It's Time!

I can't believe this album is out of print; changing hands at thirty-five quid for a second hand CD version: ridiculous!
Most of Hawkwind's back catalogue is available at much reduced price; yet this, what has to be one of their finest albums, isn't.

Of all the Hawkwind albums, this has to be the most musically ambitious and progressive - in the genre sense - of their entire discography; and as an album; a singular piece of work; a whole, complete product; it could well be their masterpiece.

And the original vinyl edition cover did this when opened out fully:

And this on the other side:

Cosmic!

They did some great things with their covers did Hawkwind; my favourite has to be the blanket sized enormity of the original Space Ritual; man, how we used to pour over those things.

The band were at their peak during this period; and with two drummers and Lemmy as a rhythm section there's some pretty pounding, almost industrial rhythms accompanying many of the tracks.

(Lemmy has stated that he hated this period of working with Hawkwind, with 'fascistic drummers taking over the sound', but has also admitted that Warrior does contain some quite superb cuts.)

In fact, it's quite trancy in places, a little Neu, even; but essentially Warrior is a very heavy album, with long instrumental breaks, allowing the band to really show off their development and their chops.

To bring in Moorcock was a masterstroke.
Dave Brock knew his audience; and he was right, we were all reading Runestaff, Elric, and the brilliant Jerry Cornelius' stories.
Moorcock was the writer of space rock: the absolute literary equivalent of their music.

Poet, Bob Calvert, had become so much a part of the band's identity and sound he was sorely missed (absent: later to rejoin for Astounding Sounds), the poetry added something quite essential to their sound at the time; Moorcock was the perfect replacement, filling Calvert's role admirably; and in places sounding uncannily similar to the original Hawkwind 'Space Poet'.

The poetry nuzzles its way in between the tracks, often acting transitionally between the pieces of music.
Many of the segues on this album are so seamless, and I think so essential to the listening experience I haven't interrupted them; to have done so would would have been criminal; so some tracks are grouped together as single mp3s; but I'm sure you'll agree: many of these pieces run together like suites, and that's how they should be heard.

The album ends with the classic Hawkwind tune: Moorcock and Brock's 'Kings of Speed'; a track that somehow encapsulates all that both the writer and the band stood for during this period.
And it still sounds great.
Ear whizz to add a spring to anyone's step; a great big aural injection of energy: a mainline straight to the psyche.

Hawkwind - Warrior on the Edge of Time (1975)

Assault & Battery Part I
The Golden Void Part II
The Wizard Blew His Horn
Opa-Loka
The Demented Man
Magnu
Standing at the Edge
Spiral Galaxy 28948
Warriors
Dying Seas
Kings of Speed

Excellent vinyl rip @320kbs
Go inner space here

Windy Pops

Awhile since some Hawks, so here's a now deleted classic that best captures some highlights from the early days of the band's ever eternal career.

The wonderful Barney Bubbles' cover sets the scene, leading and preparing the aural space cadet for a most hallucinatory super sonic journey; steered by the most outrageous bunch of lunatics who ever laid hands on the controls.

Collected from the early albums, tracks segue together seamlessly; the juxtapositions creating something new from something old.
Dave Brock was incredibly good at this; a true master of bricolage: forever remastering, recycling and repackaging.

Roadhawks was really the first example of this, but as always, well, nearly always, Brock threw in a few sweeteners; a few gems to keep his audience happy.

(In this case, wicked live versions of 'You Shouldn't Do That' and 'Silver Machine', and the 'banned by the BBC' single: 'Urban Guerilla':

"I'm an urban guerilla
I make bombs in my cellar..."

Not the best time for release as far as the establishment was concerned; the IRA were at the height of their mainland bombing campaign.)

Yes, Dr. Technical was a master of knowing how to entice the punter just enough to force them into buying music they already owned; hooked by a lustful desire for the two or three unreleased elsewhere tracks.
But hey, that's the music business, right; and I'm with Thom Yorke on this one:
'The music industry is dead!'

Long live music!

Hawkwind - Roadhawks (1975)

Hurry on Sundown
Paranoia
You Shouldn't Do That (Live)
Silver Machine (Live)
Urban Guerilla
Space is Deep
Wind of Change
The Golden Void

Decent vinyl rip @320kbs
Go outta space here

Another classic out of print Hakwind album on the way.
Watch this SPACE

Windy Pops

Recorded by the BBC back in 1972 for their radio show In Concert, this brief Hawkwind set is a real blinder, catching the band at their peak and experimental best.

Featuring the classic early Seventies line up, including both Del Dettmar and Dik Mik generating sonic oscillations and brain warping electronic atmospherics, this set effortlessly moves from one track to another via some far out space poetry.
'Earth Calling', 'Welcome to the Future' and the opening riff on Moorcock's words from his sci-fi horror classic The Black Corridor all make for a nerve tingling listen.

This set also includes what has to be my favourite version of 'Silver Machine'; Lemmy spits the words; just making me want to get in my car and drive; just drive; drive away into the night.
You know what I mean?

Hawkwind - Live at the Paris Theatre, 1972.
Ripped from digital broadcast @320kbs

I decided not to edit this as it works so well as a single piece.
Includes:
Black Corridor
7 By 7
Earth Calling
Silver Machine
Welcome to the Future

Space out here

Sonic Nights

This Hawkwind 12" is really an homage to themselves and an ode to their relationship with the Stonehenge Free Festival; a festival that was certainly at its biggest when this was released in 1984.
It was essentially the last of the Stonehenge June festivals as the following year ended in what has now become infamous history.

The title track is joyful, celebratory; even Lemmy lends voice to the football-chant-style chorus.

Brock does his typical piston-like lower arm oriented riff while Huw Lloyd-Langton's floaty lead guitar notes dance gracefully over the top.

'Green Finned Demon' is a strange beast.
Penned by Brock and Bob Calvert, it's a kind of 50's B movie, of the monster variety, in sound.
You'll get what I mean when you hear it.

'Dream Dancers' reveals Dr. Technical's love of electonica and avant-garde experimentation; segueing nicely into Huw Lloyd-Langton's 'Dragons & Fables', sounding very much like a typical Lloyd-Langton Band number rather than a full blown Hawkwind take.

So a bit of a mini-Ummagumma really; the big joint effort juxtaposed with some individual pieces.
As a whole it makes for a good listen.
It was a good period for Hawkwind. The Mother Ship had returned to a positive course; and I believe inspired many a band from around this period to journey off on their own voyages of cosmic exploration.

Hawkwind - Night of the Hawks (1984)

Night of the Hawks
Green Finned Demon
Dream Dancers
Dragons & Fables

This e.p. was dedicated to Barney Bubbles, leaving Planet Earth in 1983.

Excellent vinyl rip @320kbs
Nocturnal raptors here

Spaced Out Friends & Relations

The Friends and Relations series put out by Flicknife Records in the early eighties were eventually clipped down to one album: The Best of Hawkwind, Friends and Relations, put out on CD by Cherry Red Records.

Unfortunately, probably due to lack of space and time, I felt they omitted some of the best tracks; and a couple of those tracks appear on this 1982 release: the first in the series.

Side one of the vinyl release is made up of the typical repackaging that Dave Brock came to specialise in.
Familiar tracks, but new versions; and these three tracks are all live recordings, with the version of 'Robot' sung by Bob Calvert, from the excellent PXR5 album, being the outstanding track.
A real blinder, reflecting Hawkwind’s most creative period and without doubt the band’s best sound; both live and in the studio (Astounding Sounds & Quark, Strangeness and Charm also came out of this time), proving that they were one of the most vital and greatest creative forces of that decade.

I remember hearing Gibby Haynes once in interview saying that the Butthole Surfers really wanted to be ‘the new Hawkwind’; but then so did Gaye Bykers on Acid.

The second side is really what makes this release worth listening to.
Made-up of various recordings from Hawkwind related projects; an eclectic group of tunes are brought together, reflecting the diversity of influences that made Hawkwind such an interesting band.

The standout track from this group is definitely the Michael Moorcock, Pete Pavli penned tune: ‘Good Girl, Bad Girl’, performed by Moorcock’s Deep Fix. A band that existed in reality enough to produce one album (New World’s Fair); but existed more substantially in Moorcock’s fiction, fronted by the sci-fi hero Jerry Cornelius.

‘Good Girl, Bad Girl’ has a reserved dirge-like guitar-led tune that accompanies Moorcock’s strained and vulnerable almost falsetto vocal delivery, making for a curious but highly listenable to song.

This may be the only place this track exists, as it was not part of New World’s Fair, and was not included on the Best of album.
A peculiar omission in my opinion.

The other bad omission on the Best of album was Inner City Unit’s ‘Human Beings’. A wonderful percussive piece of musical primitivism that urges you to join in, like the best of football chants: ‘here we are, here we are, here we are, here we are…’
You’ll soon pick it up.

The album ends with another Deep Fix tune, but rather than the expected space-rock, the listener is confronted with a wonderful piece of electronica.

(I remember hearing this back in 82 and being totally freaked by its peculiar pattern and minimal quality; a good few years ahead of its time, I think.)

It’s a tune that seems endless; a loop that is both compelling and ingenious; and the ever so long fade reiterates its infinite desire.
Like space itself, it seems endless, only the lack of volume and plastic brings it to an end; but once heard its existence is assured, as it virally infiltrates and possesses the mind of all beholders.

Prepare to be possessed.

Various Artists - Hawkwind, Friends and Relations (1982)

Who's Gonna Win the War - Hawklords (Live 1978)

Golden Void - Sonic Assassins (Live 1977)

Robot - Hawkwind (Live 1977)

Raj Neesh - Inner City Unit (1982)

Good Girl, Bad Girl - Michael Moorcock's Deep Fix (1982)

Valium Ten - Hawkwind (1977)

Human Beings - Inner City Unit (1982)

Time Centre - Michael Moorcock's Deep Fix (1982)

Quality vinyl rip @320kbs

Blast off into outer space here