other tracks (even the Iron dream) show Hawkwind at one of their peaks. Vocals are provided by the late, great Robert Calvert


Spirit of the Age


Damnation Alley


Fable of a Failed Race

Hassan i sabha

Bloody excellent version of this

Alien I am