X IN SEARCH OF SPACE

Did Hawkwind invent spacerock, or merely become the best purveyors of the genre?

One of their best offerings (serve with a little Space Ritual, and you are flying 'maaaan') comes in the shape of In Search of Space. A cunning mix of Acoustic and Electric numbers churned out in a suitably spacey style, by some suitably spacey looking guys.

The Presentation of this album is flawless. The booklet is a work of art in its own right, lacking anything vaugly coherent or possessing of clarity. Strange images (baby in the womb, Planet earth, random cosmic/religious symbols, line drawings of vast temples, minor nudity, stone henge, someone growing giant hogweed in their back garden, all the usual suspects really) seem to adorn every page, whilst the rest of the page is taken up with some rambling space monologue... All in wacked-out black and white. In the CD release we also get some concert posters, although they are a little home- grown looking, and advertise such venues as "Dreamland Ballroom, Margate" and "Carnon Downs, Truro". This is evidence that hawkwind hadn't shook off their Cult status, and were still touring the backwaters of Britain. Probably in a transit van with planets painted on it. Infact they probably are still playing in this fashion. Look out for them at the Dog's Dick pub in Slough.

The booklet also shows us the band itself. What a motley bunch! There is no lack of scalp grease here, although I presume they were all too stoned to really care.

Crazy.

Now onto the music. Hawkwind lead us gently down the garden path with their opener "You Shouldn't Do that". Where this track starts and their debut album's "Seeing it as you really are" is a mystery to me. Probably to the band as well. Still, two chords and 15 minutes aint a bad starter. The band show rudimentary useage of "dynamics", and Turner gets his fair share of wah-wahed Saxophone, which sounds like somebody cleaning a window with a squeeky cloth.

Not to Worry.

If you survived that sonic onslaught, not only is the rest of the labum managable, but the rest of Hawkwind's early career is also.

Next up is the more-easy-to-digest "You Know You're Only Dreaming". Here an automatically double-tracked vocalist (Turner or Brock?) Sings the words, made slightly jarring by the ADT effect. This gives way to a truley wonderful in-the-studio jam for which Hawkwind were famous. This jam features lots of open space, with instruments hanging off the drum beats in the limpest style, but never unmusically. This makes for a nice easy listen, and makes the track RELISTENABLE (and hey, the Hawksters have given us whole albums that are completely un-relistenable!)

Ok, enough sillyness, back to the heavy grungy smash-your-head-off-something- convenient driving rock that Hawkwind made their name for. Its the daddy... "Master of the Universe". Wonderfully strange, this track features Turner's voice treated with reverse-reverb, a cunning studio trick which doesn't sound out-of-place on this track. Of course the lyrics are peppered with space references, and I'm sure I (a cosmically/pharmaceutically un-hightened listener) am missing out on half this track! Stil its good, although Space Ritual's live offering is even more amphetamin-rush fast!

This is followed by "We took the Wrong step Years ago", a lovely acoustic number, which features the obligatory jam, and some wah-wahed flute this time (imagine a songbird being drowned in a canal... just for future reference). The Acoustic guitars add a stark new dimension to the album's tracks, sort of like finding a steam engine on the moon. This is a track you could possibly get away with playing to your girlfriend without fear of her walking out on you (although the name may give the wrong impression... y'know).

This is followed by the slightly lacking "Adjust me". Quite where this track came from or when has lost me, although it does feature another Jam! This time its Dave Brocks turn to whip out the wah pedal. Dave Brock is a unique guitarist. He had two different things he did. Firstly was to play a pentotonic scale with a wah pedal ontop. That was EVERY solo he ever played. hen when he got bored of that he switched on an echo machine and plunked the tiny guitar strings on the bridge of his custom guitar (which probably had lasers, boosters, jetpacks and an LSD dispenser). This tracks ends with an abrupt crescendo. Somebody in the recording studio control room must have had enough. Oh well...

Last but not least "Children of the Sun". More reverse-reverb vocals, and a stunningly effective Burmese Dinner Gong helps this track deliver the goods, although it clearly is just another one of those jams at heart. Some nice wah-wahed flute helps add to the proceedings enough that Black Sabbath promptly stole the sound and put it on their own "Planet Caravan", their own spacey offering. Although it has to be noted this track never breaks off into total tye-dye freak mode, which is part of its charm, and fades out earlier than expected too!

Being the freely communal bunch that Hawkwind are (obviously didn't have one rasor between them, but hey), there are som lovely bonus tracks.

First up is "Seven By Seven" The B-side to Silver Machine. A nice presentation, although the Space Ritual version flattens this one in its tracks. Some very emotive vocals help it along, and Brock delivers a solo which deviates from his normal standards considerably! Watch out for the non-pentotonic scales, they bite! Also note Lemmy on Bass. Very discernable as he played the thing like a guitar, strumming and picking out his own unique melodys the whole time (most notable during the spoken middle section).

Then its "Silver Machine". Everybody knows this track, its on 98% of all "best of the 1970s rock" compilations. Not much more I can say about it. The guts of it were recorded live, tarted up in the studio, then released on a single for the hell of it, then shot to number... errr... 6? in the UK, although it probably went straight to number 1 for 12 years in Belgium... oh well... Nice track.

Finally its "Born to Go". Similar to the bonus version on Space Ritual... because its the same version with an eq tweek and the vocal echoes removed. Nice to hear it, although its quoted as being a "Single version", no such single was released, although I could be wrong (lets ask the Belgians). This tack finished the labum on a nice groove.

And thus a masterpiece was born.

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