Paradise 9 - Nothing For Tomorrow EP

Paradise 9 have been around in one form or another for over a decade, originally formed by guitarist Gregg McKella under the name ‘Flowers from a Strange Land’ way back in 1998 and releasing their debut album, Showtime, the following year. The original band split in 2002, a revised line-up reformed in 2005 and they’ve continued ever since, picking up new members along the way (including Alternative TV’s Tyrone Thomas on lead guitar) and enjoying a spot opening for Nik Turner’s Inner City Unit at last year’s ICU gig at the Inn On The Green. McKella had previously guested with ICU when they reformed in 2007 and has also worked with long time Damned/Dr Spacetoad keyboardist Monty Oxymoron.

This four-track EP hopefully sets the current well on the road to a full LP, with further tracks already recorded Gregg tells me. Judging from the contents of Nothing For Tomorrow it’ll be well-worth waiting for because what they’ve got here is an excellent starting-point in the quest to bring their feisty punk-space rock to a wider audience. There’s bags of righteous attitude going on in the title track, a cracking diatribe about modern greed which sharply sets up this excellent taster of what the band are all about. They move the pace right down from the spiky opener to the lazily rolling ‘Crystalized Moments’, a gorgeously realised trance and drifting romantic soundtrack still delivered with a vocal edge and some lovely guitar.

‘Broken Promises’ is something of a ‘what if’ scenario... what if the Levellers played spacerock? (The band themselves make a comparison to New Model Army for this one so I’m hearing it in a similar way I think!). Again though, it’s smart and acute stuff with a good line in melody that’s a key element of the Paradise 9 sound – it’s always engaging and just highly listenable. They play out the EP with the eleven-minute ‘Points of View’, another terrific psychedelic-punk collision that has something of the extended Hawkwind improvisation about it, driven on by some really focused yet swinging drumming. They’ll have this CD available from MyChoonz and CDBaby as well as iTunes and Amazon downloads (I notice their first album is also available as an Amazon MP3 download).

Paradise9 are Gregg McKella ( vox / guitar / gliss / clarinet / fx), Carl Sampson (drums / backing vox), Neil Matthars (bass), Tyrone Thomas (lead guitar), and Steve Teers (jembe / keyboards and backing vox), with guest backing vocalist Jeanette Murphy. They play the Sonic World Festival at Lumb Farm in Ripley, Derbyshire on the 5th of September and in the meantime their EP is highly recommended.

Paradise 9 Myspace Page
Paradise 9 at CD Baby

Hawkwind - The Chronicle of the Black Sword

I’ve blogged before on how the reissue programme for the Hawkwind back catalogue has provided a welcome opportunity to re-evaluate the band’s historical output, particularly in light of, generally, not having heard many of these records since Sonic Assassins was written back in 2002/2003. It’s a little like the classic Doctor Who DVD releases, having ditched or sold-on the videos years ago, each new release is an opportunity to reacquaint myself with the original stories (and to delight in the quality of the restorations, another thing in common with Atomhenge’s Hawkwind discs) and to revisit earlier assessments, for good or for bad. In the latter respect then, much disappointment in the recent release of ‘Battlefield’, which I’d previously considered much maligned for little reason, in the former, the quite stunning 3-disc set of ‘The War Games’, once considered a ten episode plod-fest and now seen as a totally engaging epic. I guess as we move through life our tastes and outlooks change and that reflects in the things we’ve loved and cared about over the years in a creative sense.

So, The Chronicle of the Black Sword, for which I’ve already had a few people taking me, nicely, to task for rating this studio version of Hawkwind’s Elric adaptations in contrast to the popular convention of its live counterpart, Live Chronicles being the better realisation of Mike Moorcock’s stories. And, you know, there is a valid point in the general consensus to be honest, even though I’m not going to revise my previous opinions, because there is something a little over-produced, a little too studio about this record. It has a sheen to it that wasn’t previously present in 1980s Hawkwind, something of a shiny surface to the sound quality or the mix that, compared to the live recording, leaves it a touch too clinical in a way.

That said, I still hold this album to be at the pinnacle of 80s Hawkwind. They might have been drifting a bit in the previous couple or three years (really from the point at which Choose Your Masques didn’t come up to the standard set by Sonic Attack and they’d released the rather pointless ‘Silver Machine’ reworking as a single in preference to Langton’s LP highlight ‘Solitary Mind Games’) but this, along with Sonic Attack, is as close to a top-drawer album as they’d come up with for the whole of the 1980s. The entire first side is of uniformly high standard, the band mainstays all getting a crack of the whip on contributing to the writing of the album, Langton’s lead guitar complementing rather than dominating and Bainbridge’s keyboards really setting the atmosphere very nicely. ‘Song of the Swords’ opens up the LP at a good pace, a real strong opener, ‘The Pulsing Cavern’ has a lovely ambience to it, and I love the opening part of ‘Elric The Enchanter’ with its ‘frozen in a time trap’ imagery.

Side two is where it starts to unfold, however. I’ve always liked ‘Needle Gun’ in and of itself, it’s sharp and pokey and you can see why it’s there, it’s ideal 7” fodder and perhaps with a different label that could have promoted it a bit more sharply it could have been a contributor to a full-blown renaissance for the band in a chart sense. But it’s out of place in the run of the album and the, excuse me, chronicling of the Elric saga is rather compromised by its inclusion even though it’s thematically part of the ‘Eternal Champion’ mythology in general (why not have stuck it on the end as a ‘bonus’ track to tie-in with the single release, perhaps?). ‘Zarozinia’ misses the mark despite being a lovely song with well-chosen and constructed lyrics simply because it’s that type of slow, moody, song that Dave Brock doesn’t deliver terribly well vocally, to my ears, though its equally difficult to see who else in that line-up would have been suited to it either. Then we’re into ‘The Demise’ and ‘Chaos Army’, which really are nothing tracks and ‘Sleep of a Thousand Tears’ which starts strongly but goes nowhere, before things coalesce back into side one standard with the closing ‘Horn of Destiny’.

Perhaps where this LP also misses out is in its budgetary constraints and the restrictions of the single LP format. We know that Langton had two more cracking songs available, ‘Moonglum’ and ‘The Dreaming City’ (this release leaves me curious as to whether they were never laid down in the studio at all, given that not even demo versions surface here as extras) and of course what’s also lost to the vagaries of the Hawkwind line-up is what Nik Turner, who has previously noted that he’d been writing material for the concept at the time of his sacking from the band, would have contributed had his membership continued. It’s still a classic Hawkwind album, pretty cohesive and largely well thought-out, but one that just drifts off the boil mid-way through.

Additional material included here: ‘Arioch’, an instrumental previously available as the b-side to the ‘Needle Gun’ single, and pre-dating the Chronicles line-up, what’s often (mainly by me, I guess) been described as the last throw of the dice for the previous incarnation of the band, the ‘Earth Ritual Preview’ EP. Those are tracks that I’m fairly ambivalent about, honestly. Discounting ‘Dream Dancers’ which, again, is one of those something of nothing FX Hawkwind tracks, there’s three very good numbers here: ‘Night of the Hawks’, ‘Green Finned Demon’ and ‘Dragons and Fables’. What’s disappointing, in hindsight, about all three is that the original versions have been absolutely superseded by subsequent outings. Perhaps that’s natural as songs develop through being reworked and played live, but you’d absolutely hope that Lemmy guesting on a 1980s Hawkwind track would turn up something definitive. It’s difficult, though, not to feel that his presence on ‘Night of the Hawks’ was somewhat wasted in the final mix, where even the ensuing Radio One session version was superior, not to mention how good this song became played on the ‘Bedrock’ TV show and even by the stripped-down three-piece band in 1991. ‘Green Finned Demon’, a rather nice, understated number, was completely improved on by the ‘trio’, whilst ‘Dragons and Fables’, which to be fair hung around the Hawkwind set rather too long, improved soon after the release of ‘Earth Ritual Preview’ when Huw ever so slightly quickened the pace of the song at concerts, turning it into something of fan-favourite.

Again though, another cracking release from Atomhenge, roll on the recently announced 3-disc version of Levitation.

21st Century Space Adventure

Alisa Coral, of Space Mirrors and Psi Corps fame, dropped me a note to tell me about Russian label RAIG's latest project, a spacerock compilation series in free-to-download MP3 format. Closer inspection of RAIG's website brings up the following link and details:

"21st CENTURY SPACE ADVENTURE is a series of digital albums Alisa Coral and the RAIG’s Accessory Takes net-label compile and release for the purpose of exposing our listeners to modern exciting music of so-called Space Rock genre. Today, Space Rock refers to a new generation of independent bands that draw from psychedelic and progressive rock / trance, acid, dub and ambient electronica / alternative metal /world music / experimental & avant-garde influences. It typically favors otherworldly, hypnotic, space-out and mind-bending sonic explorations over conventional song structures with vocals sometimes playing second fiddle to the shimmering instrumental textures. The main goal of the series is to challenge music lovers to try and hopefully support this kind of music as well as to function as a platform that brings underground musicians and listeners from various countries together.

21st CENTURY SPACE ADVENTURE releases are available for free download to all visitors via our web-site under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works license, which allows the music and artwork to be freely distributed and shared around in varying formats as long as no profit is made, but not to be used without permission for any TV, Radio, Film, etc. purposes and not to be used to produce any further works e.g. remixes, sampled, general plagiarism. Since Accessory Takes does not charge for its releases, we can offer no compensation to musicians for their work, but they keep all rights over the material for future use. Although we don't require exclusive material to be submitted, we do give preference to unreleased tracks, which gets listeners excited over the compilation and maximizes its potential audience. Also, musicians are welcome to contribute tracks to upcoming albums or from their newest albums, which gives listeners a taste of things to come without having to contribute an unreleased track. We think of the series as another promotional tool, and musicians can expect to have their tracks heard by hundreds of individuals."

Serpentina Satelite - The Last Drop

From the CD 'Nothing To Say' (Trip in Time)

Serpentina Satelite Myspace Page

Spacerock in the Music Press - July 2009

The latest issue of R2 (the renamed Rock N Reel) arrived this week. I'm reviewing the new album by Sendelica, The Girl From The Future Who Lit Up The Sky With Golden Worlds in this one, issue 16, the Cropredy Festival edition. I've also got a review of SAF Publishing's compilaton of writings by Gong's Gilli Smyth, Nitrogen Dreams, and in non-spacerock related releases I'm casting a eye over the highly recommended Dengue Fever DVD Sleepwalking Through The Mekong, the delicious jazz-cafe sounds of Tallulah Rendall, reissues of Procol Harum, and a new album of Smiths-esque guitar indie-op from The Parish Music Box.

And over at Record Collector this month, my spacerock related in-put includes the new album from Earthling Society, Esoteric's reissues of The Deviants and the premiere on DVD of Nic Roeg's film of Glastonbury Fayre. I'm also reviewing Jarvis Hammond's excellent music book meets travelogue, A Year of Festivals, a four-CD set of Killing Joke's recent London shows and Esoteric's Gilgamesh reissue.

Strange Daze '97

It’s a curious thing, but this double disc of bands from the original Strange Daze spacerock festival, held in Sherman, New York is a historic representation of a seminal moment in the development of the US spacerock scene and yet fails in its endeavour to chronicle that event through a total lack of information on its in-lay and liner notes. For though it contains some of the key bands of the era (Red Giant, Quarkspace, F/i, ST37, and Alien Planetscapes amongst them), their inclusion on the first disc seems to be treated as little more than hors d’eouvres for the inevitable appearance of Hawkwind (whose appearance at Strange Daze that weekend marked their first ever open-air festival show in America). Browsing the accompanying booklet, I find that “Disc Two Features Hawkwind” and how “Disc 2 was conceived as a sort of “Cosmic Trip” through the Strange Daze spacerock festival.” But I looked and I looked again, and nowhere did I see a proper running order for the first disc, or more than the scantest of detail (band names and song titles, not in any particular sequence) of the artists included. A visit to distributor Voiceprint’s web page suggests that it “presents the bands on disc one in chronological order as they appeared at the festival.” Which is not much more help than the booklet itself, frankly. I just see that as a huge shame, since some of the bands included are still recording and releasing material today and others have previous CDs still available. Compilations like this are a part of the oxygen of publicity that the scene needs and warrants, and to reissue this previously out-of-print collection without taking the chance to deliver a modest boost to those bands with a bit of biographical data and links, and to not even detail track-by-track which bands you are listening to at which point, is a real pity.

Anyway, I dug around on the Internet and turned up this track listing for disc one:

1.Awakening (Gaia Avatara)
2.Rooms Of Shord (Red Giant)
3.Green Acid (Nucleon)
4.New Arrival (ST 37)
5.Holographic Caves (Architectural Metaphor)
6.Evanwalker P.I.M (FI)
7.Laminate My Organ Donor Card (Bionaut)
8.Pre Millennium Transmissions (Freak Element)
9.Harbour Of Infinity (Melting Euthoria)
10.Burning Inside (Born To Go)
11.Faerienot Space(Quarkspace)
12.Soft Martian (Alien Planetscapes)
13.The Stream (Drumplay)

Now, to be fair, like any developing scene it’s a mix of enthusiasm over ability combined with genuine talent so there’s some roughness around the edges but it is great to see this set getting a reissue because the festival itself is rightly looked back on as a cornerstone of the US-arm of spacerock. It was a real coming together of the like-minded and a chance for those bands involved to take confidence from elevating themselves to the same bill as Hawkwind and Nik Turner, pivotal figures in the genre’s creation, and those that had already reached a certain level, most notably Far Flung.

Disc Two then is described, as I note someone doing on Amazon, as a ‘stream of consciousness’ with cut-ups, extracts and further tracks. Here again, the listener is left to do some detective work as to who is playing and what is actually being played, and my Windows Media Player came up with an incorrect listing (I was amused to see the Hawkwind tracks falling over completely as being by ‘Unknown Artist’, though it has to be said that the Nik Turner & Far Flung tracks were assigned to the wrong artists as well). I dipped in to what WMP reckoned was ‘Burning Inside’ by Born to Go, for example, to discover a really good number by Nick Riff’s Freak Element called ‘Vagabond’, at least if this Internet listing is correct:

1. Intro 0:20

2. (Gaia Avatara) Sunrise 1:22

3. (Nucleon) Green Acid 2:15

4. (ST37) Translunar Injection 3:47

5. (F/i) Evan Walker P.I.M. 1:09

6. (Red Giant) Rooms of Shord 0:43

7. (Far Flung with Nik Turner) 25,000 Feet Per Second 5:16

8. (Far Flung with Nik Turner) /Soul Herder 1:05

9. (Far Flung with Nik Turner) /Opa Loka 3:33

10. (Bionaut) Re-Laminate my organ donor card (longer re-edit) 4:05

11. (Nick Riff's Freak Element) Vagabond 5:58

12. (Born To Go) Burning inside 0:39

13. (Quarkspace) Faerienot Space 3:49

14. (Drumplay) The stream 1:42

15. (Architectural Metaphor) Kairds 1:50

16. (Alien Planetscapes)Radiation King 3:44

17. (Melting Euphoria) Celestial Hysteria 1:07

18. (Hawkwind) Kauai 1:30

19. (Hawkwind) /Assassins Of Allah 9:14

20. (Hawkwind) Brainstorm / In Your Area 12:39

The class of the field here is Nik Turner’s collaboration with Far Flung, being very indicative of the quality of his work across his American tours during the 1990s, the reinvention and updating of ‘Opa Loka’ a particular highlight. Hawkwind’s selections here are predictable choices of familiar standards (the beautiful Kauai is simply a backdrop for extended acknowledgments and gratitudes from the organisers) with two acts of Brainstorm (featuring a guest appearance from Turner) sandwiching the quite dreadful, who on Earth thought this was a good idea, ‘Hawkwind In Your Area’ cod-reggae disaster.

Look, the re-availability of this set is a good thing and welcome exposure to a melting-pot of imaginative artists all set on taking a similar set of inspirational starting-points in a myriad of different directions. But what would have served this better as an archive representation of that weekend might have been to have torn-up what had previously been put together and release a single disc of highlights with a more explanatory booklet placing the whole thing in its proper perspective, telling the listener a bit more about the featured acts and, radical thinking here, actually telling you what you are listening to.

Get it though, because it’s an important snapshot of this scene.

Strange Trips
Voiceprint Records - Strange Daze 97

Links Updates 22/6/2009

Richard Millman of Carlton Melton, whose instrumental album was recently reviewed here has let me know that the band now have a new website, which can be found here.

Secret Saucer have just released their new album, Tri-Angle Waves. There'll be a review on this blog in due course, but the CD can be ordered here.

Eclectic Devils, the new studio CD from Alan Davey, featuring guest violin from Simon House, can be acquired via paypal direct from Alan by following this link.

Finally, Omenopus is a new project from Bridget Wishart, Louise Bialik and friends that has a myspace page here. "Omenopus is a collection of artists collaborating and coagulating digital noise across the planet, streaming analogue audio symbiosis over the great wide web of cyber space."

Hawklords - Live '78

There’s something of a cliché around live Hawkwind albums that a lot of people, myself included, have been in danger of slipping into when discussing them, and that’s the notion that Hawkwind as a live band is a greater concept than Hawkwind in the studio. So you have the argument, and it’s not one that I’d subscribe to, that Live Chronicles is a superior release over Chronicles of the Black Sword, to use an example where there is a direct comparison. I think this concept of Hawkwind live albums being something special really stems from Space Ritual, which is a great delineation of why some Hawkwind material worked so much better live than it got laid down in the studio, and it has gone on to apply to some other tour captures. The Love in Space representation of the Alien 4 concept is vastly superior to a studio album which at the time suggested it might be elevated to ‘classic’ status in due course but which has actually become rather overlooked in the passage of time and not without some justice. And, though I’ve never heard it, there’s a common belief that the ‘Passport Holders’ Live 97 compilation rocks the socks off Distant Horizons.

But I think it is a simplistic cliché to suggest that Hawkwind per se are better assessed as a live act than as a studio band, and the lie is given to this in a sense by the quality of the back catalogue reissue programme, which so far has been absolutely cracking in its releases and has done a huge service to the legacy of Hawkwind in the studio by creating the situation where these albums are being looked at again and reassessed. Sometimes it’s good to have a little time pass. I’d not listened to Hawklords since giving up the ghost of vinyl in the mid-1990s, so listening to it again recently (and having the opportunity to delve deeper into the recording of that album via Esoteric Recordings’s magnificent assemblage of out-takes included on their reissue) reinforced what a massive milestone that LP was in taking Hawkwind into a highly literate and intelligent, practically art-school, place. That’s a valuable rehabilitation or restatement of this album, dependent on your original point-of-view. In this respect I remember noting in Sonic Assassins the moment during a Hawkwind 1979 tour bootleg (Ipswich, I think), where someone close to the recorder says quite openly of that tour’s proto-grunge, “It’s much better than the fucking Hawklords, isn’t it?” The whole Hawklords concept clearly wasn’t every long-time fan’s cup of tea.

Of the ensuing tour, we’ve had precious little of real listening quality from which to assess and evaluate its success in delivering the Hawklords concept in the live arena even though it’s a tour that has a sense of notoriety about it in Hawkwind mythology. People talk of the way in which the original plans were hacked-around and Barney Bubbles’ concepts diluted, with particular reference to the dancers dismissed from the tour in its early days. “They cost too much, and didn’t add to the thing,” Steve Swindells once told me, deflating one Hawk-myth and stressing how, “the show was much better stripped down and with the focus on Calvert.” There is some existing live footage of the band in Hawklords mode; we’ve had a very small taster of it and one would hope that more extensive film will eventually see the light of day, though I’ve no insight into the practicalities of that whatsoever. But aside from a collection of not especially high-grade bootlegs, and the tracks from Plymouth Polytechnic included on The Weird Tapes, the Hawklords tour has until now only been represented by the distinctly average at best Dojo album Hawklords Live, principally recorded at Uxbridge University on 24th November, 1978.

This release from Esoteric somewhat steps out from the back catalogue in the sense that it isn’t a reissue of an ‘old’ album, it’s not Hawklords Live with a couple of bonus tracks, but is actually a ‘new’ album formed from the original concert recordings. When I spoke to label boss Mark Powell for Record Collector, he told me that, “from the point of view of Hawklords Live, the recordings made at Uxbridge are there in their entirety with four tracks that haven’t been released before. I’ve seen lists on the Internet where people have posted what was played that night – I don’t know where they’ve got it from but they are wrong. The recording quality of the gig is excellent, though the show itself was troubled by several power failures; apparently the lighting rig was causing the power to trip on stage. I know various members of the band that night have described the performance as a bit lack lustre but coming in with fresh ears, it sounds fantastic.”

The recording quality of the show is very good, and I’m both impressed and delighted that Esoteric have taken their passion for this reissue programme through to the extent of making what is effectively a new album from the original tapes rather than simply doing a dutiful reissue of what was already available. That the reissue programme was nominated recently for a Mojo award (it lost out, but the sentiment is fantastic) is so special and is an absolutely marvellous commendation for Mark and Vicky Powell and others are working so hard to make these releases such a critical success.

But, in the case of Hawklords Live ’78, does the reissue add anything to our appreciation of the original studio album? Well, to be honest, only in so far as it demonstrates what a good album the original studio LP was.

The original studio LP is an intricate and clever recording, the rather bombastic and clumsy ’25 Years’ aside, which has maintained relevance both in its lyrical and musical content. The live album doesn’t really live up to that legend. For once, the clean lines of the studio recordings stack-up as the superior renditions to those included here, whilst the show as represented here doesn’t play to the album’s strengths but instead mixes some of its lesser content, the somewhat pointless ‘Automoton’ and the afore mentioned ’25 Years’, with only a couple of its major successes (the exquisite ‘Age of the Micro Man’ and the masterful ‘Psi Power’) and elsewhere joins-in established standards (‘Urban Guerilla’, ‘Sonic Attack’, ‘Brainstorm’) with more recent non-Hawklords material (‘Spirit of the Age’, ‘High Rise’). What comes out the other side, Calvert’s ingenious ranting and Swindell’s very underrated keyboards aside, is a little bit too much like the last generation trying to out-do the new wave kids on the block and it’s hard not to listen and think that here is Hawkwind slightly off-kilter and trying, and largely failing, to be relevant in the punk/post-punk environment.

Dave Brock perhaps spotted that dichotomy when, sans-Calvert, he took the band off in a totally different direction as the MKII assemblage of Hawkwind and captured that as Live 1979. Perhaps he spotted that by trying to hang-on to the coat tails of a different generation he was letting something that should have stood outside of the music business, get caught up in trying to follow a trend. Who knows? I can see much of Hawkwind’s fan-base being absolutely thrilled with this retrospective look at Hawklords in live-mode, and fair play to them, but I’m going to look upon this one as a reminder of how great a studio concept Hawklords was.

Earthless - UK Tour

Tee Pee Records are excited to announce the debut UK tour for San Diego cosmic psychedelic rockers Earthless. The band are booked to play the following dates. Be prepared to tune in and drop out.

July 26th Birmingham - Supersonic FestJuly

27th Leeds - Cockpit 3

July 28th Glasgow - Captains Rest

July 29th Manchester - Retro Bar

July 30th Bristol - The Croft

July 31st London - The Borderline

August 1 Brighton - The Engine Room

“Earthless’s wellspring of convulsive leads and tirelessly caressing grooves are endlessly accommodating; as hypnotic as a bonfire.” Metal Hammer

“Light one up, close your eyes and get smoked off your feet again.” Terrorizer

Earthless Myspace

Sonic Rock Solstice

No, sadly I won’t be reviewing this festival, which takes place this weekend in Bulith Wells, Wales, but in honour of a great line-up here’s a bunch of reviews that have appeared over the last two or three years of releases by just some of the artists appearing at the event. Others, like Earthling Society and Vert:x, you’ll find reviews of elsewhere on this blog. Have a fabulous weekend if you’re going!

Pre-Med: Medication Time

Former Bedouin and Starfield vocalist Danny Faulkner has been working on his latest project, Pre-Med, since 2004 - alongside guitarist Lewis Turner, now departed for pastures new, and bassist/producer Alan Davey. They, in turn, have enjoyed assistance from drummer Danny Thompson (son of the Pentangle double-bass player) and one-time Landmarq keyboardist Steve Leigh.

Medication Time has previously been made available for promotional purposes under the title Invisible Spies but gets its first commercial release here. Pre-Med are drum and bass led purveyors of highly tuneful and immediately accessible Space Rock, and are travelling at the ‘speed’ of light. In fact they like to hint that there’s quite a bit of substance in their playing. Once Upon A Line is a bright, sparkly and slightly new-age piece overlaid with Faulkner’s vaguely Jaz Coleman-like vocals, Up All Night a pounding and grinding thrash and Medication Time has urgent guitars peppered with electronic backgrounds.

With another album in the pipeline, though no sign of live dates at the time of writing, Pre-Med sound like they certainly have some mileage in them. On the basis of this release they shouldn’t be reserved for medicinal purposes only.

Label: Voiceprint

(Originally appeared in Record Collector)

Pre-Med: The Truth About Us

Last year the talents of former-Bedouin singer Danny Faulkner and ex-Hawkwind bassist Alan Davey threw down an impressive statement of intent with the first Pre-Med album, Medication Time, and its anniversary is now marked with this new offering. There’s no ‘difficult second album’ syndrome here. They’ve really hit the mark by developing their sound in a linear way so that whilst there’s few surprises (apart from a delicate and intricate cover of The Demented Man, a lesser-known acoustic number from the Hawkwind canon) there’s certainly plenty of kaleidoscopic Space Rock in their interstellar journey.

Think Killing Joke circa-Night Time meets the ‘Wind in ‘80s mode and you’ve got something of the style of a Pre-Med album. Swooshing synthesisers overlaying chopping guitars with compelling lyrics delivered through carefully understated vocals – a thoughtfully created mind-trip played and arranged with intelligence as well as passion.

There’s a nicely developing space rock renaissance going on at the moment and this band is very much a part of it even though they currently remain a studio-based project. Pre-Med maybe creating lightshows in your head with their music rather than projecting one in front of your eyes in a live environment but the sensory effect is still well realised.

Label: Voiceprint

(Originally appeared in Record Collector)

Quintessence: Self

Forming right in the middle of the Ladbroke Grove hippie scene, Quintessence were part of the All Saints Hall set that also included Hawkwind, Skin Alley and High Tide. Considered part of the “I’m going to India mob”, they actually did the reverse and brought Eastern mysticism to Notting Hill instead. Discovered rehearsing in the Grove by Muff Winwood and Chris Blackwell, they recorded three albums for Island and then this, their fourth, for RCA. Recorded at Olympic Studios in 1972, it also includes two elongated live jams; for this release their single Sweet Jesus and its b-side You Never Stay The Same have also been added.

Playing gently spaced-out psychedelic freak music, they were really all about the spirituality of their Indian influences. Where others of their era played lip service, Quintessence had a sincerity about them that extended to an involvement with the local Ashram community and adoption of names appropriate to their interest in Hinduism. This was also reflected in the tranquillity of their music, so that even their more rocking numbers, such as Cosmic Surfer here, have a typically early 70s introspective sense of, as the title suggests, Self.

Label: Esoteric Recordings

(Originally appeared in Record Collector)

Earth Lab: Element

If your contact book runs to former High Tide and Bowie violinist Simon House, ex-Pilot/Hawklords keyboard player Steve Swindells, Culture Club’s drummer Jon Moss and one-time Hawkwind front man Ron Tree, you’ll surely gather an ensemble destined to hit the spot.

Earth Lab is the latest recording project of Jerry Richards, once of free festival favourites Tubilah Dog and previously lead guitarist for Hawkwind. It’s a 21st Century world music exploration that successfully blends pounding tribal rhythms and driving chords with a fresh take on electronic space rock, to encompass what Richards justly describes as ‘Musik Cinematique’.

Element is a tad loose, with linking sequences of background effects that sometimes are in danger of lessening the flow of the tracks. But it admirably delivers strong combinations of textural changes through its imaginative and often hypnotic compositions. Particularly effective are the opening sonic cacophony Separation By Skin, Wheels Part 2 (a reworking of a number previously written for Hawkwind) and the “Terra Mystica” aura of the close-out instrumental New Light. Richards & Co clearly relish experimenting in the Earth Lab and have concocted an absorbing and highly enjoyable trip.

Label: Earthlab

(Originally appeared in Record Collector)

Gunslinger: Earthquake in E-Minor

Before commencing on over two decades of service with psychedelic warriors Hawkwind, bassist Alan Davey nearly cracked the music business with the harder-rocking Gunslinger. Now at the end of his second stint in Hawkwind, Davey’s been revisiting old tapes and long-buried demos and seeing what gems are lurking in his archive. One fascinating result has been his 4-Track Mind demo collections, stretching back to the initial days of his involvement with the Hawks and including many early instrumental versions of his trademark driving bass and spaced-out synthesiser Hawkwind credits. Another is his reworking of the original Gunslinger songs, alongside original guitarist/keyboardist Nigel Potter, resulting in this album of eleven out-and-out belters.

Gunslinger is where Davey’s energies are principally focused now, both in the studio and out on the road, and it’s not hard to see why. Earthquake In E Minor mines a rich seam of Davey’s influences, sounding like a contemporary Motorhead with a ballistic urgency of rhythm that’s dynamic and as fiery as Hell. On 27th February 2008 the biggest earthquake tremor for twenty-five years hit Britain. In times to come, legend will cite that occasion as the night this album got finished.

Label: Earthquake Records

(Originally appeared in Rock N Reel)