HW In Your Area: Impressions

[John Majka]

Well my copy of In Your Area arrived in the mail today and I was pleased
with the packaging....it's a fine-looking multi-colored affair....very
psychedelic.  Unfortunately, the music can't really stand up to the
packaging, and I feel very sad saying that.  The overall impression I get
from this album is "Recycled."  It is as though the band has been split
into two camps....I imagine our hero Dave Brock sitting at home, doing a
few light solo projects entirely on his own, while Ron and Jerry and
Richard (and Captain Rizz?) are off someplace else, writing their own
stuff.  It is as though Dave and the rest of the band don't really
communicate.....

This album is basically a bunch of live tracks from the 1997 tour, but even
these live tunes aren't all that exciting.  The version of Brainstorm has
that obligatory reggae part that they've been playing since 1989....I guess
I've just heard it too many times, at too many live shows and on too many
albums.  You would think in the past ten years, if they wanted to do a
reggae part, they would write a new reggae part instead of using the same
one....Aerospaceage Inferno is extremely cool on all the tour bootlegs, but
this one is merely OK and seems pretty lackluster.  The second half of the
album is studio stuff, but don't get the idea that it's entirely new.
"First Landing on Medusa" is basically Brock reading Calvert's "The
Awakening" to some backing synths that don't really contribute all that
much to the overall effect.  "The Nazca" is a one-minute atmosphere piece
with a few spoken words--it's nice, but then again it's not a big deal at
only one minute.  "Hippy" is a song that I'm not sure should be on a
Hawkwind album....Brock wasn't involved with this one at all, and it shows.
 It sounds extremely un-Hawkwind like with its folky guitar trills.
"Prairie"?  Did I miss something?  Another one of those newer Hawkwind
instrumental pieces which sort of just sounds like noodling....not very
exciting.  "Your Fantasy" is basically the music to "Heads" with Rizz
adding some words.  "Luxotica" and "Diana Park" are two more noodly
instrumentals that sound like the sort of thing every amateur musician with
a computer produces at home on the weekends....it's just not worthy of
hawkwind....

Sorry to sound so down on this release, but listening to it really bummed
me out.  I don't think this album will be winning any new converts.  It may
in fact turn quite a few off of the band.  Unquestionably the weakest
Hawkwind release ever....and to think that this is an "official" album!  If
it were an odds and ends collection, I wouldn't mind so much....but I hope
this album doesn't represent a general trend in the band.

John Majka
flossbac at nlci.com