Hawknewbie

Ok, so here it goes:

A long time to go say around 10 years ago, i used to hang around toa poyah alot. Ya, i go there after school take the bus 142 from St Andrew’s and visit this CD shop. Its small, with its front entrance adorned with Cantopop and Trance posters. Its gone already btw, it was located near the current Courts. The charm in this shop, was all the wierd CDs you could find; ice-cube, marilyn manson, machine head, slayer eps, sleeper and all that nice rock stuff. There was this band that i heard so much about, Hawkwind, back before wikipedia it was more of a gut feeling to buy a CD from hearsay. I found this strange bootlegish triple disc comp, made out of bootlegs, so think about this a bootleg of a bootleg. Back then there wasn’t like discogs.com or something there was allmusic.com, but internet access was limited to playing X-wing and checking email.

Anyway it was terrible. I chucked it into my disc man, excited and thinking “is this the next new step in my musical journey!”, i admit i bought into the spacerock tag and this was before i actually dug pink floyd’s earlier stuff. The album was shite, the first disc was a bootleg of a bootleg from the “master of the universe” album, terrible sound quality. Next disc was a bootleg of a bootleg from “bring me the head of yuri gagarin”. It was muddy, cassette tape mono, and really unlistenable. All i heard was drums drums drums, so dont and never complain if your paying 2 to 10 dollars more for a remastered or remix reissue. Its worth it. ANd with it, went my interest in Hawkwind.

And so, bands like Times new viking (really great), the ever holy Acid mother’s temple, Spacemen 3, Loop and others were on my playlist. So i thought maybe i should try Hawkwind again. Gramaphone had a 30% off sale for the emi Hawkwind 30-year comp. three discs spanning the entire hawkwind saga. This time, it was it. The whole vibe for Masters of the universe was crazy, 5minutes of hypnotic groove. Oscillators at full blast. This was the hawkwind i imagined and read in magazines!!#@@! The band that i fantasized when i read Michael Moorcock’s Jerry Cornelius and Eldric!! The missing sonic equilvalent of the eternal champion!!

And then on to Space Ritual… amazing! It made Led Zeppelin’s Song remains the Same and Pink Floy’s Ummagunma sound over indulgent! The sheer visercal motorik-like drive and all these spacy tone generator mastubatory is magical. Its a trip that i swear ive made before pre puberty before girls and stuff. I mean just listen to Space is Deep and tell me you dont hear a recording of a band made 30 years ago! I mean ya, so we got pass the 80’s and 90’s and now everything sounds like it was made then (white stripes?) nothing sounds new. IF not listen to Hawkwind’s In search of Space, i really think that the Cooper temple clause were big fans of Hawkwind, with that hard rhythmn and synth washes. rest in peace TCTC. will miss you.

So now im sitting in front of my computer and listening to ELP, another band that tried to get into last time, but i just couldnt sit thru the entire Karn Evil 9 suite and not see the disparity between the Giger cover and the music. Its nice thing this whole music thing really, endless loops and loops into your past and suddenly different points in your life start folding together llike that Sam Neil in Event horizon (screw sunshine, event horizon is the best) Space is deep ya, but really everyone should get into hawkwind. To be in search of space is really to be in search of yourself. yes its all very 2001 space odyssey. i miss the exhilaration of looking at the skies and wondering what its like to travel there. No, there are not fucking X wings or death stars or a nice ambient sigur ros meets orbital kind of soundtrack. Its not HD compatible. its not like solaris where your past like comes back to haunt you. Its just space.

YOUR CAPTAIN IS DEAD