Missing Link? Between then and now - or then and the future?
S. Joy | New Haven, Connecticut | 06/14/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Love of Hawkwind music was both lonely as a cloud and beautiful as spring flowers back in the days of my personal underground. As one of their U.S. fans who discovered them via the written works of Moorcock, I had a limited sense of their context or ouevre - moving from new-wavey Calvert works (Quark, Strangeness, and Charm) to crashing howling mindblowing stuff (Doremi Fasol Latido) - but only ever reading about some of their doings, and that in cryptic bits and pieces. And everybody I knew who had any bedrock sense was getting into punk, maybe new wave, so my discovery of a wonderful band from an earlier era was suspect to say the least. Buying this CD of their 1970s singles now, over a quarter-century later, is revelatory. Some of these songs just aren't on any of their studio albums from that era (Urban Guerilla, Motorhead, It's So Easy), others appear only in more extended versions that may be great but lose something of the original craftsmanship along the way. Here is a concentrated feast of pure acid rock or whatever Hawkwind music is (kinda genre-defying, ya know?). Can't stop listening to it - or marveling at the realization that this is the link between the earlier British Invasion sound and the later punk revolution. Yes, there was an underground rock scene in London in the early 1970s and it was vital & evolving. Okay, that isn't news in London, but it is in the States, where we languished for lack of this rich sustenance."
Hawkwind - 'Sonic Boom Killers:The Singles' (Repertoire)
Mike Reed | USA | 02/28/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Very nicely assembled 18 track compilation of Hawkwind's singles the band had put out between 1970-1980.Unless you're a completist,you may not have 'the single' edit of each tune here.Sound quality,I thought is top notch.Most impressive cuts are(most of you know the drill)their Top Ten hit,number 2 on the British charts "Silver Machine","Urban Guerilla","You Better Believe It","Born To Go","It's So Easy" and so on.A should-have."
Can you see the stars tonight? Would you like to go on A-dec
Junglies | Morrisville, NC United States | 07/29/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I first heard about Hawkwind from a school chum, Mick Berry, always older than his years, who raved about them. This was 1970 and the first album had just been released. The music of the band had roots in the British progressive movement and in the so-called Krautrock of Germany as one of the band had been in the Amon Duul commune.
By the second album, In Search of Space, Hawkwind's combination of rock and space sounds had generated a considerable number of followers such that they were becoming something of an anti-establishment cult band, gigging for free and appearing at Glastonbury long before it was the hip in-thing to do. Their influence from that particular venue can be seen in the work of the Ozric Tentacles who took the genre to even gretaer heights but that is another tale from the book of runes.
Our anti-heroes took their music to new heights when they developed the Space Ritual, complete with female dancers, a sort of multi-media event which coincided with an association with author Michael Moorcock who's own band Deep Fix worked with Hawkwind at various times.
In England their big commercial break came from a single, Silver Machine which rose high in the British charts, attracted a whole new and younger audience amid the usual allegations of sellout which is usually a death trap to cult bands. Not so this one. A later single Urban Guerilla was banned by the BBC who linked the lines of the song about making bombs in the cellar to IRA atrocities and which served to boost the attraction of the band even more.
Subsequent albums such as Doremi Farso Latido, and Hall of the Mountain Grill followed to the new decade with the band's underground credentials still intact but with growing numbers of album sales.
This little collection takes the best of the decade's singles and makes them available on what might be thought of as a completists album but the great thing about this is that it makes available a side of Hawkwind that the albums of the period do not show. While the band may have not been commerical per se it is clear that their record company believed that this was a sound that resonated with large numbers of people. Indeed the word was that Hawkwind were like a Status Quo boogie band with spacey sound affects and a great stage show. Status Quo were at the time reinventing themselves and going on to greater money spinning things. The comparison is a mite unfair but there are some similarities.
I very much enjoyed this CD but the order does not appeal greatly. This is a minor criticism. I particularly like the fact that there are two versions of Urban Guerilla, the single edit and a live version. Alas, no album really capyures the live essence of this band, who are still around today. Whilst they may not have been as musically articulate as the Grateful Dead they do have their place in the pantheon of live performers.
I have no hesitation in heartily recommending this CD to anyone coming to Hawkind for the first time or even devoted followers. My advice: PLAY LOUD.
PS. Whilst in London once,as a youth, I happened to be in the Portobello Road and after walking through the stalls of antique sellers and others I continued up the road looking for some refreshment. I came upon a cafe which looked attractive on this hot summer day but as I looked at the menu in the window I saw a group of long haired men some in leather jackets and jeans who seemed to have made the place their own. I demurred from entering only to kick myself later when I recognised Lemmy later of Motorhead as being one of those same men. Ah well. Such is life."
Track Listings (18) - Disc #1