Release date: April 5, 2024
Label: Cherry Red Records
Production: Hawkwind
Album length: 59.45 min
Genre: Progressive Rock / Space Rock
Rating: 9.5 / 10
“Stories From Time And Space” is the 35th studio album from the long-lived British space rock institution
Hawkwind. That’s 35 studio records, and that’s not even counting the albums they’ve put out in the past
under alternative names like Hawklords, Church of Hawkwind, Psychedelic Warriors and
Hawkwind Light Orchestra. Keeping up with a discography this massive, packed with so many different
side projects, is a tall order even for the most devoted Hawkwind fans, especially when a new
studio record lands almost every year.
The follow-up to “The Future Never Waits” (2023, RockLine review) was recorded and released in less than a year, which is only impressive to those who don’t know the creative pace of the space rock pioneers under the now 82-year-old “captain” Dave Brock. His venerable age is probably Brock’s main motivation to record as much good music as possible while he’s still around, and fair enough. Over the past decades he’s lived through far too many untimely deaths of former bandmates and friends like Lemmy, Robert Calvert, Huw Lloyd-Langton, Ginger Baker and Nik Turner (well, those last two at least made it to 80 and 82, respectively).
Somehow Hawkwind keep managing to hold their studio albums of the last ten or fifteen years, roughly from “Blood of the Earth” (2010) onward, at a consistently high level, with no drastic
dips in quality, even though a new one comes out almost every year. “Stories From Time
And Space” is no different: it’s a classic Hawkwind album in every respect, highly eclectic and full of their
recognizable brand of space rock, with occasional touches of psychedelic rock and hard rock,
accompanied by sci-fi and socially critical lyrics. Unlike its predecessor, which
strongly recalled some of their most beloved work from the first half of the seventies,
“Stories From Time And Space” is a real Hawkwind “stew” of styles from their
different creative periods, including the eighties and later decades.
Most of the lyrics this time revolve around the inevitable passing of time and time travel. “Our Lives Can’t Last Forever,” backed by grand
symphonic arrangements and sung and played by none other than
frontman and guitarist Brock, is an ethereal yet unusually melancholic album opener.
“The Starship (One Love One Life)” is a classic, textbook Hawkwind space rock “trip” that
conjures up the feel of space travel mainly through a plethora of psychedelic synth effects, obscure guitar passages and signature
rhythmic patterns. “What Are We Going to Do While We’re Here”
is richly enlivened by sparkling sax passages that add
a little jazz to the traditional Hawkwind sonic elements. The fiery performance of longtime drummer Richard Chadwick (he’s been in
the band since the late eighties) is a real treat too, and he’s surely one of the most overlooked drummers on the prog rock scene.
On “The Tracker,” which sounds like a lost Hawkwind track from the seventies, you can clearly hear
how the early psychedelic rock scene, with Pink Floyd, shaped the young Brock and the development of
early space rock, while certain “Hawkwind-y” rhythmic elements, which you can hear this time too,
had an unmistakable influence on punk. The ethereal instrumental “Eternal Light” serves as a short overture to the
nostalgic “Till I Found You”. The acoustic-leaning instrumental “Underwater City” and especially the
Mellotron-spiced “The Night Sky” will remind some longtime
fans of the “Lost Chronicles” classic from “The Xenon Codex” (1988) with their romantic ambience. Among the album’s highlights are
the eclectic carousel “Traveller of Time & Space,” which features string arrangements among other things,
and “Frozen In Time,” unusually melodic by Hawkwind standards and sung
by guitarist/keyboardist Magnus Martin. Fans of space rock crossed with jazz rock fusion will
get their fix with the closing “Stargazers.”
Of all the progressive rock pioneers still active that emerged in the late sixties,
Hawkwind are probably the ones you can most count on not to “screw it up” and to reliably
deliver an excellent studio album, even though Brock is one of the oldest rock
musicians still active. That’s exactly why it’s no surprise that “Stories From Time And Space” is a treat for all
fans of “old-school” space rock from the golden days of the progressive rock movement. Hawkwind age
like fine wine, and let’s hope their spaceship keeps sailing the musical galaxies of our
dimension for a long time yet.
Author: Peter “Dr. ProgRock” Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Our Lives Can’t Last Forever (5:37)
2. The Starship (One Love One Life) (7:40)
3. What Are We Going to Do While We’re Here? (7:04)
4. The Tracker (5:00)
5. Eternal Light (1:40)
6. Till I Found You (4:51)
7. Underwater City (3:05)
8. The Night Sky (2:28)
9. Traveller of Time & Space (7:27)
10. Re-generate (5:02)
11. The Black Sea (1:11)
12. Frozen in Time (3:25)
13. Stargazers (5:15)
Lineup:
Dave Brock – guitar, vocals
Magnus Martin – guitar
Tim “Thighpaulsandra” Lewis – keyboards
Doug MacKinnon – bass guitar
Richard Chadwick – drums
Guest musician:
Michal Sosna – saxophone on track no. 3
