hw: New Space Ritual edition

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On 26/04/2007 11:01, pete howe wrote:
> grungy crap??lol..Hawkwind have gone through many "phases"(especially 
> during the 70s) and 3 of my fav albums are all from that period and all 
> very different-
> -warrior o.t.e.o.t.
> -quark,strangeness and charm
> -space ritual
> The other album i rate very highly is their 1991 Electric Tepee.
> I guess these are all pretty obvious choices for most hawkwind fans fav 
> albums somewhere in their top 5 or 6, if they appreciate ALL the 
> different "phases" theyve gone through.

We've gone through this before -- Christian just has a thing about 70s 
Hawkwind being grungy crap! :)

For my part, yeah, I would rate Space Ritual, Doremi, and HotMG among my 
essentials; there just aren't tracks I skip on there, not even the 
weirdy noises and spoken bits.

(Strangely, I've never warmed to Warrior as much, and I'm not really 
sure why.  Maybe it's because the strongest stuff is "Assault>Void" and 
I've always like the "Palace Springs" version better?  After that, 
"Magnu" gets my top nod on there, and that really _is_ a track I don't 
listen to often enough ....)

I think one of main criticism that can be levelled at many later albums 
is that the "density" of the songs diminishes in favour of numerous 
vaguely electronicky instrumental linking bits.  For example, the 
_songs_ on ET are fantastic, IMO, but the various instrumental bits 
don't do much for me (with the possible exception of "Snake Dance", 
which is kinda cool).  I know mileage varies and some fans dig this 
stuff -- but I just think there are better vendors of floaty electronica 
than Hawkwind, while there are few better vendors of roaring space-rock 
thunder (whether that's "Master of the Universe" in 1972 or "LSD" in 
1992).

I do appreciate all the periods -- CoTBS in the mid-80s had a fairly 
high density of _songs_ -- and there's good songs from all the periods. 
But I most appreciate _any_ period when the band is really on form and 
turning out killer songs.   And I do think there's been an increasing 
tendency for the band's songwriters to get caught up in weirdy 
sequencing and stuff (perhaps because advances in technology have made 
it increasingly easy to do?), which is probably great fun, but not 
necessarily where their strengths as creative artists principally lie ....

Cheers,
Carl

-- 
Carl Edlund Anderson
mailto:cea at carlaz.com
http://www.carlaz.com/