VELVET THUNDER

It’s probably fair to say that this is the most difficult Hawkwind album to assess with the benefit of hindsight … The following year’s In Search Of Space was itself still transitional, but if that was a stepping stone towards Doremi and Space Ritual, this album is the riverbank that those steps began from.

So – the Hawkwind 1970s reissue series, which has been meandering both backward and forward in time since Warrior On The Edge Of Time got the treatment some years back, finally alights on 1970’s debut album. It’s probably fair to say that this is the most difficult album to assess with the benefit of hindsight, since it is the one which sounds the least like the Hawkwind we generally think of – with a couple of exceptions. The following year’s In Search Of Space was itself still transitional, but if that was a stepping stone towards Doremi and Space Ritual, this album is the riverbank that those steps began from. This isn’t to say that it’s a poor album mind you – but it is certainly almost impossible to imagine what one would have made of it at the time, without the knowledge of what was to blossom from it (I myself was nine years old when it appeared, and Hawkwind wouldn’t have been on my radar even if I had heard of them – that honour would fall to the Silver Machine single on Top Of The Pops when I was eleven, and subsequently Space Ritual, but that’s another story). Listening now to this album, as I first did in the late ’70s, it still leaves the impression of being patchy in places but with great promise – but who knows whether the greatness which was still to come hinders this release by association, or helps in by putting it into context?

The most familiar and well-known track here by some distance is of course the opener Hurry On Sundown, a rather jolly upbeat acoustic based piece which originally sprang from Dave Brock’s busking days. Even after a lot of familiarity, it still bowls along quite infectiously, and despite its simplicity it gets the job done every time, even if it does so without sounding remotely like almost anything else the band would go on to do. It’s interesting to note that producer Dick Taylor, ex-Pretty Things man, provides the guitar soloing on this track, as well as some elsewhere on the album – despite the presence of Huw Lloyd-Langton, who of course would return more notably to the band around a decade later. Bookending the album is the other most un-Hawklike track, the closing Mirror Of Illusion; a sort of prog-folky effort with some nicely intricate construction, it is simultaneously the one track which would be naturally lumped in with Hurry On Sundown while paradoxically possessing an entirely different atmosphere about it. It’s still a good song though, and closes the album in a pretty strong way. In between these two tracks comes the more left-field stuff, as the band essentially played through their gig set, live in the studio in a single take at a time, and the results were edited into several – for want of a more accurate word – songs. ‘Pieces of music’ is closer, but still does not convey the improvisatory, part-structured nature of what we have here. The almost ambient feel of The Reason Is sets the tone by making it clear that Hurry On Sundown won’t be the template here, before Be Yourself comes in to double down that emphasis as it casually puts down a claim to, if not quite invent Space Rock, then certainly to apply for a patent. An opening vocal section is unsettling and slightly dissonant in the vein of one or two of Syd Barrett’s darker moments, but this soon morphs into the meat of the piece, which is an extended instrumental section driven along by a repetetive drum pattern filched almost wholesale from A Saucerful Of Secrets. Guitar and sax solos combine with plenty of electronic noises prefiguring later Hawk output, and it’s really quite exhilarating. Special mention must be made of relatively inexperienjced drummer Terry Ollis, who does a remarkable job keeping that drum mantra going with almost metronomic precision for the duration (no samplings or studio trickery here, naturally). A brief return to that uneasy vocal section closes what may well be the outstanding track on here, and one of only two which clearly signpost the way to mid-’70s Hawkwind.

Next up we get Paranoia, Parts One And Two – split up that way primarily to close the first side of vinyl and open the next. Part One is a short but very intense piece of dissonant and challenging sound, while the lengthier Part Two opens in less strident fashion, bit builds inexorably. Terrifying stuff if you’re in the mood to be thrown off-balance for sure, though by the same token not so much something that you’re likely to get the urge to suddenly hear on too many occasions. Part Two was later included on the 1976 Roadhawks compilation, which always seemed a baffling way to use up valuable real estate on a single vinyl album it must be said – but then again, when did Hawkwind ever do the expected? Finally in this central album chunk we have the ten-minute Seeing It As You Really Are, a largely improvised jam. Beginning as a sort of electronic exercise akin to the earliest Tangerine Dream recordings, by the time it approaches its end a familiar space-rock groove has begun to emerge, and it goes out on quite the high as we head into the aforementioned Mirror Of Illusion to close.

There are several bonus tracks added to this disc, which are actually excellent in parts. Three recordings from a demo of the band’s ‘Hawkwind Zoo’ period are included, with Mick Slattery still on guitar, and they are far better and more professional than you might expect from such a formative outfit. There’s an early take of Hurry On Sundown, which surprises by being, to these ears at least, superior to the final version. It’s longer, with a more substantial and rocky instrumental section, and overall is of a far more space/prog nature. Really very good indeed. The Kiss Of The Velvet Whip isn’t quite as interesting as the title suggests, though is a decent enough song which has been around on bootlegs for a long time, sometimes under the name Sweet Mistress Of Pain. Just don’t expect a seedy, lascivious workout a la Venus In Furs by the Velvet Underground! Finally there is, perhaps surprisingly, a cover of Pink Floyd’s Cymbaline, which appeared on their More soundtrack album – there are Floyd influences on the Hawkwind album for sure, but a cover of one of their tracks is certainly unexpected. In actal fact, it’s an excellent version, and to me gives the original a very good run for its money. There is also a Dave Brock solo version of Bring It On Home which came out on a 1969 album called The Buskers, and it sounds exactly as you would expect it to. Hawkwind it is not. You get the mono single versions of Hurry On Sundown and Mirror Of Illusion as well, but they are really for completists.

That’s what you get if you opt for the single disc version of the album, and for many it will suffice just fine. For those wanting to delver deeper, however, there is a 3CD box available (plus an audio DVD), which gives you a Stephen W Tayler remix of the album as well as some very early live material from Dave Brock’s own tape archive and a 5.1 surround mix. The Tayler remix is actually very interesting because he has reportedly used some different takes to create a sort of ‘reimagining’ of the album, including turning Paranoia into a single track (meaning you only have to press the skip button once, some might say!). It’s sharp and clear throughout, and I’m sure people with more time and obsession than myself will be scouring it to identify where different takes have been used. The live material is historically fascinating, though the sound quality is rough indeed – but then again, who was getting pristine recordings of Hawkwind in 1970? Some of this stuff has turned up on previous murky releases such as Text Of Festival, but there are benefits here. For a start, the sound, poor as it may be, is certainly better than I’ve heard the material before – at least in my recollection. Plus, the track We Do It, which really foreshadows the future space rock direction clearly, is the full version as opposed to one I previously heard which I am nearly certain was faded out.

Which version you get of this really depends on your degree of appreciation for this album, and your Hawkwind fandom level in general. If you love this album, you will need the Tayler remix of it for sure – if you believe it to be formative but not quite essential, you’ll be happy with the single disc. Similarly, if you’re a Hawkwind completist who sees the archival value in these live recordings, you’ll be in for the box set – but if you just want the album in your collection, with some nice bonus tracks, you can also stay downsized. Either way, you still get that rather splendid album cover with the alligator/dragon/whatever creatures emerging from the leaf piles which also spell out the band name. Now that’s properly 1970, and in an odd way still one of my favourite Hawkwind album covers – I can’t imagine this album without it. This is history in your hands – your perspective on it in context will be your own, Enjoy the journey.