HW:Recent v Old/Poll (ON Keys...)

[david hall]

Simon House at number one for his playing with Hawkwind, however, I bought
the Spiral Realms Live CD and wasn't exactly bowled over. Is this
representative of the other stuff? If not, what else should I try? Overall I
put Tim on top, Gong trilogy, Steve Hillages's Fish Rising, Nik's
Xitintoday, the solo stuff, but most importantly the performance at the Gong
reunion. Also good - Steve Swindells Fresh Blood (a kind of proto-Hawklords
feel with Huw, Simon King, and Nic Potter). Points also for (Ded) Fred
Reeves for his playing on the Earth Ritual tour, not bad violin playing for
so little practice - his impromptu gig in the foyer of his hotel spread a
little anarchy.

Trivia time: did Steve Swindells ever DJ at clubs in Soho in the late
eighties/early nineties? Or was that a different Steve Swindells?

Dave
-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Pearson <ceres at SIRIUS.COM>
To: Multiple recipients of list BOC-L <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
Date: 15 December 1999 20:22
Subject: Re: HW:Recent v Old/Poll


>On Tue, 14 Dec 1999 14:54:11 +0000, Jonathan Jarrett
><jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK> wrote:
>>        I have problems with ASAM, and they principally lie in the fact
>>that I just find the sound too slick and shallow. When the songs have been
>>played with other line-ups, e.g. the CB version of `Reefer Madness', and
>>the version of `Steppenwolf' on the '97 tour, they've shone.
>
>Yeah!  Both *great*!
>
>>Only the
>>proggy keyboard ones belong in the sound of that album, and I do like
>>`Aubergine' and that `Kadu Flyer' is my favourite. But with the songs
>>with riffs, I just listen to their music-box sound levels with
>>heart-sinking disappointment each time. Though I'm generally singing along
>>by halfway through `Steppenwolf'.
>
>That's a very good point I hadn't thought of.  I was thinking primarily of
>the songs themselves (and the musicians' performances), but it's moreso the
>PRODUCTION that really makes ASAM stand out in a weird way relative to
>previous (and many subsequent) HW albums.  In some ways it was the "best"
>(as in cleanest and most commercial) production on a HW record to date, but
>clean and commercial production just isn't right for them (at least not at
>the time ... I think that kind of production works OK on Levitation, but
>not ASAM).
>
>>        And Doug, you're entitled to your view of course, but Steve
>>Swindells? The man responsible for the *inspired* keyboard parts on
>>`Valium 10' and `British Tribal Music'? This must surely be some new use
>>of the word "talent" of which I was not previously aware...
>
>I don't think it's really fair to assess someone's talent based on what
>were outtakes (there's a reason why that stuff wasn't released at the
>time!).  I was thinking more of Swindell's performance on 'Hawklords/25
>Years On' (very nicely arranged/orchestrated which made him an acceptable
>replacement for Simon House even if he's no Simon) and the Hawklords live
>album (great energy and jamming!).  And I think the keyboard playing on
>"Valium Ten" is as good as anything Harvey played with the band (and even
>the keyboard playing on "British Tribal Music" is still better than
>anything Keith Hale did with the band, but that's not saying much).  But
>it's tough to judge someone who was in the band for only one studio album
...
>
>>        Is there anything legit. by HW with Fred Reeves on it, anyway?
>
>Not that I'm aware of, although I should check the recording dates for some
>of the later Anthology/Acid Daze tracks.  But definitely no studio
recordings.
>
>>QEH doesn't exactly leave me jaw-dropped.
>
>Me neither (although I love the songs and Bob's performance), but it's an
>intentionally minimal performance (Calvert was always telling the band to
>turn down) playing along with a drum machine, which is one of the surest
>ways I know of to stifle a musician's creativity; you can't jam out when
>you already know exactly how many measures are supposed to be in the song!
>
>I recently heard a recording of the Maximum Effect's (Steve Pond, Fred &
>Mick Stupp post-ICU, pre-Krankschaft/Calvert) last show that is incredible.
> The band's playing at breakneck speed, so Fred winds up sounding like
>Jerry Lee Lewis playing Simon House's keyboard parts while jacked up on
>speed.  He's playing lead keyboard (Steve plays mostly rhythm guitar parts)
>AND singing most of the lead vocals.  I wish I could do all that at once.
>
>>I'll rank Tim Blake close behind
>>Simon and Harvey not long after till someone convinces me otherwise.
>
>Tim's a great *synth* player (possibly even better than Del Dettmar,
>although that's a tough call), but not an exceptional keyboardist IMO.  But
>purely as *keyboard* players, I'd put Steve, Harvey, Fred & Tim all at the
>same "order of magnitude" below Simon ...
>
>        -Doug
>         ceres at sirius.com
>