Various Artists – In Search Of Hawkwind

here is the NFO file from Indietorrents

Artist : V/A

Album : In Search Of Hawkwind

Source :

Year : 2010

Genre : Psychedelic Rock

Encoder : Unknown

Codec : LAME 3.98

Bitrate : VBR ~262K/s 44100Hz Joint Stereo

ID3-Tag : ID3v2.3

Ripped By : Unknown on 30.10.2010

Posted By : Unknown on 06.11.2010

Posted to :

Review / Description

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Aquarius:

A while back, we went a little crazy for a series of three limited edition (and now long out of print) 7″s, a series of Hawkwind tributes, by some of our favorite modern psych rock heavies, tracks from Kinski, Bardo Pond, Acid Mothers Temple, White Hills, Mudhoney and Mugstar, all of them amazing. So now finally, those 7″s have been compiled onto a cd, including not only all of those original tracks, but also some bonus tracks to boot, more Hawkwind covers by Moon Duo, Magoo and *another* cover by aQ faves Mugstar. More on those in a moment, first, let’s talk about those original singles, and of course the mighty HAWKWIND!

Where to even start… HAWKWIND. The mighty lords of drugged out space rock, without whom, most of the bands we love might not even exist. These four Hawkwind records: Doremi Fasol Latido, Hall Of The Mountain Grill, In Search Of Space, and Space Ritual, are pretty much all anyone needs to know about space rock. Or whatever it is that Hawkwind do, long sprawling jams, extended psychedelic workouts, heavy and trippy, totally drugged out and divine, while at the same time, surprisingly catchy. But yeah, aQ folks probably already know how much we love Hawkwind.

So if we were to pick bands to cover classic Hawkwind tunes, we might not have picked exactly these, but then again, we very well might have: Mudhoney, Mugstar, Acid Mothers Tempo And The Cosmic Inferno, White Hills, Kinski, Bardo Pond. Holy hell! If this were simply a comp with those bands, we’d be all over it, but the fact that they’re covering Hawkwind seems like it was made just for the aQ faithful, and who knows, maybe it was.

So how does each band fare? Pretty marvelously in fact, let’s run through the track shall we?
Kinski are up first, and they definitely get their Hawkwind on, covering “Master Of The Universe”, not so much making it their own, as transforming themselves into a vessel through which the spirit of Hawkwind can flow, and flow it does. That main riff is such a killer, all the band have to do is ride it out, adding plenty of freaked out effects and psychedelic leads, the vocals buried in the mix, not getting in the way of the endless spacepsych jamming.

Bardo Pond add female vocals to their take on “Lord Of Light”, the vocals drifting ethereally, over a roiling black cloud of FX drenched guitars and some seriously pounding drums, even a bit of flute (we think), and maybe more than any of the others managing to meld the sound of the original with their own, plenty of wah wah guitar, loads of effects, most of the track spent drifting through space, cloaked in blown out super distorted psych guitar and shimmering outer space ambience. Surprisingly heavy and totally blissed out.

Acid Mothers Temple are an obvious choice to pay homage to a band who was doing the AMT thing 30 years ago, and in true AMT fashion, Kawabata and company go for it, covering “Brainstorm” although it’s difficult to tell, as it’s buried under sheets of wild freaked out psych guitar and blown out space rock effects EVERYWHERE. It really doesn’t sound all that different from any number of other AMT jams, but that’s basically because every AMT jam is a tribute to Hawkwind, isn’t it?

NYC’s White Hills ditch much of their usual spaceiness for something a bit harder, tackling “Be Yourself” with crunchy chugging guitars, pounding drums, wild tangles of distortion drenched leads over the top, the band not so much covering the original, as transforming it into an endless psychedelic hard rock loop, the band churning and grinding out a steady stream of psychedelia over that endless main riff, before drifting off into a cloud of glittering soft psych shimmer.
Mudhoney tackle “Urban Guerilla” and totally make it their own, so much so, that minus a little chunk of extended droney space rocking in the middle, those not well versed in Hawkwind would certainly be forgiven for thinking it was a Mudhoney original.

And finally Mugstar throw their space rock hat into the ring, and are a DEAD ringer for Hawkwind, their sound murky and muddy, squalls of psych guitar, clouds of swirling spaced out FX, droned out jams, all tangled up and slowly unwinding into a long sprawling space rock jamscape. Hawkwind would be proud.

Phew, even without bonus tracks, this would be a serious killer, but for the cd reissue there are three! The one most folks seem to be super excited about is the Moon Duo jam. Moon Duo, for those not in the know, is the two piece drum machine driven space kraut offshoot of SF psychedelic rockers Wooden Shjips, and they take Hawkwind’s “Hurry On Sundown” and stretch it way out, skeletal drum machine, woozy organ drones, reverbed Suicide like vox, dark and hypnotic and spacey, only to erupt about halfway through into something way more rocking, grinding distorted tendrils of psychguitar smolder wrapped all around that unrelenting motorik groove.

Magoo, who we don’t know too much about, tackle “Space Is Deep”, and stay pretty true to the HW formula, thick fuzzy bass, fiery effects drenched guitars, stripped down and minimal, the vocals sounding very Geddy Lee, eventually the track builds to a seriously spaced out fuzzguitar stomp, unleashing that wild chaotic heart of the sun Hawkwind style extended outro that pretty much WAS the hallmark of every incredible HW space jam, and they nail it.

Finally, Mugstar gets another go, and they take on “Paradox” and like their version of “Born To Go”, they might as well just fess up to being the reincarnated spirit of Hawkwind, cuz holy shit, for all thebands who ape that Hawkwind sound, few capture the mood and spirit and vibe and SOUND as well as these guys, crunchy fuzzy guitars, super melodic basslines, vocals buried in the mix, everything wrapped in swirling streaks of whooshing sci-fi effects, slipping easily from blissed out almost krautrock style groove, to fierce almost metalic crunch, culminating in, yes, another gloriously blown out, extended hypnotic space rock freak out finish.

It may be a comp, and it may be all covers, but this is still most definitely a contender for freaked out, psychedelic space rock record of the year!!

Track Listing

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1. Master Of The Universe (Kinski) ( 6:55)

2. Born To Go (Mugstar) ( 6:21)

3. Space Is Deep (Magoo) ( 3:56)

4. Lord Of Light (Bardo Pond) (10:40)

5. Urban Guerilla (Mudhoney) ( 5:09)

6. Brainstorm (Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno) ( 7:22)

7. Hurry On Sundown (Moon Duo) ( 7:31)

8. Be Yourself (White Hills) ( 6:10)

9. Paradox (Mugstar) ( 8:27)

Total Playing Time: 62:35 (min:sec)

Total Size : 118,7 MB (124 464 048 bytes)

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