Rock On! Wednesday, 6 March 2024 – Hawkwind, Iron Butterfly, Captain Beyond, Eloy, Brainticket & Atomic Rooster

Psychedelic, heavy, prog and more innovating sounds spanning the late 60s and the early 70s – Wednesday february 21st. Dan’s pick of the week: Hawkwind (Doremi Fasol Latido), Iron Butterfly (In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida), Captain Beyond (Captain Beyond), Eloy (Floating), Brainticket (Celestial Ocean) & Atomic Rooster (Death Walks Behind You).

Hawkwind is een Engelse rockband die bekend staat als een van de eerste spacerockgroepen. Sinds hun oprichting in november 1969 heeft Hawkwind vele incarnaties doorgemaakt en veel verschillende stijlen in hun muziek verwerkt, waaronder hardrock, progressieve rock en psychedelische rock.

Metal Reviews.com: “It’s difficult to sum Hawkwind up for the uninitiated. ‘Space Rock’ is, after all, a pretty unique subgenre of rocks classic and psychedelic that relies on drug-influenced weirdness to take the listener on the interstellar trips so beloved of lyric-writers then. Pink Floyd are probably the best-known players of the style, early classics such as Astronomy Domine and Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun all about man’s fixation with What Lays Beyond, yet it’s Hawkwind who made the genre their own, and Doremi Fasol Latido is arguably their masterpiece. The 70s were an amazing time to be a fan of music, without a doubt, and as brilliant and timeless as its classics are even over thirty years later, they must have been mind-boggling at the time, and this album is exactly that. (…)

The album never lets you down, interlude moment One Change not enough to break the atmosphere, and Lord Of Light returning to wonderful heaviness almost immediately. Hawkwind were one of the heaviest bands of the time, as their downtuned rumble will remind you, and even relatively lighter moments such as Down Through The Night still have oppressive atmospheres due to the effects and nervy, chaotic background flute. It’s hard to pick favourite tracks, although I’ve always had a soft spot for Time We Left This World Today, the backing saxophone and initial call-and-response vocals turning quirkier by the second, as eager to explore dissonance in melody as the solid backing riffs. Even The Watcher, which closes the album almost as an afterthought as Lemmy’s first composition for the band, is a solid fuzzy little number, twanging acoustic guitar and oddly phrased vocals from the legend combine to great effect. My version of the album has a few bonus tracks, all excellent; especially Urban Guerrilla with its Rolling Stones-esque groove, and Brainbox Pollution, a catchy throwback to the early days of Rock N’Roll that is still a live fan favourite.”

Wednesday, 6 March 2024 12:00 noon CET Brussels – 11 a.m. GMT London. Repeated: 16:00 & 20:00 hrs CET Brussels, 3 p.m. & 7 p.m. GMT London
Ends: 12 midnight CET Brussels, 11 p.m. GMT London.