PXR 5

Wow. This is Hawkwind? My knowledge of Hawkwind comes from their older more spacy material, so this incarnation seems very strange to me. Not bad, just strange. There is without a doubt a 70's-80's punk/new wave vibe here, especially on the opening track and also "Jack of Shadows", "Infinity", and "p.x.r5". The opener, "Death Trap" could have been taken off a Clash album of the same era. Power chords and nonstop driving sounds! I think my favorite track here is "High Rise" which has a slow buildup of sound and reminds me of a cross between Pink Floyd and early David Bowie (especially the singer, Bob Calvert, who really parallels Bowie from the Diamond Dogs era). The only bad thing I can say about this release is that it seems to have a dated sound and is not really fresh. A testament of it's times, however. Many records from that era seem to not have aged well. However, this is not a bad album, but besides "High Rise" and bits and pieces elsewhere, this is not a proggy album. Only for Hawkwind fans or maybe punk fans looking for something they may never have heard before. 2 stars (really 2 1/2).