Hawkwind - PXR5
Hawkwind - Levitation
Hawkwind - In The Hall Of The Mountain Grill
Hawkwind - Warrior On The Edge Of Time
Steve Miller - Circle Of Love
Mouse On Mars - Autoditacker
More Hawkwind retrospection this week - after the fantastic prog epic Warrior On The Edge Of Time Hawkwind reinvented themselves with a new record label as a more modern new wave rock band for a series of late '70s albums fronted by eccentric singer Robert Calvert. The final of these (four) albums was PXR5 released in 1979. The results throughout the series were mixed with shorter poppier songs which occasionally hit the mark but missed out on the mind expanding space rock experimentation of the early albums. A far cry from Space Ritual this period, for me at least, does not represent Hawkwind's finest hour.
However at the turn of the decade Hawkwind changed again. With a new crack line up, which welcomed back slick lead guitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton (who appeared on the debut album), plus ex Cream legend Ginger Baker on drums and ex Gong keyboardist Tim Blake, the band produced a series of more heavy metal based albums beginning with Levitation in 1980. The album is almost brilliant, the first two or three songs are fantastic demonstrating a renewed energy and vigour and brilliant playing. Just checkout how hot this band were:
Unfortunately it does n't quite maintain its momentum as the album runs a little out of steam. The follow album up Sonic Attack (although lacking both Baker and Blake) is more consistently heavy. Sonic Attack, although not necessarily a regular fan favourite, is particularly significant for me being the first Hawkwind album I heard. I saw the band when touring the album as reported here >>
The Steve Miller album Circle Of Love is most renowned for the side long groove of Macho City which was an innovative track at the time (as was the ending of 2 minutes plus of rain and thunder sound effects).
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