HW: A few 'reviews'

[Paul G Ward]

Sheez, it's quite lately!

I have to agree that the loss of long term member's is very sad, but
we have to leave the past where it is and carry on .....

So, now that they might get seen (without the noise) are my next two
much-belated HW record reviews. They are a bit lame, but I am way too
tired to be on my PC at the moment anyway, so I should be excused I
think!

Next Time: DarXtar 'DayBreak' (esp. for Joe & Henrik)

A. Soniqu=E9

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        Album Review: Hawkwind - "Church of Hawkwind"
        ---------------------------------------------

Disclaimer: 1) I do not claim to grow more talented literarily
               with time!
            2) This is all IMHBO!
            3) ;^)

Band:    Hawkwind
Title:   Church of Hawkwind
1st:     1982
Label:   RCA RCALP9004
Artists: Dave Brock (Dr. Technical), Harvey Bainbridge, Huw
         Lloyd-Langton, Martin Griffin, Marc Sperhawk, Capt. Al Bodi,
         Madam X


Side 1: Space

>From the strange starship noises of 'Angel Voices', overlaid with
alien sounding voices, it's easy to see why this is generally
considered Hawkwind's most "electronic" album to date. The short
introductory track is followed with 'Nuclear Drive', a tale of an
Alien spacecraft landing and taking an unsuspecting human for a joy
ride! This is probably the rockiest track on the album (but by no
stretch of your imagination could you call it "heavy"), with
Langton's by now familiar guitar style evident throughout.

The slower, 'Star Cannibal' follows, with more emphasis on keyboards
than guitar, with electronic sounds sliding repeatedly up the scale in
the background. 'The Phenomenon of Luminosity' begins with a sample of
an astronaut reporting strange lights following his capsule (which in
the end turned out to be fragments of the craft ablating due to
friction with the atmosphere), accompanied by throbbing background
noises. The text of 'Fall of Earth City' is "spoken" over the top of
some interesting guitar riffs and various effects. 'The Church' is a
strange conglomeration of a crowd at a gig chanting "Hawkwind", some
guy chanting, and various bits of keyboard and synth. Hmmmm ....

Side 2: Fate

'The Joker at the Gate' begins with strange noises, which are soon
oevrlaid with a pacey keyboard melody, and ghostly (?) spoken vocals,
and ends with a very rapid seque into 'Some People Never Die'. This
track is basically samples taken from the TV narrators covering Lee
Harvey Oswald's execution, and gradually builds pace as the guitar and
drums come into accompany the backing effects (such as heavy breathing
and crowd noises). The music stops suddenly, as the samples change to
newscasts from Senator Kennedy's assasination. I don't know why, but
it is damn effective!

The sounds of waves splashing and creaking timber form the seque into
'Light Specific Data', which isn't too bad an instrumental, with some
nice guitar work accompanying the predominate keyboards. The track
ends with more waves and an explosion as the 'Experiment with Destiny'
begins, which sounds awfully like 'Virgin of the World' to me! Strange
noises abound as the pace picks up towards the end, fading away for
the next track, 'The Last Messiah' - Electronic warbles and some
female sobbing.

'Looking in the Future' is yet another track using Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow's "Lives of Great Men", but it isn't a remake of 'Assault &
Battery'. It's fairly rocky, but not as full on as other Hawkwind
tracks are, but rather maintains the electronic feel of this album.

This is not an album that I would recommend to a Hawkwind neophyte,
but I (being a fan) could not imagine being without it. If you liked
some of the more experimental/electronic tracks from the previous two
albums ("Sonic Attack" and "Choose your Masques"), then you should
check this out. If you are new to the band, you may want to look
elsewhere.

STOP PRESS
----------

The Griffin Records CD release of "Church of Hawkwind" has three bonus
tracks:

'Identimate' has a more full sound than the tracks on the original
release, but is still electronic in nature. It is a combination of
uncomprehensible mono-syllabic utterings in between the pulsating
background music. 'Damage of Life' has decidedly more "cheerful"
music, and sounds very much like much of Brock's solo efforts of the
time. 'Mists of Meridan' begins with slow and eeiry noises, which grow
slightly in complexity, but never stray beyond the ambient.

It is unclear (to me) if these tracks were recorded during the
recording sessions for the album, but I imagine that they are in fact
Brock solo tracks which never made it to his album, rather than this
one. But then, what do I know?

----------------------------------------------------------------------
           Album Review: Hawkwind - "Zones"
           --------------------------------

Disclaimer: 1) I do not claim to grow more talented literarily
               with time!
            2) This is all IMHBO!
            3) ;^)

Band:    Hawkwind
Title:   Zones
1st:     1983
Label:   Flicknife SHARP014
Artists: Dave Brock, Nik Turner, Harvey Bainbridge, Ginger Baker, Huw
         Lloyd-Langton, Keith Hale, Martin Griffin, Michael Moorcock

The sounds of choppers and snatch of the pilot's conversations over
the radio are joined with electronic warblings for the short
introductory track, 'Zones'. The gentle keyboards and almost mournful
vocals and guitar make 'Dangerous Visions' quite a memorable track.
'Running Through the Back Brain' however is a rather strange piece. It
has some good guitar work in places, but has totally crazy lyrics and
almost deranged backing keyboards. 'The Island' is a live version of
'Dust of Time' from "Levitation", as is 'Motorway City'. Both of these
live up to the expectations of the previous studio efforts.

Side two begins with 'Utopia 84', a freaky spoken piece (over eerie
synthesizer sounds) about a too perfect Utopian world, which seques in
the fast paced 'Social Alliance', previously a Brock solo piece.
Brock's lyrics in this piece are incredibly nasal, but it no worse
than Turner's "famous" waterfowl imitation on sax. It's beauty is in
it's rough edges. This is followed by yet another live version of
'Sonic Attack', no better or worse than previous recordings, and full
of the usual tweaks and squawks. It is more of a "song" than some
renditions, and is good up loud!

'Dream Worker' is next, as spooky as ever, followed by a fairly sad
rendition of 'Brainstorm'. It's not that bad I suppose, it's just one
of those tracks that Hawkwind some times do really well, and at other
times, they lack a little punch. Turner's vocal 'antics' ruin this for
me on this release.


Overall, I feel that this album lacks the quality of the previous few
releases. To be fair, it is  a collection of live cuts from various
gigs, but it isn't a 'live' album. I rarely listen to it, and wouldn't
suggest it as an introduction to Hawkwind. It does have it's good
points though, and it isn't actually 'bad', just a minor
dissapointment.

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Paul Ward        aka: Assassin Sonique'      .---.  __  .--------   Long
R & D Manager, P & C Micro's Pty Ltd        /     \( o`-,  -----   may
mail: sonique at aardvark.apana.org.au        ////    '~ (    ---   they
http://aardvark.apana.org.au/~sonique/    /////// :    ; ---   Fly!