#290: Hawkwind - The Space Ritual Alive in Liverpool and London (1973)

Emily: The primary genre Hawkwind is classified under is "space rock." What exactly, though, is space rock? Beyond just being rock! in space! yeah! Is it alien rock? A martian boogie-woogie? The totally metal sound of galaxies colliding? Or just the total emptiness of sound floating through an infinite universe? On Space Ritual, Hawkwind decides that space rock is prog-rock meets electronic, with some of those martian grooves in there too. Since this is a live album, there are few tracks of stage proclamations about space, the universe, and I think a few minutes on alien probing (the word orifice was distinctly mentioned). I assume the live experience was full of space-like imagery and sounds as well, adding to the immersive experience. Without that extra element, though, Space Ritual just seemed like a recorded experimental rock album - albeit one that was extra spacey.
Favorite Tracks: Orgone Accumulator; Lord of Light; 7 by 7

Zack: I didn’t really know what to think about Hawkwind. I didn’t think I loved it. I didn’t think I hated it. I didn’t think I was ambivalent toward it. It exists. I listened to it. Step 3. Moving on. I’m still trying to fill out Step 3, but all I’ve got is that it should be some sort of reaction. I listened to it hours ago at this point, but nothing substantial has come to me. It was a double album, so I split the listening into two halves and got lunch in between. It’s a live album, but the crowd noise only really comes into play at the very ends of songs, so it usually doesn’t even feel live. I think what confuses me the most are the quasi-skits that break up a lot of the songs. They tend to be sci-fi ramblings about space that go on for two or three minutes in between songs, and I don’t understand why they’re there. If I were in the audience on the day they’re recording, I would be frustrated that they were taking up my time to do those, but I would understand and appreciate that space rock is a complex genre and instruments need to be switched out or tuned. But the album seems to be heavily mixed to remove a lot of the liveness, so why not just take those out and get this album length a little farther away from the 90 minute mark? I don’t know. I really enjoy The Flaming Lips and all their weird space rock nonsense. It’s fun and quirky and just generally sonically pleasing. At times I liked the songs. At other points I was just confused. Like they were pushing the weird quirky factor just a little too hard. I don’t know. I still don’t. My only real take from this album would be that it’s probably great if you’re super into prog rock. But if you’re just a casual fan, this is probably one you can skip over.

Favorite Tracks: Orgone Accumulator; Lord of Light; Down Through the Night