 | In Search of Space (1971)Genres: space rock, hard rock, psychedelic rock |
review by thomas
This is the perfect example of space rock. Lyrics about space or fantasy themes, the music not that complex, sometimes monotonous and with loads of strange effects and electronic gadgets.
In Hawkwind’s case the guitars are “bone-saw” heavy, there are two guys on electronic things and Nik Turner on saxophone and flute; of course drums and bass are also present. The quintessence space rock song “You Shouldn’t Do That” is like an anthem to things stated above. It’s fifteen minutes long and with the singing kept to a minimum. In fact almost everything that’s sung are the title-phrase like some sort of mantra. It features some great saxophone playing and lots of strange sounds coming directly from outer space. You can hear some Eastern sounding bits and the whole song really works; you can almost see and feel that spaceship heading toward disaster. Or as the album sleeve puts it:
“Technicians of space ship Earth.
This is your captain speaking –
Your captain is dead”
Hawkwind usually had a acoustic folk inspired song or two on their albums and “In Search of Space” are no exception since we find the great “Children of the Sun” and the not so great “We Took the Wrong Step Years Ago”. The latter with an aggressive raga like middle-section. The other space rock anthem on the album is “Master of the Universe” with extreme bone-sawing riffs that must be heard to be believed! I didn’t thought you could produce such a riff before I heard it with my own ears. One song are more dreamy in nature – suitable named “You Know You’re Only Dreaming” – floating rather quietly; but in fact this could also be called some sort of anthem since it’s demonstrates the other side of space rock that’s very common; the dreamy and floating side that is. “Adjust Me” are instrumental (well, almost) and doesn’t say that much to me. A good album and a really good example of space rock.
 | Doremi Fasol Latido (1972)Genres: space rock, hard rock, psychedelic rock |
review by thomas
This one is a natural follow-up to ”In Search of Space” for good and bad. The style is very alike and spacey. “Brainstorm” is a grand opener in style with “You Shouldn’t Do That” from the year before. But “Lord of Light” sounds like an attempt to compose a “Master of the Universe” volume two, naturally such moves fail almost every time and this is no exception, it’s totally unnecessary and together with the acoustic “Space Is Deep” the album’s low point.
Otherwise “Doremi Fasol Latido” is a good album with heavy saxophone jammish songs mixed with Brock’s heavy guitar sawing/riffing – paired with a couple of acoustic or more experimental ones. In other words it’s just like on “In Search of Space”. And Lemmy’s acoustic “The Watcher” is better than it’s reputation.
So nothing really new on this album; which makes it easier to understand the strive for change on “Hall of the Mountain Grill”. But “Doremi Fasol Latido” is still a good album of psychedelic heavy metal space rock.
review by daniel
Hawkwind could be described as a mix of early Pink Floyd and early Motorhead, and at their best they blow both away. This album is like any other early Hawkwind album: Longer songs following the patented Hawkwind formula of rough and repetitious guitar grinding combined with electronic space sounds, as well as some shorter songs were the electric guitars are replaced by acoustic ones. And as usual the songs that do not drift too far away from the formula are the most effective. After all, this is what Hawkwind does best, or to be frank; this is the only thing that Hawkwind does good.
The best track (and the reason to choose this album over its close relatives) “Time we Left the World Today” mainly follows the formula, but adds some variation in tempo to it. It might thus not be the quintessential Hawkwind song (that would without a doubt be “You Shouldn’t do That” from “In Search of Space”), but it might just be their best.
 | Space Ritual (1973)Genres: space rock, hard rock, psychedelic rock |
review by daniel
Live material is rarely better than studio material. With most live albums you are happy if there are enough new twists and turns in the arrangements to at least motivate the existence of it as a complement to the studio albums. On rare occasions, however, the live material actually improves on the studio material. In most cases the reason for this is that the studio versions lacked intensity, roughness or even simplicity. The problem with Hawkwind and live albums are that they already went for maximum roughness on their studio albums. Add the live roughness and sound quality and you end up with a murky mess that has lost its edge.
Think of your local brute in his prime: It is Tuesday afternoon and he is semi-drunk, loud, scary and fascinating and witty in some primitive way, at least in his young apprentices’ eyes. Then it is Friday night and the brute does what most people vainly do; he tries to boost his confidence and character with a couple of drinks too much. Soon the brute is just a pathetic and way too loud drunk that no one bears to listen to (a state that inevitably will be permanented when he turns 30). He has lost his edge.
I guess that analogy didn’t help, but my point is that most of the songs on this album are brutes turned to drunks. Some of the interludes in the form of short, spoken “poems” with space-themes (what else?) are rather cool but the bottom line is that I prefer the studio versions of all of the songs on the album.
 | Hall of the Mountain Grill (1974)Genres: space rock, hard rock, psychedelic rock |
review by thomas
Hawkwind’s first studio album to be produced with normal standards according to many a people and in reality the production is better than before but not so that it makes a major difference. Anyway, Hawkwind aimed at more heavy metal songs here, such as “The Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear In Smoke)”, “Paradox” and “You’d Better Believe It”. The two latter with slightly inferior sound since they were recorded live in concert; still the sound is above good and these three songs are also the album’s spine. The space and psychedelic sound is not gone though, only incorporated with heavy metal/hard rock to a degree were these sounds are harder to make out than before.
Here are also some instrumental experimental songs present: we have Del Dettmar’s “Goat Willow”, Simon House’s “Hall of the Mountain Grill” and “Wind of Change” by David Brock. Those familiar with Hawkwind’s work prior to this one will be surprised only in the beginning, it will sound awkward at first but in reality “Hall of the Mountain Grill” are neither better nor worse than anything else they did between 1971-1975. And even though this record doesn’t have that anarchistic feeling or those eruptions of lunacy (musically speaking of course) that we are used to, this sound soon becomes normal to the listener.
One striking thing is the almost total absent of Nik Turner’s flute and saxophone work. It shows up a few times only (that I can hear anyhow). Maybe this downfall in time for Nik (here and on follow-upper “Warrior on the Edge of Time”) was one of the reasons he left after the Warrior album; well, who knows? Another thing is the newcomer Simon House on keyboards and violin, the latter giving the sound an extra dimension. Back to the album now: anybody who likes Hawkwind should get pleasure also from this one, and maybe those of you who fancy classic hard rock à la Purple, Sabbath or Rainbow (with Dio of course).
