CHURCH OF HAWKWIND

2.5 stars

Strange cover art for a strange title. Initially released as a Dave Brock solo album, "Church of Hawkwind" is now considered as part of HAWKWIND's discography - like "25 Years On" - as it features most band members from the band's previous opus, "Sonic Attack". Nonetheless, this disc is not on the same level as the 1978 effort.

This particular opus mainly consists in electronic experimentations of the band's leader, showing his growing interest for the then nascent electronic music technologies of the eighties. The whole record is therefore dominated by short transitional synthesizer-driven pieces. There are only a few space rock songs here.

"Angel Voices" is just an electronic introduction, with alien voices, for "Nuclear Drive", which resembles some eighties version of a lost track from NEU!, with vocals. Average. The enjoyable "Star Cannibal" also has krautrock influences and could have well suited the ambiance of HAWKWIND's "PXR5" album. The best space rock song of the disc. The next seven tracks are just ambient / spacey / experimental electronic transitional compositions, more or less interesting.

"The Church" has a slight middle-eastern feel, whereas the TANGERINE DREAM-esque "Joker At The Gate" may be the best passage of the record, with "Experiment With Destiny", an electronic reworked version of "Virgin Of The World" from the previous studio album. The mysterious "The Last Messiah" contains sampled cries by "Madam X". More typical of the Hawks "Looking In The Future" is a space rock tune in the style of "Sonic Attack". Not bad, but not great either.

As a conclusion, the short tracks themselves works well as transitions, background music or drafts, but are not sufficient to create a convincing album. The three space rock songs are not very memorable either. You must take "Church of Hawkwind" for what it is, a play with exciting novel electronic technologies. However, this exercise may have opened new horizons for the band.

One of the two weak HAWKWIND studio albums of the 80's, with "Choose Your Masques".

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