Hawkwind

Also, I believe there was another good double-live '70s album: The Ramones, "It's Alive", released 1979. (When it's the RAMONES with a double-live, you know that's a LOT of songs.)

soon all will feel the power of the Wind.

I don't care if it's the musical equivalent of liking Doctor Who, it is utter and total classic and I now feel compelled to go out and buy every record they've ever made.

They have utterly APALLING lyrics. Really sub-Yes neo-prog-sci-fi silliness "High rise ... suicide MACHINE!!!" type things comparing blocks of flats to "human flypaper" (actually, come to think of it, that song is kind of genius, really...) but MY GOD, the Spacerock. It is spacerock which succeeds on both levels, i.e. it has wonderful chewy textures, but it also RAWKS.

"Space Ritual"
"In Search Of Space"
"Quark Strangeness & Charm"
"Doremi Fasolatido"

I think "Hall of the Mountain Grill" is also meant to be essential. And "Levitation" and "Warriors On The Edge Of Time" are also very likeable.

To get the real Hawkwind experience you should over a number of years acquire a dozen shoddily put together Hawkwind compilations with a few brilliant tracks each and a load of less essential material. "Stasis - the UA Years" has great studio versions of 'Urban Guerrilla' and 'Silver Machine'.

space ritual is thee greatest live album ever, no contest.

There's nothing wrong with liking Dr. Who, either.

There's just been a documentary on Hawkwind on BBC4.

I started watching five minutes in, not knowing what it was and thought it was a spoof. 'He left to join Leo Sayers backing band...', Matthew Wright on the Stonehenge Free festival 1984, Sam Fox at the 2000 re-union. Michael Moorcock in a panama hat. scores of Ridiculous ex-band members.

Extraordinary stuff. There's a whole alternate history of hedonsitic, fucked up, drugged up, unpleasant, britain in there.

It's a great documentary even if His Brockness doesn't appear. The footage of them playing outside Isle Of Wight was hysterical. Lots more in this thread Why Is Hawkwind The Greatest Band Ever?

http://www.blaskan.nu/Bilder/moorcock_butterworth_the_time_of_the_hawklords.jpg

I finally just found a copy of this - looks like a lot of fun

Does anyone know if the 2001 reissues improve on the somewhat muddy sound of In Search of Space and Doremi?

I only have one, the S/T, that no one ever seems to mention. and - I actually really like most of it! Plus it's the king of the Great Album/Horrible Cover category:

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/6568/hw01__st.jpg

far out man

there are TITS in SPACE

the s/t one is pretty good, it's just not propulsive, into-outer-space type shit. plus the 2001 reissue has hawkwind zoo tracks.

also, the 2001 reissues all sound better compared to earlier cd reissues, not sure about how they'd be compared to vinyl. good enough for me.

First one is still my fave.

slightly old news but Trensmat Records has released a trilogy of 3 Hawkwind tribute 7"s called Sonic Attacks...

TR013
Mudhoney - Urban Guerilla
Mugstar - Born to Go

TR014
Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno - Brainstorm
White Hills - Be Yourself

TR015
Kinski - Masters of the Universe
Bardo Pond - Lords of Light

This blog apparently has mp3 samples of all of the above..

http://lazybirdie.blogspot.com/2008/09/new-trensmat-singles-hawkwind-covers-by.html

just got these today. really good.

AMT version of "Brainstorm" sounds like it would be amazing. Can't even imagine Mudhoney doing "Urban Guerilla" for some reason.

dang. are these still available to actually buy anywhere?

i got them from piccadilly records.

mudhoney version of "urban guerilla" is kind of old, isn't it? i have an mp3 of it from a while back, i think it was on a comp.

is "warrior at the edge of time" the only one of their 1970s albums not to get the remastered & bonus tracks treatment? what's up with that?

IIRC there's some copyright difficulty with it, or some problems with who owns the master tapes, I forget the specific details (he said, helpfully)

the CD I have (DOJO label) appears to be a somewhat different mix to the vinyl - I have a cassette tape I made off of my old 12", and the guitars on "assault & battery" seem much louder in the mix. Can anyone confirm/deny this?

^^^^^^^^ I think this is my favourite album of theirs. It's certainly the one I still listen to the most.

Lives of great men all remind us
We may make our lives sublime
And departing leave behind us
Footprints in the sands of time

the snow snake hissed
and the world turned round
yhe snow snake grinned
in his fine cold sin

...AND THE WIZARD. BLEW. HIS HORN.

AND WE'RE TIRED OF MAKING LOVE

we are the warriors at the edge of time, and we are tired of making lunch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF2ODWluPlY

ha ha! that's amazing.

Yeah, I saw that. And apparently the band's current bassist has confirmed the Sunderland show will be in there.

This is great, I listen to Space Ritual and the surrounding live recordings more than any other Hawkwind records, so to have a bunch of these gigs in full would be excellent.

More info - https://www.loudersound.com/news/hawkwind-detail-mammoth-eleven-disc-space-ritual-box-set

frogbs, has the Hawkwind tribute band had any more performances?

Thought this might be bumped for the pretty solid new album. Thighpaulsandra clearly a good addition to the lineup. Not a patch on prime era, obvs, but some solid space rock and well exceeded my expectations.

Not yet!!! But they’re playing again next week I think. So I’ll be there :)

Inspired by this thread, I've been listening to Hawkwind all afternoon and now am in an altered state of consciousness. I await the arrival of the Universal Hero.

First day of forever has been a disappointment here at my house but maybe tomorrow

From the SCIENCE70 archive: Barney Bubbles, personal stationary of Stacia, dancer for the band Hawkwind, 1973. #graphicdesign #1970s pic.twitter.com/s3wUzZdGY5

— SCIENCE70 (@SCIENCE70blog) June 16, 2023

so awesome.

i now want to see if he made other art with aubrey beardsley elements but my barney bubbles book is in a box

(apologies for the alliteration but what choice had i)

gorman describes it as "unique" on his website (but that might mean the concept rather than the design lineage)

The Future Never Waits is pretty solid! Obviously not a patch on any earlier career peaks, but this is better than I expected and probably my favorite since Onward.

FTR, I have been unexpectedly flush since starting a new job, so I pre-ordered the giant Space Ritual box.

I've been mighty tempted, but not sure I can justify it at the moment...

I ordered it straight from the label and thus overpaid (though they did offer tracked shipping), but there are some discounts available here and there.

I ordered it straight from the label and thus overpaid

lol

On such a big Hawkwind kick lately and really eyeing that Space Ritual box but having trouble justifying the cost. I hadn't realized until today that the Space Ritual album itself is included twice, with different mixes, so kind of only an 8 disc box.

Listening to it now — the full concerts are great (the actual album was pulled from the Brixton and Liverpool shows, but the Sunderland show is entirely previously unreleased) and I'm definitely interested to hear the new mix of the album, on which a couple of songs have been extended and a version of "You Shouldn't Do That" has been added.

The live shows are really clear and loud, which is a problem the original album always had — no matter how loud you turned it up the mix always felt underpowered somehow. Also, the whole thing reminds me that Lemmy really belongs on any list of rock's greatest bassists. He was the engine in the Hawkwind rocket, but so much more than that, almost a lead player half the time and really shaping the music in a way I can only compare to John Entwistle.

Ended up relenting and picking up the Space Ritual box. Only got delivered late last night so I haven't had a chance to dive in yet, but it looks gorgeous.

The new mix of the album is amazing.

i think the biggest revelation for me is that I had always heard that Dave Brock had done a massive amount of overdubbing on the live tapes but that patently isn't the case from listening to the Sunderland gig. Also notable how well rehearsed they were as the Sunderland gig doesn't massively deviate from the Space Ritual set we know and love (there's a bit less of a freak out jam on Orgone Accumulator). looking forward to delving in deeper. The booklet rules too.

in related activity i'm off to see Hawklords tonight.

"Also, the whole thing reminds me that Lemmy really belongs on any list of rock's greatest bassists. He was the engine in the Hawkwind rocket, but so much more than that, almost a lead player half the time and really shaping the music in a way I can only compare to John Entwistle."

I'm reading Joel McIver's Motorhead book and there is a line by Lemmy in there talking about Hawkwind that really at the core it was a trio, as really him, Dave Brock and Simon King locked in then rest of the group just did whatever they wanted on top.

Lemmy can obviously play "lead bass" when it suits him but he usually wanders a lot less than Entwistle. He doesn't mind hammering the same riff over and over.

Should be past tense, he's neither wandering nor hammering these days.

you dont know that

happily hammering in hell

you dont know that

If he was, you could still hear him

i am looking at the 5.1 blue ray and contemplating resuscitating the blue ray player on my never used "entertainment center" which is nice enough and all, but...

anyone listened to it? then i think of how much i appeciate the remain in light 5.1 downmix i got somewhere. should i try downmixing on like vlc? but i've always heard downmixing is a miserable and failprone marathon. anyone know?

i been listening to this box over time and slowly, finally got the disc9/10 stereo remix. whoa.

picked up the space ritual 50th anniversary vinyl. so good

If its 10cds, not sure how much vinyl that is. So sounds pretty heavy.

is the vinyl not just the original 2 x lp?

There's a new 50th anniversary stereo remaster in the big box. Maybe that's been released on vinyl. (It's really good.)

But did they recreate all this?

https://i.discogs.com/52nvKPjnq0t4fBGYfoKfOa0hrzMf_TDzzbF3rHLKJnU/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:393/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTY0MDQw/Ni0xNTE5MzU4MzM0/LTY0NTQuanBlZw.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/apUnY0L04rfYZs0FyoLx0Xi36wMSQvS0B0XKDqz7qcc/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:393/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTY0MDQw/Ni0xNTI5NDc2Mjgw/LTc4OTUuanBlZw.jpeg

Got the CD box set for Xmas, and yeah they recreate all the artwork and the tour program etc

Ha maybe tonight I play the dvd 5.1, still haven’t yet

Recently, There Is No Space For Us (the song) turned up in my weekly release radar and I was so pleasantly surprised that I checked out the album. Which has led me to check out other recent material. Since reviews are indicating that the last 3 albums might be the best material they've released since the 70s.

Halfway through a free jazz epic called 'They Are So Easily Distracted' and they aren't kidding, are they!

I think they are on a really decent roll right now! I haven't heard the newest one yet, but I liked The Future Never Waits and Stories From Time and Space a lot. Definitely the most I've been interested in their current work in some time.

"They Are So Easily Distracted" is wild. I heard it the other week and posted on Bluesky (and possibly here, I forget) "TIL that there's a 10 1/2 minute instrumental on a Hawkwind album from 2023 that's, like, the exact middle ground between Kamasi Washington and Tangerine Dream."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvTazGa5X8E

i gotta play catch up!

The Future Never Waits was really incredible so today I'm trying Stories From Time and Space.

Obviously, the music is really incredible, which is what makes it so compelling. They've currently got a really fluid rhythm section who seem willing to explore further into jazz and latin inflected rhythms. The Starship (One Love One Life) has just launched into an extended Can-like boogie! Hawkwind have always had a truly awe-inspiring sense of dynamics. They understand that to make the really driving, full-on rave-up spacerock sections powerful, you have to open up those spaces of quiet wonder between them.

But I think what is hitting me at the moment is also the lyrics? Hawkwind lyrics have always been very portentous, heading occasionally into being silly, but delivered with such gravelly gravitas that you enter the willing suspension of disbelief that makes wonder-based sci-fi plausible. But now, given Brock is in, what? His 80s? I think there's a greater depth to his musings on time, age, impermanence, ruins. The early albums were made by young men pretending to be wizard sages. But at this point in his life he's reached the stage of wizard sage, for real.

'Upload your consciousness here, and leave your body at the door marked "incinerator"'

Yeah, the rhythm section is great, I think adding Thighpaulsandra was a good move.

i think adding Thighpaulsadndra was genius! This is so good; I never thought they would be this good again.

He somehow makes so much sense being in Hawkwind that it's hard to believe he's such a recent addition.

Looking at the timeline of their members it seems like they added a new bass player around the same time

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hawkwind_band_members#Timeline

It's crucial that a Hawkwind bassist should be able to do the Lemmy chug-chug-chug motorik thing, but this new fellow seems to bring significant groove with him. Which is very welcome!

While I can't say I have all of Hawkwind's main albums, I have pretty much 98% of the ones I want, just a few gaps here and there, mostly in the '00s.

The one I want most, that is exceedingly difficult to find for decent money (even with the Atomhenge reissues), is 1992's Electric Tepee.

Well this'll keep you busy

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/hawkwind-hall-of-the-mountain-grill-7cd-2blu-ray-limited-edition-box-set

you'd better believe it

Ooooh...new mix of The 1999 Party! Their best live album?

i had never gone into exploring calvert/brock era hawkwind, but i now have been pretty dunked in the expanded _25 years on_ re-release. my brain can only properly really love what it’s doing if i absolutely stop thinking of it as hawkwind, at least for now. it’s kinda genius when i consider it that way.

but like, i have no way to even recommend it to a musician pal who is very into earlier hawkwind. it just turns into “yeah, that’s not what i want from hawkwind” “well i don’t either but… this is really interesting and cool.”

i had prev seen the hawkwind documentary. seeing there what they were doing post lemmy didn’t seem interesting, it seemed like mere antics. listening to 25 years on— it makes more sense. i appreciate this album. and it’s plenty accessible in retrospect, tho i still must segregate it from hawkwind somehow.