IN SEARCH OF HAWKWIND

There have been several Hawkwind tributes during the recent years but there just can't be too many. As long as the quality is as high as on this CD, that is. The psychedelic warlords of space rock have fore sure earned this homage as well and this time they're being covered by some of the hottest bands in lysergic, mind-expanding and heavy rock. This project was initiated five years ago already, when English Mugstar (several of their releases have been praised iat Psychotropic Zone before) came up with the idea of doing a tribute to one of their favorite groups. Originally the plan was to release one split single, possibly two or something else quite small-scale. The spaceship soon took off and several other space cadets stepped in. Finally, the now defunct Trensmat Records from Ireland released the Sonic Attack Trilogy series on three 7" singles a couple of years ago. Those involved were Mudhoney ("Urban Gorilla") and Mugstar ("Born to Go"), White Hills ("Be Yourself") and Acid Mothers Temple ("Brainstorm") as well as Bardo Pond ("Lord of Light") and Kinski ("Master of the Universe"). These limited editions that came in great picture covers were sold out very fast and are naturally now Holy Grails for collectors. This CD includes all those tracks and some of them are much longer, unedited versions! Also included for the first time is Mugstar's version of "Paradox" (absolutely one of the highlights), "Space Is Deep" by Magoo and Moon Duo's version of the first Hawkwind single "Hurry on Sundown". Excellent!

Kinski delivers a motorik, kraut rock styled "Master of the Universe" with plenty of space effects. The vocals are suitably manipulated as well, and the guitars as heavy as needed. Great! Mugstar's "Born to Go" is fierce and tight pounding that makes your head spin and works perfectly creating a hypnotic, almost psychotic state. After this a little chill-out with "Space Is Deep" including female vocals is really a good idea? Magoo starts to rock pretty hard towards the end, though. The US hallucinatory masters Bardo Pond start their contribution with a long, abstract space freak-out and then "Lord of Light" has been performed in a pretty different, heavy way and at first has a slow beat. Pretty psychoactive doom? One of my favorites. Recorded already in 2002 for a John Peel radio session, "Urban Gorilla" is treated by Mudhoney and works very well as an even more punky version of the original. AMT does a very characteristic, brain-frying freak- out version of "Brainstorm". Moon Duo is formed by Ripley Johnson (Wooden Shjips) and Sanae Yamada, and their "Hurry on Sundown" is a very different, minimal and Suicide styled version. One of my favorite bands of recent times is White Hills and they can get "Be Yourself" charged with brand new power with the heavy, raw guitars and their energetic jamming. Amazing! The absolute highlight still might be the final track "Paradox" where Mugstar has been able to both maintain the original, majestic and melancholic but heavily rocking atmosphere and add the psychedelic properties of the piece by extending the hypnotic, repetitive parts so that my head is about to pop while listening to this. A totally awesome ending! This CD is of course a must-have for all the Hawkwind fans and anyone into heavy, spacey, punky and trance-inducing psych rock.