X IN SEARCH OF SPACE

Featuring Amon Duul II's Dave Anderson's powerful riffs on bass (before the legendary Lemmy of Motorhead fame took up the position), the second Hawkwind album is a clear and impressive step up from the band's debut. The band attains its spacey atmospheres not through quiet keyboard noodling but through loud, hypnotic, pulsing bass and drum patterns which form a framework from which guitar, keyboard, sax and flute solos emerge and fade back into, with the singing on offer here being more like a tripped-out chant at points (the opening You Shouldn't Do That being a case in point). The overall impression is of a cross between the more repetitive, drone-like elements of Krautrock and the more riotous psychedelic-era Pink Floyd material, resulting in a fusion that sounds light years away from either.

The first truly top-flight Hawkwind album might be overshadowed by the albums following it, but it's still more than good enough to recommend to anyone wanting to explore the band's work. Four stars.