(HW) BOTE (my review)

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Tue, 15 Mar 2011, SUBSCRIBE BOC-L Jamun wrote:

> BOTE cannot be taken out of context. It is a Hawkwind album and as such, has
> to be compared with other Hawkwind albums. If we do such a comparison we can
> see that compared with the Golden age of Hawkwind albums: "Hawkwind",
> "Doremi Fasol Latido", "Hall of the Mountain Grill",  "Space Ritual", "X In
> Search Of Space", "Warrior on the Edge of Time", "Astounding Sounds, Amazing
> Music", "Quark, Strangeness and Charm" BOTE doesnt hold up. Then compared
> with the Silver age: "25 Years On", "PXR5", "Levitation", "Sonic Attack",
> "Church of Hawkwind", "Choose Your Masques", "The Chronicle of the Black
> Sword" it also doesnt hold up. In the bronze age its beaten by "Electric
> Tepee". Infact I would go as far as to say its only better than "Distant
> Horizons".

 	Well, each to their own; I like the good bits of DH a lot better 
than I like this, for all that it's not really a finished album, but there 
are plenty of HW albums I think less of than this one, starting with 
_Sonic Attack_ I suspect, and then, well, most of the ones you choose not 
to name there would at least be a contest. But that's obviously going to 
vary person to person, and all I was saying was whether I thought it was 
worth having, which I do.

> Like the works of any artist, Hawkwind wont be remembered for BOTE.

 	That's not so much that it's bad, though, as much as it's that 
they've been going for forty years and most people tuned out after ten. 
If, by some chance that I agree is unlikely, they produced a new _Doremi_ 
next year, they still wouldn't be remembered for it because only a 
fraction of their `fanbase' would ever hear it.

> It is off course nice for fans that we have another Hawkwind album, but I
> would like to remember everyone that since Dave Brock trademarked the name
> Hawkwind he can basically release anything under that name. But is it really
> Hawkwind, that is the question?

 	Well, what is? Have they ever managed more than three albums in a 
row (SA, CoH, CYM? No, even there, because Nik is on a tiny tiny part of 
CYM. ET, IItBotFtBD, BT, I suppose) where `Hawkwind' was the same as it 
had last been? So how on earth does one decide what is and isn't Hawkwind 
except by setting one's own preferences to the fore?

 	I would admit, though that _Spacebrock_ is a step too far in this 
game. There are parts of it I like, but it's a DB solo album with the 
wrong name on it. Yours,
 			 Jon (who is apparently all about the acronyms 
this morning)
ObCD: Down - _Nola_
-- 
       Jonathan Jarrett, Oxford       jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
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