276. Hawkwind - Space Ritual (1973)
















Track Listing

1. Earth Calling
2. Born To Go
3. Down Through The Night
4. Awakening
5. Lord Of Light
6. Black Corridor
7. Space Is Deep
8. Electronic No 1
9. Orgone Accumulator
10. Upside Down
11. Ten Seconds Of Forever
12. Brainstorm
13. Seven By Seven
14. Sonic Attack
15. Time We Left This World Today
16. Master Of The Universe
17. Welcome To The Future

Review

Ahh! The Mighty Hawkwind grace our ears with their mighty muzak! Ok, there is only one way to listen to this live album and that is loud. I think I should make a list of pros and cons here, for this album are the very amazing riffs on some of the tracks which sound heavier than anything before them. Against this album is basically everything else. It sounds silly, the writing particularly on the spoken bits written by the great Michael Moorcock sound silly in the voice in which they are delivered, they might actually look not bad on the page but there is an overdramatic delivery which might be tongue in cheek, but it might also not be and if it ain't it's scary.

Another thing which goes against this album is the fact that it is very long and very samey, its hard to tell a lot of the songs apart except for the different lyrics. Hawkwind got a full guitar riff sound which works and so they just use it throughout. Frankly it's not enough.

The album can still be enjoyed thoroughly, because the heavier tracks do work, but there are to many irksome elements for it to be a truly great album. There is a refreshingly Motorhead like sound to the album tough and you can really see how Lemmy developed his sound from here (he's the bassist in Space Ritual). Now I am sure that seeing this live would have been a completely different experience, Hawkwind are famous for their on stage shennanigans and amazing stage shows and would probably completment the music nicely enought for it to be worth the admission price, as it is it just becomes a somewhat laughable attempt at profoundish science fiction rock. Actually I pity Moorcock here, he is a great writer and listening to this album should not taint your ideas of Moorcock, father of Elric, creator of multiverses. Get this album at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Down Through the Night
2. Orgone Accumulator
3. Master Of The Universe
4. Brainstorm

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Former Black Flag and current Rollins Band singer Henry Rollins is a fan, as is Jello Biafra. The Sex Pistols included "Silver Machine" in their reunion performances of 2002; while reviewers may have seen this as "ultra ironic", John Lydon made it clear that this was a tribute. Another musician who has claimed Hawkwind as an influence is Joy Division/New Order bassist Peter Hook, who took his father to Hawkwind concert as a teenager in an attempt to help him appreciate rock music in a more visceral fashion. Because of the rapid beat of many of their songs and jams, and perhaps to a lesser extent Robert Calvert's solo collaborations with Brian Eno, Hawkwind was one of the few bands from the progressive/psychedelic era to maintain a following in the punk/new wave era. Similarly, the group would be cited as a seminal influence once more with the advent of electronica in the early 90s thanks to their pioneering work with synthesizers and Brock's motorik-esque riffs.

There is a tangible connection between the sound of Lemmy's later group Motörhead and that of the influential 1971-1975 group, with songs such as "Born to Go" and "Master of the Universe" during that time period played at breakneck tempos live (characteristic of punk) while containing guitar solos more reminiscent of heavy metal and psychedelic rock. With Motörhead, Kilmister would refine this into the sound of speed metal.

BBC 4 documentar on Hawkwind part 1/8, you can chase the other ones down by clicking on the video:

275. Bob Marley and the Wailers - Catch a Fire (1973)


















Track Listing

1. Concrete Jungle
2. Slave Driver
3. 400 Years
4. Stop That Train
5. Baby We've Got A Date (Rock It Baby)
6. Stir It Up
7. Kinky Reggae
8. No More Trouble
9. Midnight Ravers

Review

I've never been a particularly big fan of Reggae, I appreciated Bob Marley for some socio-political points and for his summery tunes, but living with this album for the last three days actually brought a renewed appreciation of the music. There is not a song in this album under the level of brilliant, 400 Years for example has an intro which sounds decades ahead of its time and could have been taken from a Portishead album in the mid-90's. Stir It Up is fun, but the album really catches you from Concrete Jungle and doesn't let you go until the end.

This album has just the right mix of socially counscious songs and lighter tracks like Kinky Reggae. This is a sonic revolution in the happening, Reggae was a style unheard in most of the western world, of course Britain already had a sizable population of West Indians which brought their music with them, but even so this is the first truly successful album of Jamaican music.

Paul Simon's debut album had already delved into Reggae with Mother And Child Reunion a year earlier, but this is a proper trenchtown product with a little help from a British producer. This is the real deal and it is just as good as it should be - revolutionary to western ears at the time, it stands up today as a brilliant collection of some of the best tracks in the history of Reggae. Get it today at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Kinky Reggae
2. Stir It Up
3. Concrete Jungle
4. 400 Years

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The first 20,000 copies of the original 1973 vinyl release were encased in the famous Zippo sleeve (pictured above). This sleeve worked as a Zippo lighter case would, opening at a side hinge to reveal the record within.

However, the producers soon realized that this operation would require hand-manufacture, as machinery available was not sufficient to rivet the upper and lower halves of the sleeve together.

Kinky Reggae:

274. King Crimson - Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973)
















Track Listing

1. Lark's Tongues In Aspic
2. Book Of Saturday
3. Exiles
4. Easy Money
5. Talking Drum
6. Lark's Tongues In Aspic

Review

And the Grammy of best use of Mbira in western rock goes to... King Crimson! Yay! The fact that the album starts with a solo on the african Mbira doesn't even start to scratch the surface of all that is happening in this album; there is just so much happening here and a lot of it at the same time that the first listen through are just overwhelming.

The first times I listened to the album I got a similar feeling to the one I get when I listen to Bartok's Concerto for Strings, Celesta and Percussion. An uneasy feeling in the pit of the stomach, but as it goes on and as you persist you are most definitely rewarded by one of the most exquisite albums of the 70's. There are abilities here on show that go much beyond the ability to play instruments well, the compositional skill is way up there and it is one of the Prog albums which actually managed to make art-rock. This is not a poor atempt like most ELP or Yes albums, this is much more in the realm of Can and Faust as a successful attemp to bring rock music to a more exalted level of erudition.

The genius of Robert Fripp is most definitely leading the qualities of the album, but it can at times feel slightly pretentious; the four tracks in the middle save it from that, however, with tracks that substitute the weirdness of the title track for something more immediately approachable. This is another essential album no one should be without, but you need to give it the right time for it to flower in your ears. Get it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Book Of Saturday
2. Larks' Tongue in Aspic (Part One)
3. Exiles
4. Easy Money

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album sees the band incorporate into its sound violin and also various exotic percussion instruments, including sheet metal and mbiras. The title was invented by percussionist Jamie Muir and is meant to signify what he heard in this album's music: something fragile and delicate (larks' tongues) encased in something corrosive and acidic (aspic).

Ahhh the wonders of the Internet! A Video of some other song by King Crimson with Book of Saturday as the soundtrack... well this is just so you can listen to the song anyway:

273. David Bowie - Aladdin Sane (1973)

















Track Listing

1. Watch That Man
2. Aladdin Sane
3. Drive In Saturday
4. Panic In Detroit
5. Cracked Actor
6. Time
7. Prettiest Star
8. Let's Spend The Night Together
9. Jean Genie
10. Lady Grinning Soul

Review

This is the third in a triology of amazing albums by David Bowie, although most of his production in the 70's is really amazing, these three albums, the present one, Ziggy and Hunky Dory really define early 70's Bowie. Aladdin Sane is definitely an album that could only have happened after Bowie cracked the States with Ziggy Stardust.

The American influence is plastered all over the album, from almost doo-wop numbers to Stooges like numbers, to the subjects it shows an artist which has had his horizons opened to a new world. This is at least intellectually very interesting, but it is more than that, it is also very musically successful, because Bowie didn't limit himself to lifting American musical styles into a pastiche album. Bowie recreates music with a keen eye not only for the music itself but also on how to subvert it. This is most aparent near the beggining of the album with the title track, where the disjointed piano transforms what would be an otherwise trite track into something different.

This is also one of the most risque albums of the period, lyrics like "Suck baby suck, give me your head" or "Flexes like a whore, falls wanking to the floor" are definitely not family friendly but they add a certain rawness to the album that is not just gratuitous.

I can't really say that this is the apex of early 70's Bowie, because it isn't as good an album as Hunky Dory but it is an essential album of the era not only for Bowie fans but for fans of music all around. That Bowie is a musical chameleon has become a cliché, but that he is such a successful innovator is something that needs to be listened to to be believed, so you owe yourself to get this album. So get it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Panic In Detroit
2. Cracked Actor
3. Lady Grinning Soul
4. Time

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

With a purported 100,000 copies ordered in advance, Aladdin Sane debuted at the top of the UK charts and reached #17 in America, making it Bowie's most successful album commercially in both countries to that date. Critical reaction was generally laudatory, if more enthusiastic in the U.S. than in the UK. Rolling Stone remarked on "Bowie's provocative melodies, audacious lyrics, masterful arrangements (with Mick Ronson) and production (with Ken Scott)", while Billboard called it a combination of "raw energy with explosive rock". In the British music press, however, letters columns accused Bowie of 'selling out' and Let it Rock magazine found the album to be more style than substance, considering that he had "nothing to say and everything to say it with".

Anime video for Panic in Detroit... whatever:

272. The Incredible Bongo Band - Bongo Rock (1973)
















Track Listing

1. Let There Be Drums
2. Apache
3. Bongolia
4. Last Bongo In Belgium
5. Dueling Bongos
6. In A Gadda Da Vida
7. Raunchy
8. Bongo Rock

Review

Hey! I'm back from Japan, and am extremely Jet lagged, so sorry if this is a bit all over the place. In the meanwhile I'm now a married gentleman with ring on my finger and everything. So, back to the reviews!

Ahhh, the Incredible Bongo Band, the name kind of says it all it's a mix of wackiness with just kitschy crap, a mix between brilliant and unnecessary. There are parts of this album that everyone should listen to and they are called Apache, there are parts of this album which aren't that bad and there are parts which are just plain wastes of time and space, all 4 dimensions of them.

So in the end you have a mixed bag, Apache is a really great cover of the Shadows track and the beat at the beggining has been used to death and helped bring about Hip Hop, again a mixed blessing. You can thank this album for both Grandmaster Flash and Vanilla Ice making you want to at the same time enshrine it and burn it. So there's a lot of bongoing going on here and a lot of it is of great quality, most of the brass was, however unecessary and the best bits are when the Bongos actually take solos and something really good is going on. The embelishments ruin vast amounts of the album. So you should get it only for completeness sake, or just download Apache off somewhere, then sample it and start a new music style. If you really want to buy it you can do so from Amazon UK or UK.

Track Highlights

1. Apache
2. Let There Be Drums
3. Last Bongo In Belgium
4. Dueling Bongos

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Although the band released two albums, 1973's Bongo Rock and 1974's Return of the Incredible Bongo Band, the band is best known for its cover of "Apache", a song originally made popular by The Shadows. This record languished in relative obscurity until the late 1970s, when it was adopted by early hip-hop artists, including pioneering DJs Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash, for the uncommonly long percussion break in the middle of the song. Subsequently, many of the Incredible Bongo Band's other releases were sampled by hip-hop producers, and the "Apache" break remains a staple of many producers in drum and bass. The song received popular attention again in 2001 when it was featured in an ad for an Acura SUV. Recently, music critic Will Hermes did an article on Apache and the Incredible Bongo Band for the New York Times.

The song "Let There Be Drums," which was made famous by Sandy Nelson and also performed by The Ventures, was used as the theme song for the long running television show "Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling" during the 1980's.

What a crap video of Apache, still you only really need the first 8 seconds to realise why this is an important album: