Blood of the Earth

Blood of the Earth

Blood of the Earth – the single CD edition

How do Hawkwind sound now that Dave Brock is approaching his 8th decade? The single CD version of the new release suggests that the answer is something along the lines of “rather good, actually”. IMHO this is a better album than Take Me To Your Leader and certainly it offers something closer to a “classic” Hawkwind sound.

This is not the same band as the one that brought us Take Me To Your Leader. Gone, obviously, are Alan Davey, Jason Stuart (RIP) and Arthur Brown, and in come Tim Blake, Niall Hone and Mr Dibs. The first surprise is how little Alan Davey is missed – I mean, in concert he was a key figure and I love much of his solo work but, whomsoever’s fault it was, in truth there aren’t that many Hawkwind classics deriving from his pen. So, the lesson is never denigrate your roadie! The three songs from Mr Dibs (Darbyshire) are what makes this album tick (note though that all band members except Dave Brock receive co-credits on these songs). Okay, these songs are already somewhat over-familiar from their live incarnations but they are all still pretty good. Niall Hone’s instrumental offering, “Green Machine”, is a master class in tasteful guitar work, fits seamlessly into the flow of the album and is another high point. Tim Blake offers one pleasant sounding if unexceptional original in “Inner Visions”, his first contribution to a Hawkwind studio album for 30 years and certainly more ballsy than his typical solo work. Jason Stuart is remembered through his co-written instrumental “Starshine”, which provides a suitably low key ending to the album. From Richard Chadwick, not a squeak – so nothing along the lines of Angela Android or Digital Nation here.

To be fair to Dave Brock, not many 70-year olds are writing classic space rock or classic anything but “Seahawks”, a resolutely average mainly instrumental track, and “Blood of the Earth”, which I’d rate as filler, are a thoroughly unimpressive opening pair and are going to win precisely zero new converts. However, before we conclude that Brocky’s main contribution is to have (as ever) freshened the Hawkwind sound by judicious introduction of new members and selected old boys, we should note that “Comfy Chair” is at least interestingly quirky and, despite the absence of killer new tracks, DB is able to call on a nicely beefed up version of the 30-year old “Sweet Obsession”, a poppy song from his first solo album, and a stone-cold classic 36-year old oldie in “You’d Better Believe It”. If “Spirit of the Age” was a clever remake, it still wasn’t a patch on this one. It gains a new, slow, instrumental mid-section but it still rocks and Hawkwind tracks don’t get much better than this – until we get a decent revision of “Lord of Light”, this will have to do!

-Graham P

This is the vinyl album cover should it prove to have any differences from the 1CD or 2CD versions

This first review is by regular contributor Grahm P to whom my grateful thanks

Blood of the Earth – the 2CD edition [Review by Steve]

I don’t know if there are far-flung hairy-arsed Hawkwind fans in the Antipodes or elsewhere still waiting for this album to reach them, but it feels as though I was the last person in the world to receive it. We’ve been spoiled by recent Atomhenge releases, but I’ve really no criticism to make of the service from amazon.co.uk who supplied my copy. Which is the 2CD version, handsomely accoutre’d in a clamshell box, double card sleeve and 24-page colour booklet, which includes sleeve notes, lyrics, and a tracklisting which claims Starshine to be included. However, it isn’t on the 2CD version.

Did I buy three copies?

Seahawks opens the album with, well, a sea of samples, before drums and bass emerge from the electronic ooze, and carve out a mesmeric, funk-inflected groove. Edgy keyboards add texture before a claustrophobic lead guitar motif completes the familiar sensation of something revolving off-centre. Spoken minimal lyrics round out the dystopian mood, and the track trundles along for a further five minutes or so, the sonic equivalent of a supermarket trolley, doomsday-bound with a wonky wheel.

The title track is next and it fades in with some tasteful delayed keyboards, more typical of Ozric Tentacles than of Hawkwind. But again, the dense collage of samples and white noise (there’s a lot of puffing and hissing on this album) drift into earshot…presaging more darkly narrated lyrics. This could almost be a continuation of Seahawks -certainly in terms of mood- and as others have remarked, it is a strange way to open the album, with two ambient-yet-unsettling tracks placed back-to-back. I’m not a great enthusiast for this particular thread of Hawkwindry, but they are the only people who really do this sort of thing, and this search-for-the-dark-side is a mark of their artistic integrity, I think. Lemmy once said “…we weren’t looking for peaceful, we were looking for horrid…” and in a way, that’s still the case.

The album then strikes out in a different direction, with the punky Wraith - the standout track on the album. This is of course tried-and-tested in live performance (and there is a live version among the bonus tracks on the 2nd CD). The main riff is not a million miles away from "Death Trap" but Dibs’ vocals are quintessential space rock, giving this track a Litmus-like flavor. There’s a brilliantly insane ascending chord sequence leading into a lead passage of Tim Blake’s synth-generated virtual lead guitar. Then a bit of pumping Brock rhythm guitar before a nicely concise mid-song breakdown. As this number moves into jam territory, one notable thing is how overactive the drums are. Richard Chadwick can keep a song moving along like nobody’s business, but has lately taken to thrashing his way around the kit at most of the conceivable opportunities that arise (and some that don’t). The effect is balanced halfway between the clumsy battering of Black Sabbath’s Bill Ward, and the premature ejaculations of the bloke who sat on the stool for the Buzzcocks. Which sounds like a harsh criticism, but actually…I rather like it! Anyway, we come out of this into a final chorus-plus-verse before a repeat of the ascending chord sequence closes it out. This track is excellent: a taut, exciting, blasting away of the cobwebs, perfectly structured and ideally timed at 6 minutes.

Next up, Green Machine is a Niall Hone-penned synthy instrumental which quickly resolves into some lovely plaintive lead guitar over a gently pulsing bass and celestial keyboard chords. It doesn’t progress beyond this, but makes for a relaxing four minutes, just long enough to soften you up for…Tim Blake’s Inner Visions. This pits some almost sickly-sweet lyrics against an angular ostinato (riff) with Tim’s vocals retaining a trace of his gravelly timbre despite valiant efforts on his part to smooth out the delivery. Unfortunately Mr. Blake’s penchant for Europop doesn’t completely go away, either. The darksome tones overlaid by this becoming a Hawkwind track do not completely obscure the jaunty underpinnings…and jaunty seems to be the word of the moment, with the succeeding track being Sweet Obsession. Where it differs from the preceding Tim Blake song is that the Hawkwind treatment is much less to the fore, here. This first saw the light of day on Dave Brock’s 1984 solo album Earthed To The Ground, and I usually enjoy that sort of material about 50% as much I like Hawkwind proper. I’d give this one about 60 or 70% on that scale - it has frankly far too busy an arrangement. But the drums stay clear of the excessive fills I complained about earlier, pumping along nicely, and I am wondering how much of the original track still remains in this mix - could this actually be a drum machine, in part at least? The bass also shows a light touch, with Mr.Dibs starting to add some Alan Davey-style flourishes here and there. The rest of the arrangement consists of feathery layers of guitar and keyboards over a Brock vocal that is almost poppy. A surprise.

Comfy Chair, however, is the flagship Brock composition on this album, almost by default with the others being soundscapes (Seahawks) or revisitations of past achievement (Sweet Obsession & You’d Better Believe It). It’s pretty atypical for the Captain, deploying a balladish opening of quiet, restrained vocals over clean-toned guitar arpeggios. The instrumental middle passage lasts a couple of minutes before returning to the almost pastoral opening motif. There is a nagging familiarity about this, recalling something or other on Take Me To Your Leader. Even the palindromic song structure leans in the same direction… I think it’s a new take on the ideas first sketched in Out Here We Are on their last album, but set in a quite distinct and different musical context. This too was unexpected, but it works well.

As with Wraith, Prometheus is familiar to gig-going fans. Here, it almost duplicates the sitar-dominated opening of the Beatles’ track “Within You Without You” (on Sgt.Pepper), but moves into that measured, pulsing, laidback groove that seems to be the hallmark of the current band. The choruses lift proceedings nicely; a deft bit of songwriting. Credits go to Darbyshire / Hone / Blake / Chadwick (also the case with Wraith and Sentinel)…it seems like Niall is finding his niche in the band to such an extent that they’re collectively starting to carve out this distinctive signature to add to Dave Brock’s heavy influence. In these latter years of Hawkwind’s existence they of course require this infusion of the new, but on this album it seems to me that Darbyshire / Hone / Blake / Chadwick axis predominates. Personally I would like to hear a lot more Brock wallop!

You’d Better Believe It…only previously available as a live recording (most augustly from January 1974 on Hall of the Mountain Grill), it is here recorded as a studio version. As with many of these reworkings of old numbers, the modern arrangement hasn’t the primitive power of the original - but you can often say that of studio v. live versions when it comes to any Hawkwind song. This chugs along quite satisfactorily with a fair bit of melodic lead guitar sprinkled on top, before a new middle section changes things around. This has a laidback vibe of jazzy organ tones over a minimalist pulse from the rhythm section, but some tasteful lead guitar strikes a more cosmic note (well actually, he plays more than one note!) - a definite enhancement. The 1974 live version would have benefitted from this light-and-shade; without it this song can descend into a leaden churn through the chord progression. On balance...putting an old song on a new album is not what I think they should do, but they get away with it :-) This resurrection gets a thumbs up…

Sentinel is another one that’s been in the live set for over a year, and it features a Dibs vocal that exemplifies a characteristic of his, which I might call a limitation. There is a particular dominant frequency in his voice, particularly when he sings in a higher register as here, giving the impression that everything he sings is on the same note. It isn’t. I think this used to be more pronounced in Mr.Dibs’ Spacehead days, and here it seems to be magnified by the arrangement of multitrack vocals in the chorus. Anyway, this is a slow-to-mid-paced soulful workout, again bereft of much Brock influence (lead guitar notwithstanding). A decent number, which I prefer to the spoken / electronic tracks on this album, but it doesn’t…quite…do it for me.

Onto the 2nd CD now, and it comprises seven live tracks followed by an odd thing which I’ll come on to. (Not literally…it’s not that good!) These live tracks start with a very recent Space, which we’ve also referred to in the Gig & Set Lists pages as “Space is Deep Poem”. For it is another dystopian narration, this time of the Space is Deep lyrics over a sparse backdrop of synths (at least it isn’t a fairground ride backing track). This is followed by a muscular Angels of Death, slightly let down by the arrangement of the choruses. I asked the lovely Mrs. Starfarer what she thought of the (to my ears) somewhat ropey jam in the middle section. “I like it because it’s kind of mindless, like hippy Club music. I can imagine kids on ecstasy just jamming out to that music.” Not the ones at the 2002 Hawkfest who pooed all over the portaloos, I hope. Now, that was a load of crap…unlike this… It’s excellent to hear Hawkwind once again jamming like they used to circa 1972. It reminds me of Doremi-era noodling, as on Time We Left, or the Roadhawks version of You Shouldn’t Do That… This is another change that’s come over the band and I would ascribe it to the replacement of Alan Davey with Mr.Dibs. Another welcome touch is the presence of Jon Sevink’s violin on these live tracks - he is every bit as good as Simon House and even seems to wring very similar tones and phrases out of his instrument.

The live version of Wraith follows. Of course it isn’t as good as the studio recording on disc 1, but that’s a tough act to follow. Here the punky ethos is stronger, but the quiet passage in the middle of the song works better, perhaps, building up the tension, and underpinning some widdly lead guitar from Niall Hone. Brock synths can be heard whirling away too, as this builds to an exciting climax. But then…a Tim Blake number, Tide of the Century, hoves into view. This is truer to Tim’s solo stuff than Inner Visions and consequently carries more conviction, despite the lighter mood of this piece. The band don’t seem to tread all over it to the same extent, and Jon Sevink supplies some very sympathetic violin colourings to leaven the dominant synth voices…

Hawkwind get the motors running again with Magnu. It begins with a Warriors at the Edge of Time narration from Dibs, which is one of the better exercises of this type; but the opening portamento’d keyboard chords are the best thing about it, until Magnu proper gets going. It’s a pretty classic arrangement of this old warhorse of a song, Mr.Dibs in particular doing a really good job of propelling the main riff along with some pumping bass tones, again reminiscent of Alan Davey’s style but without dominating the sound of the band as Alan did sometimes. Tim Blake also shines with some more virtual lead guitar - in fact the entire band execute this with gusto. They also manage the Brainbox Pollution interlude really well, and thanks to Dibs' perfect understanding of what the bass needs to do, pull off the brief but usually unconvincing interlude that comes right after the lines “Flying hoofbeats circling in / come to me and let us spin…”

Levitation is another one that often features a suboptimal arrangement when played live, the vocal lines on the chorus just following the chord progression instead of the melody line on the original. It’s a halfway house on this rendition, with the backing vocals sticking to the melody. The band then adapt the transition between that and the fantastic brutal riffing of the middle section. It would have been good to hear Niall cut loose with some lead guitar à la Huw Lloyd-Langton here, and he does do something, but it’s a more introverted, textural exercise rather than a soaring lead. The final verse / chorus exemplify the steamroller approach that the band adopted for this, and it fits perfectly. A good version.

Syd Barrett track Long Gone appears next. This was recorded by the band for a tribute to Syd, and while I don’t know the original, I would imagine this version to be much changed from it. It’s a s/pacey - heavy three minutes of cosmic bludgeoning, which is a decent addition to the album if not in the forefront of what the band can do. But it’s miles better than the final track, Interview 2010. This is the “Letter to Robert” moment on this album, featuring snatches of multiple comic conversations / narration over a completely unstructured backing of samples, tinkling piano, funny noises, electronic bleeps, etc.. It makes no sense and wasn’t meant to. Richard Chadwick drags his ridiculous glove puppet out for the occasion, who despite performing naked (?!) has the temerity to ask: does the world need another Hawkwind album? The answer is yes of course, but I don’t know that that it needed to include this track, even if it does have a couple of beautiful little synth pieces tacked onto the end of it.

So that’s the end, and it’s time to take stock. Those who appreciate the heavy rock riffing of 1970s Hawkwind will find less to enjoy here than fans whose interest is in the more keyboard-dominated 80s and 90s. But it is still a decent album, which does a good job of reflecting the sound and direction of the band in 2010. They’ve moved on from the last studio album, 2005’s Take Me To Your Leader, but in terms of quality the two albums stand side-by-side, as being among the better things that Hawkwind have done over the latter stages of their career. My personal reaction is that there’s not enough of Dave Brock’s guitar work here, but the band are moving into new territory and may yet find the perfect balance (as on Wraith) between that magical ingredient and the burgeoning influence of the Darbyshire / Hone / Blake / Chadwick connection. There’s plenty of life left in the old dog yet.