Hawkwind - Levitation
#418
by Tom Mott
October 27 1980
Hawkwind
Levitation
Genre: Stonehenge as Ancient Technology
Allen’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Tom’s Rating: Rating: 4.0 out of 5
Highlights
Levitation
Dust of Time
Valium 10 (CD bonus track)
Time Of (CD bonus track)
I like my space rock kinda dumb. High falutin' six-movement pieces with spoken word interludes are not for me. Give me Rat Bat Blue or Interstellar Overdrive. Hawkwind delivers the best, greasiest kind of dumb space rock, like the Status Quo watched Pink Floyd's Live in Pompeii and said hold my beer. Each of the tracks on this album finds a bass riff, locks into a groove, and says fuck the sun, set the controls for the heart of the asteroid belt. If you told me one band member simply plays the panning knobs on the mixing board, I'll believe you.
After the second play-through, I had to look up the drummer. Ginger Baker! WTF?!? Baker is essentially a jazz drummer, but when he locks into these krautrock beats, strap in to your electric tepee. Who's Gonna Win the War is almost a highlight, but it sounds too much like it could've been on Pink Floyd's The Wall. I prefer my Hawkwind uncut.
It's not as good as a Hawkwind hits compilation, but damn it's tight. I'd rate it higher, but my favorite song by a couple parsecs is a bonus track from the CD re-issue: Valium 10, which plays out like a pagan ritual performed by scratching space druids. check it out.
https://open.spotify.com/album/7od76AbiqMolzFxS2QqwpJ?si=NJNhE_uVSJSePoNHDvVDvw
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