HW: Love In Space

[Assassin Soniqué]

Well, my copy arrived yesterday ... packed in Hawkfrendz mags (thanks
Andy!) and I thought I have to add my 2c worth .....

The packaging loks great, with some neat photo's ... but CD 1 is
damnnear impossible to get out without damaging the digiPak. Bring
back the Jewel Case PLEASE ...

Anyway, I went straight to _Robot_, the track which made me the
Hawkfan I am WHAT THE F*$% HAVE THE DONE TO THIS? Aarrgggh ... most
of the tracks that HW have reworked of late have been fine, but this?
I must say that I am very dissapointed - I didn't expect the same as
the PXR5 version, but this is ridiculous. Sob. Most tracks that the
boys have reworked of late are fine ... _Quark_ on the EP/Biz Trip is
(strangely) great, _Death Trap_ on Alien4 is OK (if perhaps too close
to the original), etc. etc. etc ....

But I digress. I skipped back to track 1 to give the rest of it a
fair hearing, and it's not too bad a recording.The quality is great,
the track list acceptable (and _Death Trap_ makes more sense after
_Abducted_ than it did tacked on the end of _Alien 4_), and overall
it rocks. Maybe it's a result of listening to _Robot_ first, but I
have to say that this is not the most powerful live Hawkwind release.
I can't put my finger on the reason, but it just lacks something ...

The second CD is somehow much better than the first - _Love In Space_
(which I hadn't heard before) is pretty cool, and I love what they
did with _Kapal_/_Elfin_. Yet another live recording of _Silver
Machine_, but it's at least different with Ron at the helm, and the
closing regurgitation of _Assassins_ benefits from the reworking it
got.

I agree with others that Ron is somehow more tolerable here, but I
disagree that you could buy this CD in preference to Alien4 .... I
think the studio CD will get a lot more time on the player than this,
unfortunately. I'm not saying it's bad ..... on the contrary it is
quite a good CD - just doesn't quite meet my expectations is all.

To be fair, these comments are only after one listen ... but then
every other official live release has left me gasping for breath
.....

Now, if they Dave FOUND HIS BLOODY GUITAR and they threw away the
keyboards in _Robot_, I might be seeing this in a different light!

Sonique

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