~|One more touch and then you'll see
World of hidden mystery
Visions of you know you're only dreamin'|~
Greetings earthlings, today we are going for an interstellar journey with the space truckers of Hawkwind!
A british group formed in 1969, they are considered to be one of the pioneers of the space rock genre. A fuse between traditional rock instrumentation with sci-fi themes and long psychedelic jam outs. To start we're gonna check out the debut record, the self titled "Hawkwind"
Hawkwind
So the first album sticks out from the sea of prog rock focused on medieval fantasy or political metaphors, this album focuses more on the deeper trippy elements of psychedelic rock. The album consists of a longer instrumental piece that the band chopped up into tracks and added some vocal parts. The whole original piece was dubbed "Sunshine Special", a title that may mean more to some than others.
The album starts off with "Hurry On Sundown", with strings droning through from one side, until they are slowly joined from the other side reminiscent of how the beatles worked with the use of panning on some of their records. The mix of eastern instruments(sitar) and western instruments(harmonica) makes for a very interesting experience, like your mind is unable to understand what will come next. On the album you have a track that is split up into two, this is mostly due to the space limitations of the tape format, you can hear as the vinyl slows down to a stop at the end of "Paranoia Pt 1". Then it picks up with "Paranoia Pt2" on side B.
To start us off we'll go with the opener, as it gives a nice introduction to the style of the band! This is "Hurry On Sundown".
Hurry On Sundown
In Search Of Space
Starting off with the huge hypnotic piece "You Shouldn't Do That", it's a 15 minute long jam session that slowly evolves through hypnotizing beats with droning melodies filled to the brim with moments of blissful jamming.
Moving on the album is separated into shorter tracks, all with a feeling of trucking through space in a giant engine. Tracks like "Master Of The Universe" really feel like they are rushing away along some interstellar highway.
For our second track today, it's a slowly expanding psychedlic jam. The second track of the album, this is "You Know You're Only Dreaming".
You Know You're Only Dreaming
Hall Of The Mountain Grill
The fourth album from Hawkwind, this one came out in 1974. This record has an evolved sound, incorporating more organized arrangements and a more advanced direction. They still have the jamming thing down, but now with more identifiable sequences. The opening track "The Psychedelic Warlords" is like the entrance track this band of warriors, slowly building in pace while going further and further into the jam out soloing.
The title track "Hall Of The Mountain Grill" is a creepy piano interlude, featuring once again, the mellotron. It's a cool piece, and works well as a break from the hectic track before at the start of Side B. Following it comes "Lost Johnny", a track that feels strangely reminiscent of the Deep Purple track "Fireball". Still, it's a really nice mellow space jam to my ears.
For our final track of today we're checking out the opening track, groove out to "The Psychedelic Warlords".
The Psychedelic Warlords
All right, that's all folks! I hope you enjoyed todays edition of Alphabetical Order, a blog series where I write my opinions on parts of an artists discography. If you liked it or if you hate it, let me know! And if you wanna keep up to date, you can follow me. Until next time, peace out!
You can get more info or support the artist by checking out these links:
https://www.discogs.com/artist/69719-Hawkwind
http://www.hawkwind.com
