Hawkwind  – Stories From Time And Space (Cherry Red)- That first note and that first line kind of set the tone – Time it waits for no one – that is a strong start from Brock, reflective, defiant and as we fade into the future our lives won’t last forever – that is a raw almost fragile voice a rather reflective (slightly defiant) Dave Brock and that is a rather melancholic way to start things off, powerful, emotional, strong.  Those Hawkwind into the 80s patches from the last century do need to be updated, a “Brock into his 80s” version is needed now and I guess he is and they are going to be reflecting about life not lasting forever and such. That opener, Our Lives Can’t Last Forever, sets a lot of the tone, thoughfear not, there’s lots of forward looking forward moving proper Hawkwind space travel here as well, the brave Baron Brock and his current band are properly flying when they need to. 

A first listen to another new Hawkwind album then, it landed here this morning, the last one, The Future Never Waits, still feels like the new album to me, these recordings are  arriving admirably quickly now, got to respect that (just as long as they’re not doing it by numbers – they’re not, nothing about this is phoned in). Last year’s album was seen by most, including us, as a return to (relative) form and their best studio album in years, pleased to report Stories From Time And Space carries on where the last album left off. Did rather fear the rapid turn around and the seeming production line (along with an impressive amount of gigs) might see the quality drop (again). Let’s be honest here, before the last one, things haven’t been quite so good in terms of albums, pleased to say that besides the yet again awful knocked-up-in-five-minutes art work, Stories From Time And Space is satisfyingly good, a strong album, it might even be better than last time around? Things are flowing well on the good spaceship Hawkwind as they glide through the 2020s, who’d have thought it?   

That bravely defiant opening track is followed by the upbeat psychedelic swirl of The Starship (One Love One Life), a positive call to not waste your time on this (or any other) planet, it sounds like a future live chant with that very positive if somewhat breezy One love, One life mantra repeated, a piece of music that kind of feels like a mid-afternoon floating through the air free festival tune – a kind of free-flowing Ozric Tentacles flavoured Orb-like freak out if that isn’t putting the cart before the horse? 

Third comes What Are We Going To Do While We’re Here, a mellow space rock spaceship-floating kind of thing that comes with more of that almost lounge jazz feel from last time mixed in with the Lighthouse feel until it takes off in that very traditional Hawkwind motorik forward moving way we all know and love during the second half of what is a rather fine track. So far so good and half way through this third track is where it really starts to feel like a properly proper  Hawkwind album – not that that should be taken as complaints about the first two tracks.

The Tracker comes in fourth, more of that proper oscillating space rock stuff that really could be no one else other than our much treasured Hawkwind (yes we are fans, yes we did launch the first (hand) printed edition of Organ out of the back of an old army ambulance (that the Police later trashed), and yes that was back in 86, we’ve sold thousands of copies of Organ at Hawkwind gigs over the years, Brock isn’t the only one feeling old). 

Mostly this is a kind of mellow album, a reflective album, a warm album, an honest album, a sometimes upbeat album although there are dark bits, there are sharp details, unexpected twists as well as the expected (or demanded) ones and even though the spaceship mechanics are wasted and they’re not making sense and things are making things tense (and things) and what are we gonna do while we’re here? Who’s gonna win the war? The urban guerillas? The warriors on the edge of time (who hide inside your brain and take over your mind). Now we’re flying and this is still the third track (we going round again now, fifth or six play now) and we’re off with that aforementioned fourth track again. The Tracker is more of that proper oscillating space rock stuff that really could be no one else as they try to tune into other frequencies and track those who might be out there? 

Hey look, you’ve got thirteen new tracks, I’m not going to go through all of them, I will say we are feeling pretty positive about all the pieces and that this new new album feels rather good. The start of Eternal Light is beautiful, quite wondrous, a spell cast, outside of time, reflective, once again the voice is fragile, honest, very real, right there, nothing hidden.

That keyboard bit there in Till I Found You has a bit of a Trick of The Tail period Genesis about before it all takes of again, later on there’s hints of The Doors and a not quite so we or windy Riders of The Storm as Traveller of Time & Space fades into the incidental science fiction film soundtrack of Re-Generate – a piece that slowly builds and broods in a delightfully dark blue deep space kind of way, Underwater City is glowing acoustic guitars and gentle synths…  

Hey, look, their 36Th studio album if someone has counted it right, it does stand up well as an addition and also as a progression in terms of more recent Hawkwind releases. It is a less urgent thing now (even if time might be running out), of course there isn’t the urgency or the early days or the proto-punk hints of paranoia that came along in the later 70’s, there isn’t the finger print of others now, none of that tension. This version of Hawkwind feels very much like Dave Brock and his relaxed friends, and it does feel relaxed, I guess he earned that much – yet without the sometimes dark foil of Calvert, the mischief of Turner, the strong personalities that pulled things in other ways and brought the real edge it is an easier ride now and of course they’re never going to touch on the classics of the early or late 70s, how could anyone reasonably expect them to? There is more than enough here, there is an occasional slice of menace, there are those trademark Brock bits, the roaming solos, those gradual (sometimes melancholic) crescendos, the peaks, the real musical highs, there is far more than enough here and Underwater City really is beautiful. This current band are far more than just a supporting cast backing Brock, something a little more than travellers of time and space (carrying their cargo of human waste, sending their cargo into the sun). 

We’re late into the afternoon and a good few first day plays as the early March light fades here in East London, the album has been on all day, the album feels good, there’s a warm glow, that’s a nice bit of violin(?). I like this album, I like it rather a lot, it feels right, it feels good, it feels content with itself, comfortable, proper, melancholic at times, graceful, reflective, as proper a Hawkwind album as any of us had a right to expect in 2024 (and a little more besides). Hawkwind are still on course, they have it right yet again after last year’s return to form. A second rather positive Hawkwind album of this decade, nice one .  (sw)     

Stories From Time And Space is presented by Dave Brock, Richard Chadwick, Magnus Martin, Doug MacKinnon and Tim “Thighpaulsandra” Lewis on both CD and double vinyl and will be released on 5th April 2024 to coincide with live shows in the spring and summer. – www.hawkwind.com / Bandcamp

Previous Organ Hawkwind coverage

Live Dates:
Wednesday 3rd April – Wulfrum Hall, Wolverhampton
Thursday 4th April – Academy, Manchester
Friday 5th April – O2 City Hall, Newcastle
Saturday 6th April – O2 Academy, Edinburgh
Sunday 7th April – O2 Academy, Glasgow
Monday 8th April – Mandela Hall, Belfast
Friday 14th June – Rock City, Nottingham
Saturday 15th June – Northern Kin Festival, Durham
Saturday 29th June – Retro C Trop, Tilloloy France
Friday 16th August – Forum, Bath
Saturday 17th August – A New Day Festival, Kent

Track List:
1. Our Lives Can’t Last Forever
2. The Starship (One Love One Life)
3. What Are We Going To Do While We’re Here
4. The Tracker
5. Eternal Light
6. Till I Found You
7. Underwater City
8. The Night Sky
9. Traveller of Time & Space
10. Re-generate
11. The Black Sea
12. Frozen In Time
13. Stargazers