HW: 80's 'metal', HLL rejoining

[Stephan Forstner]

I'm a bit late on this but the talk of Huw's rejoining and the 80's 'metal'
sound made me want to bring this up - I don't think anyone has ever said
this and maybe that means that I am way off base here, but the RCA albums
always sounded to me not so much like 80's metal, as like a rock band that
was using elements of 'industrial' music to explore (strange) new dimensions
of sound. Several new elements were cropping up on these 3 albums -
mechanical rhythms, heavy use of (digital) synths, synth-based songs (as
opposed to instrumentals), non-standard (even 'experimental') song
structures, the overall metallic sound of the production, and (especially)
the use of samples - all were, or would soon become, tropes of industrial
music once it moved beyond the handful of originators and became a
full-fledged 'genre'. A similar thing happened in the 90's with IITBOTFTBD,
which used elements of 'techno/electronica/etc' within the context of a rock
band, though there the band was behind the curve instead of ahead -
influenced by other artists that they were in contact with instead of
experimenting with producing new sounds with new tools (and possibly at
least in part trying to compensate for a somewhat smaller collective
skill-set than had been available in the past - and NO, I'm not knocking ANY
of the members of early 80's HW - that's just my sort-of objective opinion
of their technical prowess).

80's live material, of course, was a different story - my own pet peeve
about the period is not that it sounded too 'metal' but that too often the
band played everything just a bit too FAST. One of my favorite 80s tracks is
'Sleep of a 1000 Tears' on CotBS - if you compare the studio track with the
one on Live Chronicles, the live version sounds rushed, even sloppy - DB's
guitar slurs instead of clearly articulating its phrases. This is pretty
much true for EVERY song throughout the 80s (until 89) and covered various
line-ups, so its hard to place the blame for this anywhere except on the
group as a whole - they apparently just decided that they wanted to play
everything fast.

I also think Huw's contributions during this period are a big plus. Whenever
there was a solid ground on which he could build, Huw did an excellent job
of adding a melodic element to the underlying rhythms, in a way a bit like
what  Simon House almost always does, except that my own opinion is that
Simon is better at integrating his contribution into the overall sound while
Huw's leads do tend to sit on top of the sound a bit. Examples of Huw (and
Hawkwind) high points would include Shot Down in the Night, Motorway City,
Living On a Knife Edge, Arrival in Utopia, and Sleep of a 1000 Tears. None
of these tracks would work as well w/o Huw's lead, not even MC (listen to
the Family Tree version - good but not up to the level of any of the later
versions). On the other hand, when re-working an older tune, things didn't
always pan out so well - I was never completely convinced by what Huw did
with Brainstorm for example - but then again, I wasn't completely convinced
by what the band as a whole did with Brainstorm during this period either.

With the current touring (and hopefully recording) lineup, I see that
apparently Huw and Simon are playing together for what is probably the first
time (did they appear on stage together for the Hawkestra?). As they are
possibly the 2 best technical players to grace the ranks of Hawkwind
(barring Ginger Baker) I can't wait to see what the band will produce in a
piece specifically written for a lineup featuring both their talents, rather
than an existing 'retro-fitted' song. I think this has great potential to be
something new and interesting for Hawkwind - although I have wet dreams of
'High Tide'-like jams, I don't think Huw's style lends itself well to that
approach, but I'd be happy to hear them trading leads or better yet playing
simultaneous/intertwined leads. I would just hope that Simon is not
relegated to providing background 'color' - I want to hear him up front
where he belongs.

Stephan