Hawkwind - Space Ritual

Wonky oscillated repetition, anyone?

There can never be another album quite like Space Ritual. Captured live, for many, it is Hawkwind’s very apex – the sound of your brain being fried. With its Barney Bubbles sleeve illustration of Miss Stacia, it was a right old adventure from the off. Originally edited into four glorious sides, it now spills across two extended sides with bonus tracks.

From hereon in, Hawkwind were permanently cast as sonic overlords with wit and intelligence just as strong as the substances that were coursing through their veins. There was always something of the whiff of Campari about poet and sometime frontman Robert Calvert among the heavy sweating hairies, as if he was puffing a cigarette through a holder, observing, detailing. The doom metal of Time We Left This World Today slamming in after Calvert’s Richard III-isms on Sonic Attack still thrills.

Here we have complete versions of Welcome To The Future, a 5.1 mix on DVD as well as the promo films of Silver Machine and Urban Guerilla. Sounding at times like a band who only picked up their instruments yesterday, Space Ritual is as central to the 70s as The Dark Side Of The Moon or the three-day week.

5 stars 5 stars 5 stars 5 stars 5 stars

EMI HAWKSR | 4 (2-CD+DVD)

Reviewed by Daryl Easlea
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