HW: Not of this Earth 3-CD

[Arin Komins]

On Thu, 23 Jan 2003, Henderson Keith wrote:

:Subject: HW: Not of this Earth 3-CD
:
:Hi Folks...
:
:I just picked up this box-set thingy that had been long in the works from
:the Black Widow folx in Italy.

[snip]

I just got this one as well.

[snip]

:Hawkwind's contribution is a new (or I should say 'yet again different')
:version of Sonic Attack, entitled "This is Hawkwind Sonic Attack" the lyrics
:of which seem unchanged.  The lineup is given as Brock/Davey/Tree/Chadwick,
:so this is from a few years ago (and would seemingly match up with when this
:project was started).  The vocals are a dead ringer for Calvert, but I guess
:it's really Ron doing an amazing likeness, or else Dave uncovered an old
:track of Calvert's from the distant past.  I dunno...I've only given the
:thing a quick cursory listen.

It sounds very much like Calvert to me, and was driving me nuts to figure
out how they did that.  It doesn't sound like Ron to me, imho....

:The music seemed totally different than any
:other version...no real bass guitar I don't think, but kinda trancey
:synths/percussion along with some guitar playing from Dave.  Not sure what
:Alan was doing...wave sequencer stuff perhaps, whatever that is.  It's 7
:minutes long, and I think it's just fine though not superior to actually
:hearing something that's not already 30 years old in part.  Interestingly,
:it's associated with "When Worlds Collide" but I really don't know how -
:they have a writeup about said SF story, but nothing about how it connects
:to Moorcock's words.  Or if it even does.  The writing credits go to
:Moorcock, Calvert, Brock, Chadwick...not sure when/why Calvert was ever
:awarded writing credit here, but you know how these things have continually
:evolved over the years!

I was fairly curious about that as well, as I wasn't aware of a "When
Worlds Collide" influence.  I wish there was a bit more on why a given
track is indicative of its corresponding movie listed in the right up.

:The other Hawkwind-related tracks are: the Adrian Shaw solo piece (nice gtr
:playing, the only downside being synth-drums), Alan's solo piece (for

I liked the vocal around the "silent running" bit.

[snip]

:Well, and then there are tracks by F&R, like the Quimby's doing
:"Quatermass & the Pit,"

I really liked the Q&tP track.  Very identifiable as MQB, I think.

[snip]

:The Prisoner theme is redone by
:Gary Ramon/SunDial (and there's a hidden bonus track on Disc 3 that seems
:like him/them again doing it again slightly differently?), and Dr. Who theme
:is redone by a Finnish band called "Reverend Bizarre."

The hidden bonus track sounded more like it was ripped almost directly
from the soundtrack of the show.  It was very disconcerting.  Is there a
track missing, btw, on that disc?  I don't have the set near at hand, but
I seem to recall there being 13 tracks on that disc, with #13 being the
prisoner piece, but there was supposed to be 13 real tracks on it?

I liked the pseudo "Pyramids of Mars" track as well.  I was impressed
given that according to the writeup, the band had only seen Dr. Who once.

:The Star Trek piece
:(by Italy's Deviate Damaen) is the only thing I heard on here that is awful!
:Watered-down techno/sampling piece that seemingly took about a half-hour to
:churn out.

I'll agree wholeheartedly with Keith's assessment, here.

[snip]

:The Farflung/Pressurehed wing
:is (oddly) not represented here anywhere, but a trio based in Kassel,

I was disappointed in this, as I was quite looking forward to hearing
something from that contingent.  I was also hoping for an Astralasia remix
(as was on the Cleopatra Sci-Fi Cafe release), but that didn't happen
either.

[snip]

:The package is nicely done....fold-out double-height wallet-thing.  There's
:a CD-sized booklet of information about the bands/tracks/movies that's
:sealed into the place where the 4th digipak tray *would* have been had there
:been four discs.  And then there's a bigger booklet sealed into the center
:spine (so it's "double-height" also) that has articles, art reproductions
:and a whole Prisoner guide section, everything in both Italian and English.
:It looks nice too, but haven't had time to read any of it.  From the other
:text bits, the usual heap of misspellings and other typos are rampant (what
:else is new?), and I wonder how well the translation is done in the writings
:themselves.  They spent several years on this, you'd think they could get
:most of it edited properly, but hey...

It's very dense material, and I'm not finished reading it myself.

Out of curiosity, was there supposed to be a 4th disc?  Does anyone know?

[snip]

Arin
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Arin Komins                                   akomins at uchicago.edu
Manager of Web Systems Architecture
University of Chicago/ENSS/NSIT                 tel: (773)834-4087
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