HiRez Poll Hawkwind - SPACE RITUAL [Blu-Ray Audio]

[Stephen W Tayler]

Songs For A Tailor is next!

yes - Songs For A Tayler coming up soon!!
SWTx

 

[4-earredwonder]

ImportCD is listing the stand alone Stephen W Tayler BD~A remix of Hawkwind's Space Ritual for release on 2/7/25

https://www.importcds.com/space-ritual-50th-anniversary-blu-ray-audio-edition/5013929635432

 

[sixandnine]

I grew up with a Hawkwind 'Love & Peace' poster over the family dining room table. Sat opposite this, every evening, I became beguiled by Barney Bubbles’ psychedelic-art-nouveau-teutonic infusion. It got seared into my childhood memory. Sadly, the albums were rarely played because my mum didn't like them - even if she was ok with the poster. I inherited the albums when my dad died and rinsed them trying to find that elusive soundtrack to the vivid composite imagery I carried around in my head.

Since those days, what impresses me most about Hawkwind is that straddling of hippie and punk, a seaming impossibility, but there we are... that is Hawkwind. Spacey yet earthy, expansively proggy yet gut-punchily raw, psychedelically sci-fi yet capable of biting social satire; pigeon holes were not for them.

This live album does much to capture the feel of Hawkwind. I had only heard the original stereo mix before and I'm delighted to hear the sound truly opened up by this fine 5.1 mix, which nevertheless maintains the feel of live performance. Fluid and expansive each track bleeds into the next to create a whole greater than its parts. Spacey yet full of proto-punk energy (check out the aggressive pace of Master of the Universe!) the parts frequently demonstrate a present urgency despite (or perhaps because of) the bigger picture. This mix of the recording bounces about the listening space exactly as I imagine it should since those days staring at the poster: unpinned to the wall, finally liberated to properly “space rock”! I have enjoyed all the 5.1 Hawkwind releases so far but this one is fast becoming a favourite since performances were (and continue to be) so integral to the band.

Furthermore, the artwork is Barney Bubbles, with motifs similar to those in the 'Love & Peace' poster. Displayed on the cover and looping on the screen as the blu-ray plays, this is another dimension for my appreciation - pushing it up and out into yet another space for me. As an aside, though I never considered it before writing this review, I can see how Bubbles shifted so effortlessly to punk and post-punk designs in the late 70s. He too was the perfect match for that straddling of both ends of the decade.