Flicknife have been compiling compilations of the many friends and related bands affiliated to Hawkwind past and present since early in the 80’s. Many fans of the band grab these up as readily as releases by Hawkwind themselves and it is not that there is any shortage of these either. These discs do a great job in putting together a discography which keeps people aware of what is going on from the massively expansive fronds of the family tree since Hawkwind released that all important self-titled debut album back in 1970. Naturally there are a huge amount of people and bands that have either stemmed off from the groups long history or have been inspired by it enough to have been embraced and included here as well as playing at events such as The Hawkfest with the band themselves. As a slight aside here, which caused me a bit of confusion, the expansive notes with this disc explain that this collection is centred more around the Hawklords than Hawkwind themselves hence the slight change of title.
As ever this is a mixed bunch of tracks and styles and things start in a quirky fashion with Earthlab led by former Hawkwind guitarist Jerry Richards. This is highly infectious catchy, classic rock and roll number taking right back in time to happy free festival eras as it breezes by with more than a touch of the biker blues about it. It’s a perfect opening track to get you well in the mood basically. Gunslinger Alan Davey’s muse is much heavier but what we have here is a 1st studio session version of 1981 track ‘Fly Into The Night.’ It has a British Tribal rumble about it and is rough around the edges but still an interesting addition and if it tickles your fancy the band have new single ‘Lessons In Logic’ to give a more up to date representation of them along with a forthcoming album. Hawklords themselves are on form with a live trip out of ‘Robot’ from 2008. The line up here should make your mouth water with the likes of Nik Turner, Davey, Bainbrdge, Tree and a host of others paying tribute to the late Robert Calvert. It’s a track that you probably know if you have ever had a good Wind session you will have heard it at some point. Here it flows thankfully not in robotic fashion for over 12 minutes, freefalling around Turner’s sax and some ever eccentric vocals. I haven’t played Underground Zero in yonks, should dust off my vinyl of ‘Through The Looking Glass’ really. Their track Felice looks to have a whole sci-fi novel behind it but musically is a bewitching affair no doubt very much due to lead singer Jude’s vocals. Female fronted ‘occult’ retro rock bands are all in fashion these days and this eases into the pantheon from a band who have been doing things in a psychedelic, vintage fashion since the early 80’s.
The Dan Mingo and Steve Swindells couplet of ‘My Secret Buddha’ and ‘Outlaw’ are a bit too on the pedestrian side for my tastes, in fact conveying a bit too much of an AOR / middle of the road vibe about them. Despite the former being recorded in 2003 and the latter a lost track from 1980 there are similarities partly no doubt to Swindells involvement in both. Outlaw really does sound like it’s from a bygone era with vocals at times sounding a bit Lou Reed and musically taking in everything from 10cc to Journey. A lost Bob Calvert track ‘The Naked And Transparent Man’ is a floating poetic dose of ambient anarchy. Keyboard sound is very much like a John Carpenter soundtrack and the spoken word story is calm and gentle taking you into a lost but very welcome dimension. Spirits Burning are another big collaboration of like-minded souls including everyone from Simon House, Bainbridge to Gong’s Daevid Allen. With Bridget Wishart’s lilting vocals their track ‘Make Believe It Real’ keeps the tone light and leaves you drifting along with it. As does Harvey Bainbridge himself with ‘Stream’ being an excellent dose of techno trance. It’s a period that Hawkwind flirted with heavily in the 90’s along with similar likes of Astralasia and Ozric Tentacles. This puts me right back in that zone and it’s a welcome addition to the album.
Alan Davey has his stamp all over this collection but there is so much he is involved with. He gets the last two tracks first courtesy of his Bedouin project. The track ‘Vision Quest’ certainly wakes up anyone comfortably numb from the last few numbers once it properly swings into action and chugs away. Heavy bass tones and a weighty space rock backbone in place this rocks out and with the vocal assault, some Arabic twists and turns and pulsing effects it’s probably the best track on the album. This is the sound of a raiding space bandit and you can hear exactly why it is a firm live favourite. ‘Angel Down’ by Davey with Simon House bringing some additional violin colour takes us out with plenty of swooshes and whooshes behind it and a classic feel running through it, which honestly could have come from many a great 80’s Hawkwind album itself.
So with 70 minutes worth of music there is not really much here that a fan, friend or relation should not at the very least enjoy and there are some bona-fide gems amongst this collection. If you are a true space cadet you will no doubt want to invest in a copy to add to your collection.
(7/10 Pete Woods)
Leave a Reply