DOREMI FASOL LATIDO

Doremi Fasol Latido is the third album from psychadelic space rockers Hawkwind. Released in 1972 Doremi Fasol Latido featured a new rythm section in Simom King on drums and Lemmy Kilmister ( later of Motörhead fame) on bass. Compared to the previous album In Search of Space this meant that Hawkwind would have a considerably more heavy sound.

The music can be described as pretty guitar, bass and drum heavy while lots of spacy effects are created by keyboards, electronics, flute and sax. Sometimes the songs almost drown in spacy effects, but it´s the Hawkwind trademark and I guess it´s an aquired taste if you like this or not. There are some really great songs here like the opener Brainstorm which is an 11:33 minute long song with lots of psychadelic jamming which is something that can also be said about Time We Left This World Today ( listen to the bass from Lemmy on this track, just great IMO). Songs like Space is Deep, Down Through this Night and the Watcher are more acoustic based but of course also feature strange effects.

The four bonus tracks on my edition, which is the 1996 CD release, are very good and definitely adds to album. I´ll especially mention Brainbox Pollution where you can clearly hear Lemmy´s hoarse background vocals.

The musicianship is good and tight which is a real pleasure for me. David Brock is of course in top form here and it´s a real treat to listen to his vocal delivery at times. He isn´t the worlds best singer technically but he has personality and that´s more important IMO. He has lots of attitude and sometimes I wonder if some of the punk groups from the end of the seventies listened here for inspiration ?

The production is a bit more muddy than it was on the two first albums which kind of put me off on initial listen but after a couple of listens I´ve come to the conclusion that I really like this more dirty sound better.

The cover is nice, allthough nothing special.

The album is varied and has both long jams, rock songs and more subtle songs which means that this is a great album. The inclusion of Lemmy on bass makes a lot of difference for me as his distorted bass attack really enhances many of the songs and makes the music more heavy. This is a 4 star album for me and a really great addition to my collection. Hawkwind isn´t a band I have listened to before I began reviewing here on Prog Archives and I must say that I have been pleasantly surprised by their first three albums and I am looking forward to reviewing more of their albums in the future.