Hawkwind – Warrior on the Edge of Time (Stephen Wilson remix)

What does it sound like?:

“Warrior On The Edge Of Time” (WOTEOT) is Hawkwind’s proggiest release, though retains the garage punch and Euro-motorik which always place them to the hipper side of the underground subculture, and later inspiring punks, post-punk, acid house, ravers, and new age travellers. By 1975 Hawkwind were quite a big (quid) deal; US tours, playing Wembley, slicker everything. Behind the scenes, it was getting messy as only Hawkwind know how, and over the next 18 months Lemmy, then Nik Turner would be out, the former for drug incompatibility, the latter as his saxophone playing was being intentionally played over vocals and other player’s solos, disrupting the musical performance, the band now being a more professional unit than the free-form happening of yore where this was no longer “cool”.

WOTEOT always sounded quite clean relative to the grimey skinning-up surface that was their previous output, and Stephen Wilson has done a lovely job making it even more pristine, layers of er, “nicotine”, being removed, and making “Assault and Battery/ The Golden Void” (oh, those titles!) even trippier than dimly recalled. The poem “The Wizard blew his Horn” follows – a bit fantasy for me, as I personally reckon the Robert Calvert/ Harvey Bainbridge apocalyptic science-fiction poems worked better than “another bloody elf” (CS Lewis’s comment when he read a draft of “Lord of the Rings”), but fantasy is, of course a venerable part of the Hawkwind legend (see “Elric” and “The Chronicles of the Black Sword”), so what do i know? “Opa-Loka” has Hawkwind strongly channeling their krautrock tendencies, and hipsters into Neu! and Can should hear this and accept the lineage. “The Demented Man” is one of Dave Brock’s folky ballads (with accompanying seagulls and electronics), and gives the unengaged listener a breather or pee-break whilst the rest just enjoy the groove. Soon, we are back to one of my favourites, “Magnu”, bikerdelic par excellence, and with the oriental scales and spacey feel, a forerunner to the mighty “Hassan I Sabha”, from “Quark, Strangeness, and Charm”. Another poem, “Standing at the Edge” follows, leading into the groovy, dare I say, “trippy”, instrumental, “Spiral Galaxy 28948” which has great 70s “Dr Who” synthesiser sounds, and flute (now only used by Lizzo) bringing back oh so many memories of Saturday nights when you were not even quite old enough to go out to the pub, so the excitement of “Seaside Special” and “Upstairs, Downstairs” beckoned. No wonder we were listening to Hawkwind and dreamt of growning our hair.The track “Warriors” concludes, a brief track with more fantasy poetry. it sounds dramatic, but quite what it means, I don’t know: Davros trying to intimidate our champions, but the psychedelic warlords standing in their way, and well able to handle themselves?

There are two additional tracks; “Dying Seas”, which sounded a bit throwaway to me. Then we come to the mighty “Kings of Speed” (get it?) which is a bit of what Vic Reeves would rightly call “good rockin’”, the biker boogie doubtless leading to clouds of dandruff on the dancefloor as the greatcoated hoards gave it LOADS. Tragically (to me), it still has the loopy violin overdub, which personally, i dont think it needs. But many thousands would disgree, and I must respect their views, too.

What does it all *mean*?

Punk was already happening in corners, as folk listened to Iggy, the Doctors of Madness, and the remains of glam. Much new was happening in the Ladbroke Grove environs Hawkwind considered their own. Peter Shelley, John Lydon, and various other early punks vouched for the importance of Hawkwind, and even WOTEOT has an edge not heard in, for example, Camel or Gabriel-era Genesis. Hawkwind, for all the sneers, are a varied band with different phases and sounds, though WOTEOT was perhaps the most civilian-friendly of their albums. They are still going, and I saw a corking gig by them a month ago where many of their elements (if not members, many of whom are now dead or still sadly estranged) remained, suggesting the band is almost a spirit rather than an individual. It would be appropriate if they continued ad infinitum with new energy, like Gong have. Surely the drivers of Hawkwind – science fiction and fantasy as a basis for wonder, getting out of it howsoever you prefer, wry garage rock, electronics used with imagination rather than flash, hypnotic use of sound and light, not giving a fuck what other people think – will always exist in some creative minds?

Goes well with…

Let’s just say, I hoped to get a promotional “teenth” as I powered up “Assault and battery…”. Nowadays, statins, and, thanks to gout, allopurinol. Rock and roll!

Release Date:

30th June, 2023

Might suit people who like…

Hawkwind, Nik Turner, Here and Now, Steve Hillage, Gong, Kraut Rock, noiser progressive

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