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Friday Full-Length: Hawkwind, Warrior on the Edge of Time

Posted in Bootleg Theater on July 24th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

Hawkwind, Warrior on the Edge of Time (1975)

Of course, the Hawkwind catalog is a complex and ever-expanding universe in itself, full of ups and downs, comings and goings, peaks and valleys. It seems safe to think, however, that 1975’s fifth album, Warrior on the Edge of Time, stands among their greater triumphs, building on the complexity of its predecessors — 1974’s Hall of the Mountain Grill, 1972’s Doremi Fasol Latido, 1971’s genre-defining In Search of Space and their 1970 self-titled debut (don’t even get me started on live records) — to form a progressive vision of space rock the influence of which can still be felt today. From the opening of “Assault and Battery/The Golden Void,” the album is resoundingly immersive and full of depth, the keyboards, Mellotron, violin, flute, saxophone, percussion, etc. adding to an already sprawling swirl of guitar effects and rhythmic push, though some of Warrior on the Edge of Time‘s standout moments come in the interplay of atmospherics and spoken word on songs like “The Wizard Blew His Horn,” “Standing at the Edge” and “Warriors,” these shorter pieces playing off the fiction writing of vocalist Michael Moorcock, who was by 1975 already three books deep into his Elric sequence, the pivotal third, Elric of Melniboné, having been released in 1972, and given a fitting ambient push by guitarist Dave Brock, bassist Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister, saxophonist Nik Turner, violinist/keyboardist Simon House and drummers Simon King and Alan Powell. There are some gorgeous stretches of jamming in “Magnu” and “Opa-Loka,” and in them one can also hear the far-ranging impact Hawkwind continues to have on the current boom of heavy psychedelia.

The life, times and insurmountable discography of Hawkwind are all well documented — you might even say there’s a documentary — but with so much time and so much output, the details are easy to gloss over, and particularly for an album as rich as Warrior on the Edge of Time, it’s twice as worth paying attention to moments like the re-emergence of Moorcock‘s vocals in “The Golden Void” and the later, seemingly-out-of-nowhere hook of “Kings of Speed,” which departs the farther-and-farther-veering conceptual fare of the album’s second half in songs like “Standing at the Edge,” “Spiral Galaxy 28948” and “Warriors” for a simplistic structure almost in a ’50s rock and roll style that’s of course filtered through the band’s always-multicolor palette. Pervasively weird but singular unto themselves even in the vast sphere of ’70s prog and krautrock, Hawkwind remain an underground entity in part because to embrace them as a whole is such an undertaking, but in bits and pieces, over time, one might almost endeavor to keep up with their lightspeed thrust, which though barely recognizable in its current form(s), endures to this day.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

I’ve been sick the last three days or so. Really beat. Really beat. And a persistent stomach pain, acid reflux, and so on that has really just kicked my ass around the block and then some. I stayed home from work yesterday and spent most of the day in bed, and that seems to have helped put me on the road to recovery — I’m at the office now, so that’s an improvement — but I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself out of the woods. An accompanying, lingering headache has not helped. I have done my best to stay hydrated.

Even putting that aside, it’s been kind of an overwhelming week. Maybe part of that was getting caught up on being away from work in SF last week — was that last week or the week before? — but still, dragging ass. Sorry if that bums you out, I’m just trying to be honest with where I’m at. Five years from now I might look back on this post and be like, “Oh yeah, I remember that time I felt crappy.” These things are important to me.

Busy week, too. If you didn’t see, there’s a new Uncle Acid track that I, with six posts already planned for today, just didn’t have the chance to get to, and I’m already behind on stuff for Monday as well in stories for Mountain TamerThe Skull and Behold! the Monolith. I started out this week pretty much caught up. I did not finish it that way, though it felt good today to review that T.G. Olson vinyl, even if it meant skipping the Radio Adds. I’ll get there one of these days.

Monday, aside from that news, look out for a track premiere from Shabda. I don’t know if you’ve heard them or not, but it’s definitely worth hearing. Tuesday, I’ve got a video premiere slated for Bedroom Rehab Corporation, and Wednesday, audio from Sweat Lodge that was supposed to be this week and got pushed back. Also looking to review the new Undersmile (long overdue) and some vinyl from Greenleaf that won’t even be a review, just me nerding out about how Agents of Ahriman was one of the best heavy rock albums of the aughts. So that should be fun. Hopefully there’s time.

We’re also due for a new podcast. Maybe Monday if I wind up with time on Sunday (unlikely) or some other day thereafter. I’ll get to it as soon as I can. There’s been a lot of good stuff coming in that’s worth highlighting, so keep an eye out either way.

I hope you have a great and safe weekend. If you need me, I’ll be taking my convalescence by the sea. Please check out the forum and radio stream.

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