THE EMERGENCY BROADCAST YEARS: 1994-1997

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.