Hawkwind - A Slight Step Down
The band added second drummer Simon King to the mix which gives this album a duel percussion format that along with Lemmy's base made for an exceptional rhythm section. Hawkwind would begin a bit of a slide in quality with this album, although it is still quite good for the most part. Overall I don't like this album quite as much as the previous one "Hall Of The Mountain Grill", but it still has a lot to enjoy. "Assault And Battery Part I", "The Demented Man", "Magnu", "Spiral Galaxy 28948" are all good. Some of the spoken word stuff, especially "The Wizard Blew His Horn" sound very dated today, but the band take the sci fi concept to it's zenith with this release. Many Hawkwind fans consider this to be the last release from the classic lineup as their later albums would be much more hit and miss. .
Please Buy This Album
I own this album on vinyl and CD, and would buy the MP3 if i-Tunes had it. I came to Hawkwind through Michael Moorcock's science fiction and I immediately loved them, and this, their finest work. There is no more intense riff than the opening of the album "Assault & Battery Part I. " Lemmy lays down a propulsive bass over Simon House's 'Tron riif, and then slashing, primitive drums enter before the vocals. Simply perfect, and if you want to hear this right, hear it on vinyl - very loud. Every time I hear this song, my eyes roll back into my head and I foam at the mouth. Lots of bands had better technique, better melodies, better smells, but Hawkwind's total space Gesalt trumped the nimble-fingers and twiddly-bits of many other proggers. Heavy in the best sense-not in anger, meanness, or terror, but in awe of the dazzling possibilities of sound and the universe.
Quite possibly albums whose mission was to send you on a cosmic trip were too complex to do that. Hawkwind, on the other hand, are not afraid to repeat lines, riffs, atmospheres over and over, letting the listener float into the soundscape, rather than analyze it death.
Sci-Fi doyen Michael Moorcock influenced this album in many ways, from the title, to his spoken word interludes, which are not too intrusive. The ethos is one of decay, of endless lightyears of sorrow, made manifest by the lush and chilling mellotron and the incessant beat that characterizes so many songs on this masterpeice.
Hawkwind never again make an album this good. Personnel changes (Lemmy was more important than these lads knew) and band conflicts made for a series of tighter and more serious albums. Alas. But we still have this great work to listen to, even if the only thing floating in space right now is the detritus of our unfulfilled ambitions.
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Magnum Opus of Brock et al and Best Psychedelic Album Ever
Until the advent of the synthesizer as an affordable item, it was impossible for rock music to be as colourful (in a tonal sense) as it needed to be to be as psychedelic as it could be. A lot of nonsense is talked about psychedelic music (and yes, I know it's all subjective) but this is quite simply the most effective rock album ever made for enjoying and promoting altered states of consciousness. With 'Warrior on the Edge of Time', Hawkwind hit their high water mark: similar to Roxy Music in the breadth and richness of their musical pallette (electric and acoustic guitars, bass, drums, percussion, flute, saxes, electric violin, piano, synthesizers and mellotron, plus 4 different vocalists), Hawkwind at this time were the consummate painters in rock - Dalinian mindscapes filled with the awe, terror and sheer bliss of Coleridge's 'Kubla Kahn'.
The musicians are at the height of their stylistic powers - Brock has never sounded so mournful and folky as on 'The Demented Man' (make's Floyd's 'Echoes' seem childish by comparison), nor more messianic on 'Assault & Battery'. Turner's sax on 'The Golden Void' transports the listener into an opium dream in an Egyptian tomb while has weird vocals on 'Dying Seas' remind us of how avant-garde Hawkwind were. Lemmy's bass paints pyramids in the minds eye at the opening of 'Assault' and his lyrics on the original version of 'Motorhead' ( a bonus track on some versions of this CD) are utterly original: 'we're moving just like a parallelogram' to 'all good clean fun - have another stick of gum', pure British Amphetamine Rock ! Drummers King and Powell are at their hottest, especially on the throbbing 'Opa-Loka' which would not need a remix to become an acid house hit today and Michael Moorcock's spoken word pieces like 'The Wizard Blew His Horn' will blow the mind of any Tolkien fan. Finest of all perhaps are the contributions of Simon House, whose sublime electric violin's piercing entry at the start of 'Golden Void' is one of the most apocalyptic moments in rock history. House's 'Spiral Galaxy' is utterly cosmic - they don't make synthesizers that bright anymore ! There are no duff tracks here either - all have their unique and frightening pleasures: more variety in 45 minutes than most bands manage in a lifetime.
Why this album escapes all the prog rock reference books is beyond me - actually, it doesn't: Hawkwind were always a little but rough and grungy for prog purists, which is why they survived Punk with critical status unchanged. Their roughness is here spattered with diamonds, a perfect balance between thudding rock noise and symphonic beauty with none of the pompousness of ELP or Yes.
Oh and yes, the production is magnificent. If you like classic colourful seventies rock like later Bowie, early Roxy, then this album is a must. Its mind may be on space, fantasy and the unreal, but its heart is as romantic and existential as any of the serious Glam or Punk artists of the finest decade in rock. A prismatic beacon in the murky mists of rock and roll. Essential.
You can see a complete list of all Hawkwind discography, or go back to the Hawkwind tabs
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