HW: The REAL Hawks

[Guido Vacano]

Chuck  sez--
>
>    >It is kinda funny in a way, that past mebers seem to create solo
>    >projects that encapsulate eras of the HW sound.  Alan Davey's solo
>    >project is typical (IMO) comtemporary HW, and Nik is classic HW.  As
>    >for Calvert, well he speaks of an era as well.  HLL stuff is like
>    >listening to the stuff he did while with HW.  I haven't heard much
>    >from any other past members but it would sure take my interest.
>
> Well, I just found Steve Swindells' "Fresh Blood" on cassette for a dollar.
> If you're considering checking this out, it doesn't really encapsulate any
> era of HW. It's basically poppy rock w/slight tinges of punk. Some songs are
> decent, some just medicocre. "Shot Down In The Night" is okay, but doesn't
> come close to equalling the energy of HW's version on Live '79...and no
> blanga.

This album reminds me a lot of Bruce Springsteen's work (no, I'm not a fan). The
album is uniformally listenable, there's nothing that makes you cringe, but
nothing that is really stellar either. IMHO, it would be a good solid album iff
Huw Lloyd-Langton's guitar had been mixed in with a bit more signal. You can
faintly hear some nice riffs fighting the smothering effect of Swindell's keyboards.

Anyway, it's worth at least a dollar! :-)

Of the solo stuff I've aquired over the years, I think I'm most fond of Nik
Turner's _Xitintoday_. I never really liked Nik's sax noodling, but he's a decent
flutist, and there's a lot of flute on this album. Steve Hillage adds some nice
guitar work, and Miquette Giraudy nicely complements Nik's innate spacy-ness. :-)
The Egyptian motif is kind of fun, too.

Happy New Year!!!!! :-D

Guido

--
If nothing is done, then all will be well.  -- Lao Tse