Customer Reviews

Hawkwind

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Only reason I'm giving this CD reissue a five star-rating instead of a four-star one,is BECAUSE of the superbly done remastered pressing of this title,Hawkwind's debut 1970 lp.Every cut here is total awesome sounding!From the trippy opener "Hurry On Sundown" to the rocker "Be Yourself","Mirror Of Illusion",the pre-Hawkwind blues cover "Bring It On Home" and their Pink Floyd cover of "Cymbaline".Now THAT'S class!You get the lp's seven original tracks remastered,plus four(4)bonus cuts.Do keep in mind this record was produced by Pretty Things guitarist Dick Taylor,plus it's got some chart HW members that are rarely heard from anymore,like Dik Mik on electronics and Terry Ollis on drums.I've always thought as Hawkwind as being 'sort of' Floyd's rival.Listen for yourself and YOU tell me.First rate psychedelia,space rock or head music.Pick up a copy and you decide.Most highly recommended.

(Techincally, three and a half stars, but they don't allow you to offer halvesies here. No matter.)

If you can imagine the early Pink Floyd ("The Piper at the Gates of Dawn," "A Saucerful of Secrets," "More") as what would eventually become "speed metal" in extraterrestrial wrapping and a peculiar theme of Michael Moorcock (a future contributor, as it happened) meets the Marvel Super Heroes on more than a few controlled substances, that was Hawkwind.

At least, that was Hawkwind as they'd become known beginning an album or two later. This debut set, long enough overdue for a remastering, displays much of what would soon identify the band, particularly its shifting between ethereal acoustic music and transdimensional electronic hard rock, but here it retains the very loose and very random feeling you might expect they'd have shown in their previous days as park buskers known for such performances as setting up and playing free outside the Isle of Wight festival and like appearances. Their future lyric hybrid is yet to be developed fully; here is a band which has found its sound but is trying to decide exactly what it is they really have to say.

Still, it's a charming sounding album with much good music, particularly their three earliest near-signature numbers, the cheerful post-hippie acoustic tapper "Hurry On Sundown," the stark surreal sonic wash of "Paranoia," and the spry jam, "Be Yourself," highlighted by reedman Nik Turner's half-Ayler, half-King Curtis saxophone squonk and guitarist Dave Brock's piercingly melodious break, both over a taut rhythm section and keyboardsman Dik Mik Davies's tastefully understated electronica. (True: erstwhile Pretty Things founder Dick Taylor not only helped produce the set but played some support guitar and bass on it.) This Hawkwind lineup--Brock, Turner, Davies, bassist John Harrison and then Thomas Crimble, second guitarist Huw Lloyd Langton, drummer Terry Ollis--wasn't destined to last: exit Crimble, Langton, and Davies after the album's release; enter ex-Amon Duul bassist Dave Anderson, keyboardsman Del Dettmar, and poet/vocalist Robert Calvert. Ahead lay "In Search of Space." And, Hawkwind's truer future.

Do not do LSD or any mind altering drugs while listening to this CD. Your brain will melt and turn to jelly, but you'll be so much wiser after you listen...Saw them Live at The Academy of Music in NYC in the 70's. Unfortunately that is another music palace that was torn down...bastards!

This is Hawkwind's 1970 debut. This album is truely great and truely spooky.

What it is is very spacey, early-Floyd tinged rock, full of dark nuances, and sound effects.

What it is NOT is the Hawkwind that developed right after this album. The songs here actually seem more composed, recorded carefully as songs and soundscapes. They don't have that driving, monolithic bass pump that Hawk would make their trademark starting on Doremi Fasol Latido.

But this is still terrific freekaziod space rock made by a band who defined the non-commerical end of the genre.

This is not the Hawkwind you know, but it is great Hawkwind.

According to Wikipedia, the bulk of the album originated from a long free form jam called 'sunshine special' which was broken down into individual tracks with spacey synthesized interludes. And this certainly makes sense as the music shares the same vibe throughout the record. But don't let the 'free form jam' tag put you off. The music is not a chaotic drug fueled mess a la Amon Duul, not by a long shot. The music has a solid footing in the psych genre, and the improving fits within that structured sound. It sounds as if the band were playing live in the studio and were locked into a fantastic groove. The addition of flute, sax, and harmonic to the mix is greatly appreciated by this listener. It is one of the best examples of psych space rock around and I enthusiastically recommend it.

The album comes in two flavors. There is the 1992 One Way Records mastering, and the 1996 EMI classics remaster. Most of the ones you'll find for sale come from the 1996 master, and that's a good thing. The '92 version has a fair amount more compression than the '96 version (replay gain of -6 vs -2). The '92 version is substantially brighter and more harsh than the EMI mastering. IMO, the '96 remaster is of audiophile quality, so there is no need to seek out the old version. Also the newer ones come with 4 bonus tracks, although the only bonus track I really liked was the cover of a Pink Floyd song called Cymbaline.

Hawkwind's first album is interesting in that it contains both the bands best AND worst songs.

Now, I try to be positive every chance I can get, especially when it comes to music, because I've been listening to music for many years and my hope is that I've learned to appreciate that many bands take a LOT of time to properly figure out.

So that's why I give Hawkwind's debut album 4 stars, instead of 2 or 3, because a 4 is just more appropriate for a band that would soon become one of hard rocks very best.

Let's talk about the best songs first- "Hurry On Sundown", with some AWESOME harmonica playing and beautifully brilliant vocals... this is truly a spectacular song! "Be Yourself" has some wonderful saxophone jamming that leads into some equally impressive guitar soloing. I love this song a lot. And finally, the CCR-sounding "Mirror of Illusion", with a John Fogerty-like vocal melody that's both melodic and EXTREMELY good.

The bad songs would be the two "Paranoia" tracks. It's NOT a good idea to repeat the same 4 or 5 notes for several minutes. "Seeing It As You Really Are" kind of follows the same idea, with too much of it dominated with repeating notes. However in this case, the song eventually drifts into a really good guitar solo and a little bit of melodic saxophone playing at the end making it a pretty good jam.

I recommend buying the album for the three songs I mentioned above, but the band would become MUCH more consistent starting as soon as the next album.

As a long-time fan of Motoerhead, I was curious to listen to some Hawkwind, the band Lemmy previously was a member of. So I bought this CD more out of historical interest, but I ended up exclusively listening to it (and some other Hawkwind stuff) for the better part of a week.

I've also always liked Monster Magnet, and these guys have clearly been influenced by Hawkwind. Spaced out effects, walls of psychedelic sound, guitars floating in outer space and lyrics detailing the hardships of interstellar travel. What a trippy band! Highly recommended.

Early Hawkwind. Okay if you're of a mind for some classic contemplative Hawkwind dirge-groove but mostly it falls short to my ear. However, the opening track "Hurry on Sundown" is simply one of their best and for me that alone is worth the price of the CD. There's a bonus version of that same song later in the album but it's only so-so.

Once again I have "discovered" a great band many years after the fact. Growing up in the "70"s and "80"s I never heard their name once. When I heard the music recently I was floored. I just ordered my another of their CD's. Their sound was definitely ahead of their time.

I like listening too all hawkwind cds and on older ones the singer on motorhead used too be on this band before he got fired from it an form motorhead.

Anyway I think hawkwind is much better than motorhead anyway.

Motorhead is alright, not some thing I'd listen too all da time but you get the picture.

Psychedelic rock rules over heavy metal!!!!

an hurry on sundown is like the only hawkwind song that sounds a bit country but it still good anyway.

Mirror of illision is the best song I like on the album.