HW: What's Happenin' Where is everyone?

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

Brian Coulthard wrote:
> Agreed entirely the HW live sound benefits from a full time synth chap
> as well as a dedicated guitar whiz leaving the Baron to work his magic
> as needed  on guitar (yes) or keys as necessary

Mmm, as long as we're debating the relative merits of various HW
configurations, I would slightly disagree here.  While I enjoy the stuff
with Huw (the stuff written with/by Huw, certainly), it does sound to me
like a rather different kind of HW than what I consider "optimum
Hawkwind" (which is centered around a _Space Ritual_/_Mountain Grill_
sort of vibe).

For me, Huw sounds good on the Huwish songs, but otherwise I really
prefer hearing Brock chugging and wahing away.  And, IMO, Dave should be
_strictly_ forbidden from tinkering with the synths, since left to his
own devices (so to speak) he's very capable of climbing right up inside
his very own digital butt and producing tracks that -- let's not pull
any punches here -- make Pet Shop Boys remixes sound organic and rocking
in comparison ;)

This is why I like the idea of the sax, violin, or even keyboard synth
rather than another guitar.  A non-guitar second lead offers a wider
tonal pallette, and if Dave takes off into screaming lead territory
("give us this day our daily blanga"), violin vamping or the like can
very effectively thicken up the underlying sound (or, indeed, trade off
licks with the guitar, though that's starting to sound a bit too
_collaborative_ for Hawkwind ;)

> Don't I remember reading somewhere that the band had a deal with SPV
> whatever happened to that?

Possibly the same place as Alan's long mumbled-about "EMI Germany" deal
for Bedouin.  SPV would be a good home for Hawkwind, though.  SPV also
handle Motorhead, Type O Negative, Monster Magnet, Fu Manchu ... and
probably an arseload more rockin' bands that I've forgotten or not heard
of :)  Maybe the label would have some leverage on the album production
("More guitar!  More Guitar!  Turn it up!  "Upside Down"!  etc.)

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://www.carlaz.com/