HW: New album...

[Mark Von Bargen]

Doug wrote:

....[snip].....
Arthur Brown sounds great on the tracks he's on.  I realize I'm stating
the obvious when I mention how amazing his voice is, but he also brings a
much-needed sense of humor to the proceedings (since Harvey isn't
around).  Unfortunately, his presence underscores the fact that none of
the other three have a particularly strong voice, which probably goes a
long way to indicate that it's probably for the best that he hasn't become
a permanent member.
....[snip]....

I actually thought that Dave's vocals on Reality of Poverty where he shared
the vocal chores with Arthur sounded really strong. I particularly like the
effect that shared vocals have.

....[snip again, sorry]......
Elsewhere in the clips, I hear some nice guitar leads & noodling that
sound like they're from Dave; if so, they don't sound like anything Huw
would/could have done any better, so I don't hear anything that would make
me miss his presence.  I don't really hear anything to make me miss
Simon's presence, either, and I don't think he would have fit in well with
most of the songs.  Which is too bad, as he's one instrumentalist who
always seems to have something to add on the live albums he's on (which I
find to be less-often true for, say, Harvey or Tim).

I thought I heard some violin on Sunray; maybe its me old ears.

...[snip]...
Now, how about some comments from someone who loves the half I hate and
hates the half I love ... ? :^)

    -Doug
     jasret at mindspring.com

I don't know if anybody else did the same as me. I converted the mp3's to
wav files and burnt them onto a cd. Then I gave the cd a really good blast
in the car.
Its pretty good driving music throughout most of the 14 minutes or so of
clips.
The other thing that stood out was that there is absolutely loads going on
in every track, even the quieter ones. Its not the kitchen sink effect but
lots of layers of musical activity if you listen closely enough. Whoever has
done the engineering/mixing deserves plenty of credit.
By the end, the disjointed nature of the clips married with the inferior
quality delivered by mp3 files makes it difficult to make a truly objective
judgement. There's enough there to whet my appetite tho' and make me want
this album on the day its released. Lets hope that the winning record label
do a good job of packaging & delivery. No missing tracks or wrong names on
the credits.
The world needs a good Hawkwind album; the pre-season activity looks
promising.

Mark