HW: Corridor Of Flame

[cjohnson]

Just got in the new HW boot CD "Corridor of Flame".  Here's the 411:

HAWKWIND - Corridor Of Flame

 1. Technicians of Spaceship Earth - 12/12/71 Birmingham, Kinetic Playground
 2. Void of Golden Light - 4/23/95 Boulder, Fox Theatre
 3. Lost Chronicles - 10/1/88 Clyro Court Festival
 4. Mark of Cain - 6/1/85 Folkestone, Leas Cliffe Hall
 5. The Secret Agent - 4/29/93 Utrecht, Tivoli
 6. Beast of Chaos - 10/16/71 Potter's Bar, Elm Court
 7. Crystal Void - 7/6/91 London, Brixton Academy
 8. Steppenwolf - 11/12/82 Hammersmith Odeon
 9. Lord of Light - 10/28/95 Berlin, Marquee
10. Cajun Jinx - 11/27/86 Hammersmith Odeon
11. Phone Home Elliott - 11/15/82 Chippenham, Goldigger's Club
12. The Age of the Micro Man - 4/5/95 St.Catherine's, Hideaway
13. Waiting For My Man - 2/27/77 London, Roundhouse
14. PXR5 - 12/6/79 Preston, Guild Hall
15. The Golden Void - 10/27/81 Oxford, Apollo Theatre

The front cover is a grey stone archway with a carved, two-headed hawk
at the top.  The doorway is filled with flames, with a small window
into blue sky visible some distance away thru the flames.  The floor
of the room is covered in a black-and-white zigzag pattern.  Kneeling
on the floor, in front of the doorway into flames, is a naked human
figure in a fetal position, his face clutched in his hands.  A few
pieces of unusual artwork adorn the walls.

The CD insert folds open to reveal the words to "The Golden Void", as
written on a piece of parchment laying on a solid black background.

The back cover is a black background with "HAWKWIND" in flaming letters
across the top, "CORRIDOR OF FLAME" in white just below it.  The remainder
is a piece of parchment, containing the tracklisting as shown above.  A
little triangle in the bottom right corner in red identifies this as
"A Nova Drive Production".  There is a little red symbol in the bottom
left corner.

The CD itself now has a round paper sticker label identifying it.  The
sticker is white, with "HAWKWIND" in orange and "Corridor Of Flame" in black.
Also, the CD creation number is included:  I have numbers 0009 and 0010.
One (minor) complaint is that one of the stickers wrinkled slightly during
the placement on the CD-R; I was able to smooth it with a thumbnail, and
this should cause no significant listening problem.

(Since I produce my company's software shipments on CD-R, I can personally
attest to how difficult it sometimes is to place round stickers on round
CDs, and get it perfectly centered and attached.  The easiest way is to
purchase a special "sticker-attaching" dowel-like device for about US$80.
Perhaps we can pass that recommendation on to the CD maker.)


I am listening to the CD even as I write this.  The quality is similar to
that of previous efforts 'Nova Drive' and 'Timeless Paeans..', varying
from song to song.  Different recording levels and occasional audience noise
still appear, although close editing attempts to minimize abrupt changes
when a new song starts.

All in all, this appears to be an improvement over previous releases, especially
in the area of track selection.  Some rare songs appear here, and all songs are
clearly identified as to origin.  The entire package is quite professional.
Note that sonic quality can be an issue on some songs, but many of these
songs are also much harder to find than your average HW tune.


       Captain Cloud