Sunday 23 June 2019

Hawkwind - Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music (1976)


The sixth album from this British band.

The band was a seven piece big band on this album with a lineup of drums, saxophone, flutes, guitars, keyboards, synths, sitar, violin, bass, percussion and vocals.

Lemmy Kilmister (R.I.P.) had got the sack from the band and went of to do Motorhead, arguably a far more successful band than Hawkwind ever was.

So the harshness of the bass has gone. The band has also taken the foot of the accelerator and decided to be pretty nice... sonically.

Robert Calvert does the vocals here. It is more or less his album too.

The result is almost a gentle album. It is by many miles their most gentle album so far. Even their debut album, a beat album, is harder and more harsh than this one.

Hawkwind has not gone pop, though. The music is space rock and is pretty much lurking around in outer space. There are also some good melody lines along these sounds from outer space.

There is also a lot of jazzy and funky stuff here with the saxophones leading us into a jazzy, funky soundscape. A big of Gong is floating around on this album.

The result is not a classic Hawkwind album. It is still a good album and one I find interesting even after repeat listening sessions. Check out this album together with their classic space rock albums.

3 points



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