…If you don’t know who Hawkwind are by now, you’re not even trying. For those who are unaware, Hawkwind — they of the constantly changing lineup — are one of my all-time favorite bands. My fascination with space rock might have begun with Pink Floyd, but they could be sort of pussies, so Hawkwind’s heavy rhythms propel them to the top of the prog/psych heap. Their live album Space Ritual is believed to be one of the genre’s defining moments. Advertised as “88 minutes of brain-damage,” it is a document of the group’s 1972 tour, which featured liquid lights, lasers, nude dancers, wild costumes and immense psychedelic imagery. The combination of the live show with the science fiction-meets heavy rock music attracted a large fanbase of drug users, sci-fi nerds, and bikers. And me. Even though I was negative eleven years old at the time.
The soundboard recording offered here as Space Rock From London opens with a great spoken introduction counting down until “all systems go,” followed by the hard, driving “Born To Go,” which many familiar with Hawkwind will recognize from Space Ritual. Other highlights include “Brainstorm” and the raucous closing number “Silver Machine”.
I don’t think I have to say much about this one. It’s fucking Hawkwind. It kind of rules.
Hawkwind
Space Rock From London
MediaFire Download Link
Track Listing:
01) Born To Go
02) Seven By Seven
03) Brainstorm
04) Master Of The Universe
05) Paranoia
06) Silver Machine
South Londoners Robert Hampson, his wife Bex, and Phil King formed Loop formed in 1986. Theirs was a hypnotic and dark sound. The influence of a band like Hawkwind can be easily deciphered in their droning, psychedelic, white noise jams. Of course, if you read Erik Morse’s “Dreamweapon” biography of Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized, you kind of start to think of Loop as assholes who ripped off the Spacemen 3 sound and experienced more mainstream success. While certain songs definitely sound suspicious, there are many that are enjoyable and unique to Loop.
A Gilded Eternity was released in 1990, and was the band’s second album to reach #1 on the UK Indie chart. Drawing lofty comparisons to Sonic Youth’s Evol and Sister (which happen to be my favorite two SY albums), it is a sonic masterpiece, the kind of unsettling psychedelic adventure that not many bands could pull off without some feeling of cliche. Do the guitars ever cease? Is “Shot With A Diamond” the best song to ever reference Apocalypse Now? Do not miss this album if you in any way desire to lose your head for an hour. Look forward to Fade Out, perhaps the band’s finest moment, which will be posted in this space shortly.
Loop
A Gilded Eternity
MediaFire Download Link
Track Listing:
01) Vapour
02) Afterglow
03) The Nail Will Burn
04) Blood
05) Breathe Into Me
06) From Centre To Wave
07) Be Here Now
08) Shot With A Diamond
09) The Nail Will Burn (Burn Out)
10) Arc-Light (Sonar)
This album might be one of the greatest psychedelic gems I have ever uncovered. It was originally recorded in the late sixties by a group of high school and college aged kids from the Grosse Point, Michigan area. The discordant jams that form Index’s (I believe) untitled first album are as endearing as they are a fascinating. It is a document of a young band trying to create something personal and mature while still relying heavily on their influences. It opens with a short cover of The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High,” and the low-budget recording techniques are immediately audible. Imagine a less-savvy 13th Floor Elevators recording with one ambient microphone in a dead room. For all its adorable faults, this album manages to feature several great songs. The fuzz guitar leads on “Turquoise Feline” sound years ahead of their time. And remember, these were just kids. And this was occurring at the same time as the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Velvet Underground, and many more psychedelic rock bands who went on to achieve great success. Index is a sadly overlooked band who operated on a minuscule scale during an era of great importance to rock music. The fact that more people haven’t picked up on this album as a perfect merger between garage and psych is beyond me, considering it was created at the tale end of the garage rock movement and the beginning of the apex of psych’s mainstream popularity. Decide for yourself.
Index
Indiex
MediaFire Download Link
Track Listing:
01) Eight Miles High
02) Israeli Blues
03) John Riley
04) Turquoise Feline
05) Rainy, Starless Night
06) Fire Eyes
07) Shock Wave
08) You Keep Me Hanging On
09) Feedback
How does one describe Tar to the uninitiated? Without issuing gushing praise, it’s somewhat complicated. My friend Jet from Chicago introduced me to the wonderful band that blended harsh noise with otherwise cerebral rock songs to create a perfect maelstrom of intensity that could fall on either side of the sometimes tempestuous line that separates punk from rock.
So writes someone over at Trouser Press, “Roundhouse is a more fully realized effort, with guitars that methodically churn like threshers through a wheat field, underpinned by coldly relentless lunge-and-lurch rhythms. It’s the most industrial-sounding of Tar’s albums, and substantially reminiscent of then-labelmates Helmet. [John] Mohr’s monotonal vocals are effectively buried, just another layer in the band’s ominous sonic grid.”
If you come to this website often, have seen me write at great length about bands that would fall under an “Evan Rock” moniker, and enjoy the music I share from those bands’ discographies, you will most definitely want to download Roundhouse.
Tar
Roundhouse
MediaFire Download Link
Track Listing:
01) Les Paul Worries
02) Cold
03) Glass Grief
04) Pick One
05) Black Track
06) Bad Box
07) Mercury Block
08) Gag Reflex
09) Thermos
10) Jurbo
