Hawkwind’s new Cherry Red CD, Psychedelic Selection, is brilliant, conceptually as well as to listen to. It revisits some great tracks, digs up some previously unreleased recordings and mixes them up with some new stuff. Or as the press release says it’s ‘a brand new collection that blurs the lines between studio album, archive excavation and future transmission’.
Like it says ‘We are Living in a Human Zoo’, but this zoo includes ‘Fairies in the Garden’, transmissions from elsewhere in the universe via satellite listening dishes at ‘Goonhilly Downs’ and verbal reports from a ‘Traveller of Space’. The zoo, whoever the keepers are, seems to have its benefits too, such as the evolution of ‘Psi Power’, although ‘The Demented Man’ and ‘Tortured Mind’ might suggest nefarious activities elsewhere.
It’s hard knowing what to say in a Hawkwind review, we all know what to expect, and we get what is expected: cascades of synthesizers and layers of freakout guitars winding through chanted vocals over earth-shattering drums and rock-solid bass. Sometimes, ethereal voices emanate (although that could be me having a flashback) and there’s often a sense of nostalgic longing for days gone past, when the underground was more visible and active, and once sundown hurried along the party or free festival could begin. Again.
These tracks are less jet-propelled, indeed almost pastoral in places, although the album often re-energizes and takes off into orbit. Are these tracks more psychedelic than other Hawkwind albums? Probably not, but I like the concept, and I like the ebbs, drifts and flow of the music, the surprising jumps between pace and mood, laidback poetry and space attack. And most of all I love the sonic ecstasy when those electric guitars kick in and those far-out synthesizers whispers and burbles.
Hawkwind are touring again (well, do they ever stop?) but you have to pay to see them these days. Worth the effort I reckon, especially if they do a more unusual set soemthing like this. The lazers are always fun too. Put your spacesuits on and get ready to take a long trip.
Johnny ‘Psikick XS’ Brainstorm
HAWKIND LIVE DATES
Friday 26th June – Hexagon, Reading
Saturday 27th June – Morvala Festival (Headline), Cornwall
Friday 7th August – Liverpool M&S Bank Arena (TBC)
Saturday 8th – Sunday 9th August – Hawkwind Friends & Relations, Morecambe
Saturday 22nd August – A New Day Festival (Headline)
More dates TBC
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