Review of Hawkwind's Space Ritual

Released 1973

"It's no social integrator.
It's a one man isolator.
It's a back brain stimulator.
It's a cerebral vibrator.
Those energy stimulator's.
Turn your eyeballs into craters.
But an Orgone Accumulator
Is a superman creator".

I really don't feel qualified to review a Hawkwind album. In my experience, there are probably two kinds of Hawkwind fan; the curious onlooker such as myself who is aware of their reputation and is keen to find out more, but - and this is the crucial bit -is extremely wary of doing so, for fear of turning into the second kind: the gaunt, greasy-haired, perma-patchouli-oiled, deaf in one ear, unwashed refugee of no fixed abode who is intimately familiar with Stacia's vital statistics and who stares a lot. I jest of course. Whilst there are a great number of Hawkwind fans whom this cruel description is not too far from the truth, this is but a witless stereotype and one I am using as a pathetic defence mechanism against a sad confession: I've only heard three Hawkwind albums from beginning to end.

If I purposefully put time aside to delve further into Hawkwind's extensive catalogue, due to my obsessive compulsive nature, I fear that but a few months later, I would have the full set. However, my restraint has, for once, held and I am only really au-fait with the album which is the subject of this review: Space Ritual.

Before heading to University, I already had Astounding Sounds... and Doremi Fasol Latido, both picked up very cheaply. I couldn't relate to either of them. They appeared repetitive, tuneless and badly recorded. At the time, I didn't view them as prog albums; more bizarre heavy metal offshoots.

Up in Glasgow, those associates who were fans of the band were also prog fans, and usually of the more eclectic kind of prog. These sophisticated chaps were a year (or two) ahead of me at University, and clearly knew their prog onions. Their sagely rubbing of chins when referring to Hawkwind, assured me that I needed to reappraise the band. I knew that Space Ritual was thought by many to be their finest hour: a double live concept album. Clearly this had potential.

As I say, it would be misleading to call myself a Hawkwind fan. Interested certainly. Their sleeve artwork was very interesting and achieved the objective of making me want to learn more.

The first time I played Earth Calling /Born To Go, I smiled. This was exactly what I expected: what I would term 'trance music', as opposed to dance music - sonic soundscapes of guitar and keyboard effectively waning back and forth behind a relentless fast paced rhythm. This was very simple in structure, capable of pulling you in utterly; entirely hypnotic and clearly conducive to an occasional toke of a herbal roll-up. This was a soundtrack to a student bed-sit; darkened corners, suspiciously fragrant, of dubious hygiene and a dressed with a red light bulb. As simple and as 'dirty' as it was, I had doubts from the first track alone that it qualified as prog: I still saw it as breed of metal.

The opening of Down Through The Night was very similar to another band I'd just been introduced to by my shower of University friends: The Pink Fairies. Listening closely to the guitar on this track, I wondered how much it bothered the band that they were probably never revered for their musicianship. The guitar playing is extremely subtle with a restraint I wouldn't necessarily have associated with the band. It gets then becomes very prog with Michael Moorcock's suitably manic wacked out spoken passages. Admirably mad.

An obvious pattern begins to emerge, as each track is driven by essentially the same drum beat and rhythm guitar with the variances being in how the solos by all instruments steer what is essentially a series of jams interspersed with the aforementioned science fiction writer's narrative progression. Put like this, it would be too simple to state the obvious: that it's all a bit 'samey'. Well yes, of course it is, largely. But, not being a 'fan' as such, I do feel somewhat out of my depth in giving proper credit to the nuances that lend this particular sub-genre of prog the credence it deserves.

It's taken me many years to appreciate the complexities of much of Space Ritual. The brilliance of Nik Turner's sax on Orgone Accumulator, for example, passed me by almost unnoticed for many, many plays. It wasn't until I shifted my perception and somehow viewed the band as a British Gong that I started to get it. Nowhere is this more evident than with Upside Down, which could so easily have been recorded on a Gong album from the same period.

I also found myself imagining the experience of being in the crowd the night it was recorded. In an altered state, with leading edge light shows, naked dancing and disturbing sound effects, Moorcock's delivery of 10 Seconds Of Forever must have be akin to a religious ceremony. It is not difficult to imagine the heat and movement of the crowd working as one.

7 by 7 is more sedate: acoustic guitars (still accompanied by wind sound effects) building to include an excellent bass which also noticeable for particularly strong harmony vocals.

Over the last three of four tracks, there is great sense of a growing climax. Time We Left This World Today features a riff which Tony Iommi would surely have killed for. The intensity at this point really is quite unique.

Master Of The Universe is frighteningly immense; a gargantuan monster of a song with remarkable energy levels, especially given the pace throughout the live concert. The solos from players are deserving of several superlatives. The tightness of the band is also testament to their craft.

I find it easy to equate the devotion Hawkwind's fanbase has for their live shows and the legacy of their classic period to the same devotion paid to The Doors, a band I feel much more closely affiliated to. Jim Morrison had a mission to control an audience, trying to engineer deviation to the status quo, often working thousands of people to the point where revolution was imminent. With each repeated play of Space Ritual I can feel the communal focus and trance like power the band had in this, their heyday.