bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Richard James Havis

Hawkwind
Space Ritual
(United Artists)
If you think that psychedelic music is always dreamy and laid back, prepare to have your mind expanded. Hawkwind's 1973 album Space Ritual sounds more like a full-scale nuclear meltdown. Recorded live in London and Liverpool, the album tries to create the effect of travelling through  space under the influence of LSD.
Distorted, phase-shifted guitars, whooshing swoops of white noise, echoing  saxophones and some paranoid-android vocals  transport the listener to the far reaches of the galaxy.
Hawkwind (right) formed at the height of the hippie movement in 1968. They aimed to make music  that expressed their psychedelic experiences. To this end, they combined the improvisational ideas of free-form jazz with rock rhythms, primitive synthetic sound effects and lyrics inspired by underground science fiction. Over the years the band - who are still performing today - have survived a slew of  lineup changes, name changes and commercial failures in pursuit of their space-age vision. Space Ritual shows Hawkwind performing at their peak, and features some of their most important members: founder and guitarist Dave Brock,  sax player Nik Turner,   vocalist Bob Calvert,  and a pre-Motorhead Lemmy on bass.
Space Ritual is a magnum opus by any standards. The  CD  has about 115 minutes of music, although the original double album was shorter due to the limitations of vinyl. The  original came with an ambitious 12-panel folding sleeve  featuring  psychedelic designs, Victorian-style posters and an image of a foetus floating through space.  There's also a science-fiction story written by the band's designer, Barney Bubbles. That  story sets the theme of Space Ritual. The band, after years of travelling through space on the Galactic Union Space Ship Hawkwind, are returning to Earth and ... well, it's a bit difficult to figure out much more from the jumble of words, really.
The year before Space Ritual, Hawkwind had their only big hit with  Silver Machine, but that song, which is not wholly representative of their sound, isn't on Space Ritual. Some of the tracks are from their previous album, Doremi Fasol Latido. But Hawkwind are more of a live band than a studio outfit, and the material sounds better here. Standout tracks include the bizarre Orgone Accumulator, a thundering heavy metal riff topped with  Calvert's obscure lyrics: 'I've got an Orgone Accumulator/It makes me feel greater/I'll see you sometime later/When I'm through with my Accumulator.' Brainstorm soars along, propelled by a guttural guitar riff, and Calvert's line 'Standing on the runway waiting for take-off' just about sums up the whole shebang.
Two tracks, Sonic Attack and Black Corridor are worth noting, as they're recitations of short stories written by seminal science fiction novelist Michael Moorcock.  The writer, who penned the popular Jerry Cornelius series in the 1970s, was a friend of the band, and his books influenced their lyrics. Sonic Attack, with its repeated public-service style announcement 'Think only of yourself', has been scaring parents since the LP's release.
Hawkwind continued in many forms after Space Ritual. Calvert went insane, occasionally claimed to be Jesus, and died in 1988. Lemmy was unceremoniously sacked, but went on to found Motorhead.  Turner and Brock fell out, and squabbled over the band's name and legacy.
There was even a minor hit, the  un-Hawkwind sounding Quark, Strangeness and Charm. Brock still leads a variant of Hawkwind today. But Space Ritual remains the crowning glory of the band's long career.



ALBUM (1973)