Published on Mar 22, 1999
Hawkwind is one of many bands that has a huge following, yet a
lot of people may never have heard of them. When I was at a record
store with a friend of mine, we were mentioning Hawkwind, and what
kind of musical style they had. Another customer overheard us, and
explained that Hawkwind is a great band. They started out in 1969,
as their albums have a sound compared to Pink Floyd, and the
psychedelic years of the late 1960s. As the years went on with the
many musical changes going on, Hawkwind adapted with these times,
as they experimented with their music. But overall, they are
considered psychedelic, hard-rock, and some say heavy-metal. And
they are a cult act to many of their fans. A former member of
Hawkwind was Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister, who would later leave Hawkwind
(he was fired) and form his own band, called Motorhead.
Guitarist, vocalist, and keyboardist Dave Brock, an original
member of the group, leads the direction on
The Church Of Hawkwind, as this album is definitely worth
listening to.
The album starts out with “Angel Voice”, a composition dealing
with psychedelia and sound effects. “Nuclear Drive” is a
psychedelic rock song, with vocals in the style of Ozzy Osbourne.
“Star Cannibal” has a somewhat new-wave approach, and the
synthesizer keyboards are pretty cool. “The Phenomenon of
Luminosity” is another synthesizer-psychedelic composition. It’s an
instrumental, and could be a good lead-in song for a mystery movie
soundtrack. Likewise, “The Church” is another instrumental good for
a movie soundtrack. “Indentimate” starts out as a hard-rock song,
and mellows down a bit; it then returns back to hard-rock. And this
song is another instrumental that could be used as a movie. And it
is psychedelic.
“Fall Of Earth City”, like some songs on this album, has spoken
words. And the music track is a mixture of hard-rock and
psychedelic. “Some People Never Die” has a 1970s Pink Floyd effect:
It has “messages” heard in the background, as in the Floyd’s Dark
Side Of The Moon. There are no main vocals. As the “messages”
become more clear towards the end, a reporter of some kind is
explaining that there is a holdup in progress, where someone has a
gun, and is threatening to shoot.
“Damage Of Life” is a good vocal-hard-rock-psychedelic song.
“Experiment With Destiny” has incredible synthesizers starting out
the song, as it kicks up the tempo to end out the song. (But I kind
of wish it kept on rocking. The rocking part of this song was
short.) In that same category, “Mists Of Meridin” starts out as a
moody instrumental, as it grows louder in sound towards the end.
“Looking In The Future” has the progressive rock sound, as it
compares to the early years of Genesis, when Peter Gabriel was
their lead singer.
“Joker At The Gate” is another incredible instrumental using
synthesizers. The synthesizer works on certain songs from this
album has a sound that is almost compared to Nick Rhodes’ work with
Duran Duran. It’s not pop-sounding as Duran Duran. The sound is
just awesome, as the same results occur with Duran Duran and some
of their songs that focuses on synthesizers.
“Light Specific Data” is another psychedelic rock instrumental.
The album’s closing song, “The Last Messiah” is definitely compared
to the beginning of Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”.
Imagine hearing the opening sounds of the Pink Floyd tune with
“space invaders” sound effects in the background. This song is so
cool, but it’s short. I wish it lasted longer.
The Church Of Hawkwind is a very well-recorded album. My
first Hawkwind review was
Out And Intake, an album that I just ripped to threads. Of
course, there were the die-hard Hawkwind fans who ripped me to
threads for giving the album a bad review.
The Church Of Hawkwind is an experience in psychedelic rock
that will keep you listening to this album, and wanting to listen
to it again. It is definitely a psychedelic rock album. The
instrumentals from this album could be used for various movie
soundtracks. And it may make you curious in wanting to listen to
other Hawkwind albums.
Hawkwind is not your common psychedelic rock group. If you are
expecting them to sound like a Jimi Hendrix, or a Jim Morrison, it
is definitely not in that same sounding style. Their music is best
compared to Pink Floyd. So if you are a die-hard fan of Pink Floyd,
you will definitely enjoy the albums of another band from England,
Hawkwind.