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Reissue of Hawkwind's second album (originally issued October 1971), remastered and in a fold out digipak with an outer sleeve, original liner notes and artwork and additional photos and liner notes etc. An added bonus is the inclusion of "The Hawkwind Log", a booklet of Robert Calverts musings which came with the original album release and until the release of this CD was much sought after. One of the most beautifully packaged CDs I have ever seen containing a picture CD with a close up of the cover art from the original 7" of Silver Machine. Contains 3 additional tracks - the original single version of Silver Machine (Hawkwind's most famous song and absolutely indispensable), Seven By Seven (the b-side of Silver Machine) and Born To Go (from the same gig as Silver Machine). The Digipak was limited and was followed in 2001 by a mid-price release in a standard jewel case. This album is the original space rock album with its repetitive rhythms and swirling, soaring synthesizers and Dik Mik's ever present audio generator adding bizarre explosions of sound. The production is murkier than on their first album, but this tends to lend itself to the overall atmosphere of the music. The album opens with You Shouldn't Do That, a rising synth soaring higher and higher until seemingly beyond hearing by which time the basic driving rhythm of the song has begun and the synth plummets back to Earth. This track is nearly 16 minutes long with a very simple rhythm, and a chanting refrain of "You should do that. You shouldn't do that". As with much of this album the synths, audio generator, saxophone and guitar are constantly shifting and there is always something to catch the ear. Nik Turner has an eclectic, quirky, chaotic alto sax style which at some points lends itself to the overall feel of the songs, but at other times is just plain irritating (his increasingly erratic playing was the main reason for his departure in 1976/7). Everything is awash with distortion and the chaotic fusion of sound is accentuated on You Know You're Only Dreaming, the brief vocal performance by Dave Brock quickly over leaving five minutes of drifting instrumental disappearing into the ether. Side two of the original album opens with Master Of The Universe, the first Hawkwind song I ever heard and still my favourite many years later. Another synth rising into the stratosphere leading into a bass riff to die for. This song embodies everything I like about Hawkwind with its spacey lyrics and myriad atmospherics underpinned by the repetitive rhytm. Even Nik Turner's godawful saxophone solo can do nothing to diminish how good this track is. We Took The Wrong Step Years Ago is an accoustic number with awful vocals which just doesn't fit with the rest of the album. Adjust Me is an interesting experimental curio with a bizarre sped up ending. The original album closes with Children Of The Sun, another accoustic song with a curiously haunting flute solo. There is a misconception on some web sites I've visited that this was the first album to feature Lemmy Kilminster and Robert Calvert. This is not the case, but they are present on the extra tracks on this CD. Seven by seven is the original version, but its screeching vocals spoil it for me. I much prefer the "Space Ritual" version. Ditto Born To Go. Hawkwind were never going to win individual prizes for being great musicians or vocalists, and what this album highlights is that the sum was very much greater than the parts.Read full review
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Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I think the reason i like this album so much is because it does have this Krautrock flavour to it.It's trippy,hypnotic and repetitive but oh so enjoyable.This is HAWKWIND's second album and this is where they chart their course to the far reaches of the galaxy.Count me in! "You Shouldn't Do That" is a psychedelic jam,with lots of spacey synths,sax, bass and drums keeping that hypnotic rhythm going.We don't get vocals until almost 5 minutes in.This is truly a trip! We get another good jam on "You Know You're Only Dreaming",and more guitar this time.Vocals,vocal melodies,bass and spacey sounds early before the guitar and flute come in when the vocals stop.The song just sort of winds down to end it. "Master of the Universe" rocks out pretty good,heavy pulsating bass drives the tune.It opens with spacey sounds that rise up and build.Riffs follow,sax comes in late. "We Took the Wrong Step Years Ago" has some amazing acoustic guitar in it.I really like this tune, it's kind of folky with a message. "Adjust Me" is spacey to open.Spoken words after a minute as guitar comes in.It settles back when the guitar and words stop 2 minutes in.It starts to get spacey again and stays that way to the end. "Children of the Sun" features strummed acoustic guitar as the reserved vocals of Nik Turner come in.Flute follows after 1 1/2 minutes as the sound gets louder. And now our trip is now over.Read full review
The original album is still short but potent and a portent of much greater things to come. The remastering is a welcome and overdue treatment.The extra tracks dovetail nicely with the original tracks. The packaging is very aesthetically pleasing, and reproduces some lovely rare source material. The logbook is literally a minaturised reprint of the original, splendid.
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