HAWKWIND

If you are newbie about Hawkwind... But who can be today about Hawkwind? (excuse the irony) "Master Of The Universe" is not a simple compilation but an attempt to serve you in 40 minutes the definitive Hawkwind album between 1971 and 1974. Can he do it? No... But because it's impossible. Nowadays it is difficult to categorize Hawkwind in a real genre as they have so many elements of Krautrock, Psychedelia and Proto Punk as well as Hard Rock all expertly mixed to create an original and not easily classifiable music. In short, for Great Britain, a unique band. Being a compilation (first released in 1977) "Master Of The Universe" is only good for a Hawkwind newbie or to be inserted into the CD player in a car.

Having said that I immediately note that the last track is "Lost Johnny", the one that Motorhead will rework on their first album (i.e. "On Parole") and in the first official album ("Motorhead"). for the rest they are classic Hawkwind compositions, minimalist in arrangements and hypnotic to the core. In a certain sense there is no band closer to Krautrock in Great Britain than Hawkwind. Hawkwind are a transversal band because they manage to please a really wide audience and not just a specific group and I like them for this very reason.

A compilation like "Master Of The Universe" can only deserve to be rediscovered (or discovered) if you love minimalist music and without too many frills. But it is not a masterpiece. Like all compilations it is not. It is just a way to discover an immense band. So do not put your money if you have everything of Hawkwind. And, honestly, let's face it: Long live Hawkwind.

This is one of the best Hawkwind albums, thanks to the gigantic You Shouldn't do That, a song that is difficult to describe due to the spacey Synthesizer Explorations, touches or jazz rock (with lots of sax improvisation) and some cacophonic repetitive sounds that create a very psychedelic effect. Not only that, the song lasts more than fifteen minutes, which was not so common in 71. Definitely, a true statement of the anarchic art of these fellows.

Besides that, the album features different things, with Master of the Universe being the closest to what would be known as the trademark Hawkwind sound, while You Know You're Only Dreaming and We Took the Wrong Step Years Ago are very spacey, but gentler and even a bit folkier, giving a nice flavor for the album, with it's different moods. It is like they were doing calm and contemplative counterpoints to the intense and denser songs of the album.

The band would still need some years to evolve to the more recognizable and polished sound of their mid and late seventies album that became their trademark sound. But X in Search of Space is a raw diamond that makes it one of the most interesting prog albums of 1971.

The general formula of the first three albums of British space rockers HAWKWIND was to deliver a pummeling series of guitar riffing with a bass and drumming intensity to match accompanied by slinking swirlies of synthesizers that offered a psychedelic whirlwind affects over a well established rhythm section. After three studio albums and a phenomenal live offering, HAWKWIND experienced a major shakeup in its lineup with the loss of Robert Calvert who stocked the band with an ample supply of creative poetic prose and lyrical brilliance including his spoken word interpolations. If that wasn't bad enough, long time synthesizer wizard and production pioneer Del Dettmar also jumped ship thus leaving HAWKWIND in a most awkward position - either reinvent itself or perish.

Well up to the challenges of the world of change, HAWKWIND emerged all the better for it with its fourth album HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN GRILL which took its inspiration for the title from the 1875 Edvard Grieg score titled "In The Hall Of The Mountain King." The new lineup featured Simon House who was a classically trained violinist and keyboard player and had played with both High Tide and the Third Ear Band. The new lineup meant a new chapter and the band expanded its musical repertoire with gusto. The album showcased a considerable expansion not only compositionally but sonically and creatively with the use of new instrumentation and a focus on more diverse tracks that allowed hitherto suppressed elements that were insinuated but never really fully explored to find a new lease on life and became a major aspect of the the new HAWKWIND sound.

Starting off with the exceptionally strong track "The Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear in Smoke)" the HAWKWIND stylistic approach became much more song oriented with extremely catchy melodies and a less bombastic backing of the guitar, bass and drums. The music exhibited a more balanced feel between the uptempo rock aspects and a symphonic keyboard backing that also found moments of jazzy saxophone squawking, flute runs and oboe. While the general HAWKWIND rhythm section had stayed pretty much in tact, the sophistication of the composition was allowed to step things up a few notches with lead vocalist Dave Brock offering a more diverse vocal style and lyrically speaking the band did not suffer one iota from the loss of Robert Calvert's departure. Taking things in a totally new direction began with the second track "Wind Of Change" which shifted the focus on an ambient instrumental space rock section before breaking back into the more rock oriented "D-Rider."

The beauty of the album is how it alternates between the heavier rockers and the softer pieces such as the piano-based "Web Weaver" which tames the guitars into the backing piece of unpredictable psychedelia while a piano roll provides the main melody and the band engages in some beautiful vocal harmonies followed by some bluesy guitar soloing and all accompanied by the same synth swirls that the band had become synonymous with. While the band engaged in a total remake of its sound, tracks like the heavy hitter "You'd Better Believe It" kept the past firmly placed in the present with an emphasis on the Lemmy fueled guitar riffs and bass and drum action however this time around it also featured Simon House's exquisite violin playing emphasized rather than the spacey synths of previous releases. The title track tames it all down again with a short orchestrated classical piano piece before unleashing the boogie rock guitar riff heavy "Lost Johnny" courtesy of Lemmy who would later cover in Motorhead.

The album perfectly ends with the strange short ambient meets flute track "Goat Willow" followed by the extremely addictive rocker "Paradox" with its perfect chord progressions, bass groove and contrapuntal synthesizer parts. The vocals are also of classic HAWKWIND mode and provides the most satisfying conclusion to what many consider one of HAWKWIND's highlights of its career. HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN GRILL has always been a love at first listen sorta album but after time it really sinks and showcases how the band stepped everything up in the absolutely perfect way by keeping the album well balanced, by offering totally new aspects to the band's sound without jettisoning everything that came before. In the time of great change HAWKWIND displayed on their fourth album a phenomenal step up in maturity in terms of songwriting, compositional arrangement and instrumental interplay. This is perhaps my favorite of all their albums but the entire early 70s stock is so beautiful it's hard to pick on any given day. Any way you slice it this is a HAWKWIND masterpiece.

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.

This is another compilation of tracks from the 2007 Live at the London Astoria concert that appears on Knights OF Space, Knights IN Space, and Live at the London Astoria on the streaming services. It is not found on the Cherry Red website, and a search shows it is on the Black Barn Music label. It can be downloaded from an obscure website, so I assume it is a bootleg, although the sound quality is pretty good. How should this album be rated? The performance and sound is the same as on the other authorized releases, and ordinarily as a Hawkwind fan I would rate it 4 stars. I see that two others gave it one star and another two stars, But due to its questionable provenance, I would recommend avoiding it in favor of Knights in Space, so one star from me.

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.

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.

As the title implies, this is a compilation of the albums - live and studio - which Hawkwind put out in the small Emergency Broadcast label in the mid-1990s. This is not one of Hawkwind's more widely-celebrated eras, and the two studio albums here - Alien 4 and Distant Horizons - perhaps illustrate why; Alien 4 is the somewhat stronger one of the two, but both feel unfocused, and not in the sense of a pleasant space rock gaze but in the sense of not quite coming together to the extent they could.

So what's with the favourable rating? Well, it turns out that those two albums tell only half the story. The rest comes in the form of two live releases - The Business Trip from the tour for It Is the Business of the Future To Be Dangerous and Love In Space from the Alien 4 tour. Hawkwind live albums aren't exactly thin on the ground, but those two are especially good, taking the material from their respective albums (plus more besides) and really showcasing them well.

In fact, I would say these two live albums, which showcase Hawkwind as a sort of space rock/new age mashup trio, perhaps represent the best place to start when exploring this box, since they do a far better job of bringing the listener around to what the band were doing sonically speaking at this point in time than the studio albums do. Consider this a modestly-priced way of getting two absolute classic five star live albums, and treat the studio albums as interesting bonuses, and you will perhaps get the best out of this.

As I look through the ratings on this album, the follow up to the fantastic 5 Star "Hall Of The Mountain Grill", I am glad to see that there are more 5 Star ratings on this than anything else which is rare and should be. A 5 belongs to only the albums that are truly good throughout. Out of the 54 albums I have done reviews on only 5 are one is have pegged as 5 star. Only albums that are rock solid in all areas get that ranking and this one is one of them. I have never given a 5 Star rating on more than one album by a group and this will be number 2 for Hawkwind.

I my opinion, the best of the band is contained in this and the above mentioned "Hall" and they are back to back in the chronology. On "Hall" they added a few new players and instruments and they were a huge addition to their sound in a very good way. The bands other albums I can find a few songs or a handful I may think are good but this one is great throughout. They reach their spatial peak if you will.

"Assault & Battery" starts off the album with the soaring mellotron and a flute compliments the sound well. "The Golden Void" is an extension of the first track as they flow well together. Other than King Crimson I really am not that fond of horns on a prog band but they are definitely part of the band's sound and they work well. "The Wizard?" brings back the poetry which I can take or leave but it works well as it flows into the instrumental "Opa Loka" which is pure Hawkwind. It then flows into one of my all time favorite Hawk songs "The Demented Man." What is weird is I have no idea why I like this song so much. It has an acoustic guitar and voice but the sonic synth atmosphere is where I am mesmerized by it. It sounds emotionally tragic. The song just reaches into me and pulls me into its emotional pit.

The next few songs are good including another poetry rendition. The next song that really amps it up is "Spiral Galaxy 28948" and the sonic soaring synths and drumming are really good in this one as another great instrumental. It rolls into "Warriors" another poetry journey. Again I am not all that fond of the poetry segments but they are part of who the band are and they do them well. "Sonic Attack" is of course their signature poetry session and it is great! "Dying Seas" oddly sounds a lot lie a pop tune from the early 60's to start with but then it comes into its own instrumentally. The band is the best jamming band I have ever heard. "Kings Of Speed" is an all out rocker without anything spacey about it. "Motorhead" ends the album and it is a lot like a 1950's rocker including the fact that it is basically a song done in mono with very little stereo. The end gets a bit spacey.

In all, this album spells out who Hawkwind are. A big High 5 Star.

Hawkwind??. Now here is a band that changed hands more than the players changed their shorts. It was a revolving door and there were only a few players that stayed common, especially Dave Brock. I first started listening to this band in the late 70's when I graduated from high school back in my Haze Dayz, ifyouknowhatimean. I heard parts of the first 3 albums and they had their moments of greatness. Hawkwind is like early Floyd on steroids. Space, the final frontier is their place of residence. This band is meant to be heard on a good stereo or back then quad system while you are just sitting and hanging out in your mental 'nothing box' (that's when you really are not thinking about anything at all; guys know this better than women!).

When I heard this album, it defined who the band is at their best. It is my all time favorite by the band and the next album, "Warrior On The Edge Of Time" is number 2. On this album, there is not a weak track at all. From start to finish it is a wonderful journey into prog fantasy. "Psychedelic Warlords" is a great start with a fast beat. This band knows how to use a mellotron to its fullest and on this record it soars. "Winds Of Change" is a great little instrumental almost like a ballad with an organ, mellotron and violin. It conjures up emotions which is the essence of prog and is what lured me to this genre as my favorite type of music. The entire record is an emotional journey. "D Rider" is a space fest with the pulsing synths. I love the first half of "Web Weavers" as it surrounds you when you drop on a pair of good headphones.

"You'd better Believe It" is pure space music when it starts with the violin. I had never heard anyone do that with that instrument before. I remember sitting in my car a bit zoned out on top of a view of downtown Spokane Washington at night and listened to that intro over and over. That being said, a true measure of good prog music is that you do not need to have mind altering substances to truly enjoy it and since I have not been there in that zone since I was in my early 20's and I love this record to this day I would have to say it stands the test of time and substance! The title track has nothing to do with grills or halls but it is a good little instrumental track and would be the only spot on the album that is less than thrilling. "Lost Johnny" is a good tune that prods along; it is in ways a change of scenery on the album. "Goat Willow" like the title track is just a little instrumental jam. The finale "Paradox" is a great song with the vocals far off in the left and right channels and not in the center and the mellotron is in its usual place and strong. It turns into an emotional soaring instrumental and in the end it quiets down and makes a gentle exit.

If you are new to Hawkwind, this is the best place to start but be warned: If you start here, everything else will be second best with this band. IMHO. It does not have any of the poetry reading but I was never much for that anyway.... Except in the case of "Sonic Attack." I give it a RARE full high 5.