HW In Your Area: Impressions

[Keith Henderson]

John says...

>The overall impression I get from this album is "Recycled."

Well, yeah, the live half is old tracks, so that's a pretty good start to
the 'recycled' label right there.  OK, the lyrics to Medusa we've heard
before of course, and 'I am the Reptoid' is just a further development to
part of Reptoid Vision.   But it's not like Hawkwind hasn't done this before
many times (not that that is any justification necessarily), and I don't
think anyone is billing IYA as an all-new album or anything.  Rather, we all
consider it to fall into the 'Zones', 'Out & Intake', 'Palace Springs'
category.  Don't we??  So let's think of it in those terms shall we?  (I
think it's better than the first two, and weaker than 'PS'.)

Hopefully, the *real* new album is still in progress.

>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.....

I don't have any problem with this whatsoever, in fact, perhaps it would be
good.  Up until they get into the studio, of course.

>You would think in the past ten years, if they wanted to do a
>reggae part (for Brainstorm), they would write a new reggae part instead of
>using the same one.

Is it really the same?  Rizz+ certainly hasn't been around since 1989.  And
although they've always done a reggae bit somewhere in their live sets, it
seems to me that they move it from song to song occasionally, and then it
can't be *exactly* the same. But anyway, how many bands really change their
versions of classic songs *at all*?  HW changes their live versions of songs
far more than *any* other band I know.  Remember the a cappella-opening
version of Brainstorm from the mid-80s?  That was sure different (I liked
that one.)

>"Hippy" is a song that I'm not sure should be on a
>Hawkwind album....Brock wasn't involved with this one at all

Huh?? If anyone is being tagged for the 'laziness' and 'recycled' image of
Hawkwind in recent years (right or wrong), it would be Brock, and now you
don't like it when he doesn't contribute to all the songs as co-writer?
Brock didn't write Spiral Galaxy 28948 either, you know.

>and it shows.

Well, I totally disagree with that. In fact, "Hippy" is nearly the sole
reason for having this (other than the live set, which I've already heard
(virtually) on live tapes or in person).  I'd put this song right up there
with LSD, Mask of Morning, Alien (I Am), and Treadmill as the future
classics of 'late-period' Hawkwind.  And 'Wheels' and 'Alchemy' were the
stronger tracks (IMHO) on DH, so I'm all for Richards & Tree compositions.
That is, if Dave is content to do the 'atmospheric' bits these days.

>I don't think this album will be winning any new converts.

Granted.

>It may in fact turn quite a few off of the band.

I don't think so...those who aren't knowledgable about HW won't see this as
(partly) repetetive or unnecessary.  And it's pretty decent material given
that. Certainly a hell of a lot better than 'Acid Daze' or 'Yuri Gagarin' as
an introduction to 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

*I* consider it (equivalent to) an odds & ends collection, or maybe more
like two random EPs combined on to one CD.  And it's far from their weakest
release ever, depending on how 'official' official is.  I think you're
expecting too much, given what this is, i.e., *not* the followup studio
release to DH.

>....but I hope this album doesn't represent a general trend in the band.

No, it can't be...they've done this many times in the past to be a trend.
You can gripe about that issue certainly!  But by now, it's a matter of
'Fool me once...' - you know the rest.

Keith H. (FAA)