Hawkwind - HAWKWIND***

Hurry On Sundown/The Reason Is/Be Yourself/Paranoia (Part 1)/Paranoia (Part 2)/Seeing It As You Really Are/ Mirror Of Illusion

Self titled debut album from space-rock pioneers, and one time underground band, Hawkwind. This release appears to stick closer to a mainstream rock sound than some fans would have liked.

“This album was recorded live in the studio as a one long jam called Sunshine Special but they cut that performance to form different songs. In my opinion Hawkwind succeeded with this debut, and it has a pretty trippy, space rock/psych sound. Their later albums are even more space rock oriented than this one. Here you can hear their blues, rock and folk influences, and of course psychedelia has a big part too.”

“What it is not is the Hawkwind that developed right after this album. The songs here seem more composed, recorded carefully as songs and soundscapes. They don't have that driving, monolithic bass pump that Hawk would make their trademark.”

“Nice initial LP by these spaced out dudes. More straight-forward rock than things to come but still very spacey. This release was as good as most psychedelic rock made after 1969. Better stuff is coming but this is still good.”

“Hawkwind may be renowned as the lords of space-rock, but here on the debut they play a quite primitive mixture of spacey psych & folkish prog. The influence on stoner and space rock of today is clear though, with the drawn out cosmic melodies, the prog/rock mix, some of the tunes even have a melancholic edge.”

“There is some decent psychedelic music to be found on Hawkwind's initial effort, but if you want the space-rock that they would become known for, that would happen on the next one. This is more for fans to complete their Hawkwind collection.”

“Hawkwind's debut contains some finely-honed jamming from the space rock titans but, alas, a few areas where the compositions could be tightened up a lot. The vocals are sparse, usually comprising the chanting of short, repetitive phrases into the mike in a monotonous and irritating manner. But between these parts, the band jam marvellously, showing a surprising range of influences.”

“This debut set displays much of what would soon identify the band, particularly its shifting between ethereal acoustic music and trans-dimensional electronic hard rock, but here it retains the very loose and very random feeling.”