Hawkwind
: Stories From Time And Space
DOUBLE VINYL | CD | DL | Streaming
Released April 5th
Buy Stories From Time and Space
Hot on the heels of their acclaimed 2023 album The Future Never Waits, the quintessential UK underground rock group are back with an exuberant space-rock epic.
Where do you even start with Hawkwind? Catapulted from the late ’60s/early ’70s Ladbroke Grove-based freak scene directly into provincial living rooms throughout the UK by the phenomenal success of their chart-topping 1972 single Silver Machine, the space-rock pioneers have evaded a descent into Classic Rock stultification by constantly evolving, the group’s frequent line-up changes and explorations of new directions driven by leader Dave Brock’s unbounded musical curiosity. Affectionately referred to as ‘The Captain’ by the group’s legions of fans worldwide, Brock has been the one constant throughout Hawkwind’s long and sometimes turbulent history. The Future Never Waits found Brock and the particularly fine current line-up at the top of their game, delivering an album bursting with creative energy and exquisite songcraft. With the group’s talismanic drummer Richard Chadwick keeping everything together with his understated but highly kinetic rhythms, guitarist Magnus Martin, bass-player Thighpaulsandra (AKA Tim Lewis) and bassist Doug MacKinnon had coalesced as one of the most sympatico line-ups in Hawkwind’s epic history.
If The Future Never Waits gave the impression that this configuration of Hawkwind was motivated by the sheer joy of jamming and exploring new musical avenues together, that impression is only enhanced by this expansive follow-up. While The Future Never Waits found the group reflecting with wry humour and a touch of sadness on the mis-steps of the human race that Hawkwind have been warning about for close to five decades, in contrast Stories From Time and Space is a full-bore, epic space-rock voyage that uses intergalactic exploration as a metaphor for the journey through life itself. Front-loaded with a sequence of Brock-penned bangers, there’s little doubt that this, their 36th studio album, is on one level a reflective celebration of The Captain’s personal odyssey.
Opening track Our Lives Can’t Last Forever is a classy, Peter Hammill-esque ballad in which Brock reflects on human mortality. Laudably, there is no attempt to strip away the rich nuances of age from the Captain’s vocals, in the manner of Mick Jagger’s pitch-corrected and de-fanged vocal performances on last year’s new Stones album. Brock will turn 83 in August this year, and Stories From Time and Space draws much of its poignancy from his continued lust for life and wide-eyed wonder at the universe and its mysteries.
The Starship (One Love, One Life) sets the tone for what is to follow with its buoyant propulsion and sheer joi de vivre. “Use your life well, don’t waste it away”, Brock advises, as the band cook up a euphoric psychedelic swirl around him. “Ladies and gentlemen,” the good Captain announces, “we are heading for Galaxy 117” (apparently referencing a lenticular galaxy in the Cetus constellation, astronomy fans).
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What Are We Going To Do Now We’re Here follows, a marked change of mood and one of the standouts of the 13 tracks on this engrossing album. Saxophonist Michal Sosna guests on the track, continuing the very welcome jazz influence that was a feature of The Future Never Waits. Following an impressive instrumental build-up, Sosna’s sax solo sets up an air of reverie before the group crash into a ferocious cyber-punk groove reminiscent of 1982’s superb Choose Your Masques album, driven by a brutal Brock guitar riff worthy of the late Stooges guitarist, Ron Asheton. Iggy Pop himself lauded Hawkwind on his BBC 6 Music radio show last year, playing several tracks from The Future Never Waits and recollecting that Silver Machine was one of the few songs he liked on the radio when The Stooges were in London recording their third album, Raw Power, in 1972. This tremendous track should be a shoo-in for airplay on one of Pop’s shows and will hopefully make the set-list for the group’s upcoming tour.
Next up, The Tracker is a classic Hawkwind space-rocker, driven by an almost Beatles-esque descending chord progression. An atmospheric linking track, Eternal Light, leads into another album highlight, the Brock/Martin composition Till I Found You, which is effectively Part 2 of Outside of Time from The Future Never Waits. If you think that sounds a tad self-indulgent, you’re wrong; Till I Found You is a gloriously trippy love song that suddenly shifts tempo and accelerates away (presumably towards Galaxy 117) in one of the most thrilling moments on the album.
Fans of Brazilian guitar music from the ‘70s may find that Magnus Martin’s gorgeous guitar instrumental Underwater City evokes the spirit of Bola Sete’s masterful Ocean album (1975); perhaps this shouldn’t be such an unexpected twist, given that Tropicalia co-creator Gilberto Gil reportedly jammed with Hawkwind during his exile to London in 1970, along with his close friend and co-conspirator, Caetano Veloso. Hawkwind’s myriad influences are often under-appreciated, but they are all brought to bear in this gloriously freewheeling album.
Brock’s atmospheric instrumental The Night Sky leads into the album’s centrepiece track, Traveller of Time and Space, a blissed-out story-song with an almost Spacemen 3 feel in places. Re-generate again brings to mind Choose Your Masques-era Hawkwind, before the darker mood of The Black Sea leads into the sweeping melodicism of Magnus Martin’s Frozen In Time, the guitarist’s vocals displaying a folk influence reminiscent of early Brock compositions. The closing space-jazz jam, Stargazers, is another prime example of the creative energy that this exceptional group of musicians generate when playing together, with all involved cutting loose and losing themselves in the moment, to great effect.
With Hawkwind’s current run of peak form in the studio showing little sign of abating, the recent news that their next album is near completion will delight fans. On a less happy note, the group’s official Facebook page recently indicated that, following the group’s upcoming spring and summer UK concert dates (listed below), there are no plans to book any more Hawkwind shows, due to health reasons. Footage from last year’s Royal Albert Hall concert showed the band in supreme form, so this may well be the last chance to see England’s most influential and prolific underground rock group in their natural environment.
As Captain Brock states bluntly on the opening song of this hugely enjoyable album, “our lives can’t last forever”. Whatever the future may bring, Hawkwind look set to remain a dynamic creative force to the end.
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Buy Stories From Time and Space
Hawkwind are on Facebook and the web.
UK tour dates:
Wednesday 3rd April – Wulfrum Hall, Wolverhampton
Thursday 4th April – Academy, Manchester
Friday 5th April – O2 City Hall, Newcastle
Saturday 6th April – O2 Academy, Edinburgh
Sunday 7th April – O2 Academy, Glasgow
Monday 8th April – Mandela Hall, Belfast
Saturday 15th June – Northern Kin Festival, Durham
Friday 16th August – Forum, Bath
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All words by Gus Ironside, 2024. More writing by Gus can be found here.
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