Hawkwind / Gong

francesco

Minerva Estassi
mms said:
What are your favourite releases by them?

Hawkwind - in search of space (cd bonus Silver machine)/doremifasol latido/space ritual (2cd) live

Gong - flying teapot/angels egg/you + camambert electrique
 

Diggedy Derek

Stray Dog
I like Hawkwind a lot. I don't own any albums, but when it comes on, it's great. Space Ritual and In Search Of Space are probably their best, after that DoRehiFahSoLa (or whatever) is good. Warrior On The Edge of time is also pretty rocking.

The first album is an exception to the rest of their sound; it's mostly non-distorted, non-electric, and it's really nice. Rather wyrd-folkish.

Gong i'm not too keen on, but their first album is wonderful- twitchy, almost cutesy psych-pop that's rather like Olivia Tremor Control. Good stuff.
 

Diggedy Derek

Stray Dog
i like the phrase "do you admire them?". Strangely, with Hawkwind I definitely do- they're not just a druggy mess, and it's not just "space boogie". There's almost some funk in their tightness, some Neu! in their motorik. There's a tissue paper between Hawkwind and Krautrock I think.
 

mms

sometimes
what about canterbury stuff in general ?
what do you think is good people?
kevin ayers - dr dream is mental.

hawkind used to play at camborne rugby club every year, there were loads of inspired bands in cornwall like moondragon, who i remember seeing play in the local park , one track good trip, a mantra ofthe words 'good trip' sung infront of an audience of kids with ice creams on a sunday afternoon with their parents was very funny.
 

arcaNa

Snakes + Ladders
"You" by Gong is their best album ever, IMO- not so keen on the other ones.

Superb VCS3 drone-synth work, less of the silly gnome-interludes and more focus on actual (albeit psychedelically mutated) "songs",
huge slabs of never-ending space rock build-ups where Didier wrings wild fits and bursts out from his saxophone (The Isle Of Neverwhere, which surprisingly manages to be something near *funky*...),

Daevid Allen shuts up for once and lets the band/instrumentals take over (bar the two disappointing, Zappa-ish tracks which i always skip: "Thoughts For Naught" and "A P.H.P.'s Advice"),

some deep, droney "male voice"/aah-aah humming, which leads you to think of a pack of shrooming monks invoking some sort of odd tibetan jester deity (Magick Mother Invocation, A Sprinkling Of Clouds),
and again: the VCS3 synth sounds absolutely *superb*....god, i love this sound. (didn't Thighpaulsandra use it on a lot of tracks, aswell?)
 

PeteUM

It's all grist
Can Gong be separated from psychedelic drug experiences? I have a mate who has never so much as smoked a cigarette and he used to listen to Gong, but I'll never quite get my head round why he did.

I've held back on this thread because I'm still quite new and it would be uncool to start talking about Steve Hillage and so on. :(
 

redcrescent

Well-known member
Hawkwind - Space Ritual I suppose. The Stasis comp is pretty good too.

Gong Live Etc. has some good bits on it IIRC. Outtakes, innit.

mms said:
Canterbury
This merits a long and winding thread all by itself. Some incredibly good stuff, obviously Matching Mole, Softs, Hatfield and the North, the awesome Caravan, etc etc etc.
A facet that I'd love to explore more is British 60s jazz, I would think there would be quite a bit of cross-pollination going on between the jazz people and the Canterbury scensters.
 

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
Never really liked Gong, I prefer Steve Hillage's solo stuff ("L", "Fish Rising" and "Green". Waddya mean uncool to talk about Hillage, PeteUM? Surely nothing is sacred or uncool on here).

Hawkwind - hehe - I am probably one of the few who likes their late "Quark, Strangeness and Charm" album and even their PXR-5 collection.

I went to see them live last year here in Croydon at Fairfield Halls and they were great - silly dancers, live poetry, white lab coats, full on white light strobes and some guest guitar wizard 5ft tall in full retro biker gear.
Not the best gig you will ever go to, but for something different a bunch of spaced out late hippies is not a bad experience.

It is telling though that their "new" single is "Spirit of the age" (from Q,S&C - 1977 or so) - these guys have been going on auto space-pilot for years, no wonder their new album is called "Take Me to Your Leader" ;-)
It even features Lene Lovich (and no I haven't invested, but it's good to
know that Lene is still around somewhere).

Anyone else seeing the classic Motorhead "Ace of Spades" line-up on BBC2 yesterday?
 
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mms

sometimes
arcaNa said:
"You" by Gong is their best album ever, IMO- not so keen on the other ones.

Superb VCS3 drone-synth work, less of the silly gnome-interludes and more focus on actual (albeit psychedelically mutated) "songs",
huge slabs of never-ending space rock build-ups where Didier wrings wild fits and bursts out from his saxophone (The Isle Of Neverwhere, which surprisingly manages to be something near *funky*...),

Daevid Allen shuts up for once and lets the band/instrumentals take over (bar the two disappointing, Zappa-ish tracks which i always skip: "Thoughts For Naught" and "A P.H.P.'s Advice"),

some deep, droney "male voice"/aah-aah humming, which leads you to think of a pack of shrooming monks invoking some sort of odd tibetan jester deity (Magick Mother Invocation, A Sprinkling Of Clouds),
and again: the VCS3 synth sounds absolutely *superb*....god, i love this sound. (didn't Thighpaulsandra use it on a lot of tracks, aswell?)

yeah i like this one best too. and then angels egg. isle of neverwhere is ace
have you ever heard their new york gong stuff that was them 'transformed'y ny punk and new wave?
odd stuff, proberly worth mentioning all the french players as well as the english jazz guys when talking about them guys as well
 

PeteUM

It's all grist
Yeah I've got that New York Gong LP. I think it's pretty much just Daevid Allen and Material, or Bill Laswell and co anyroads. I like the album Allen did with Kramer from Bongwater too.
 

bassbeyondreason

Chtonic Fatigue Syndrome
There's an awesome Hawkwind live double LP released in the early 80s called The Text of Festival. Lo-fi 71-73 era recordings, lots of freeform weirdness.
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
quite straight ahead this one but pretty good imo

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massrock

Well-known member
Yeah let's do some Gongs. This the Gong related record on Shandar.

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Kate Mossad

Well-known member
i like the phrase "do you admire them?". Strangely, with Hawkwind I definitely do- they're not just a druggy mess, and it's not just "space boogie". There's almost some funk in their tightness, some Neu! in their motorik. There's a tissue paper between Hawkwind and Krautrock I think.

When I first started playing around with music software a few years ago I sampled some stuff from the Space Ritual album. It's all consistently tight as hell, amazing, especially considering it's a live album.

Hawkwind's Dave Brock actually wrote sleeve notes for the UK release of the first Neu! LP. Came out on United Artists, Hawkwind's label as did the first readily available Can releases I think.

Favourite record? This bad boy!

cover_225573012005.jpg
 
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