Esoteric Antenna 2012
In The Lost Land Of Dreams
The HAWKS pilot steers good ship Enterprise into vibrant ethereal waters.
2012 saw the release of HAWKWIND’s double offering “Onward” and the debut release from HAWKWIND LIGHT ORCHESTRA, so one would presume these band’s leader can’t have much music left in him for the time being. As it turns out, Brock has: for the last five years, he has been collecting pieces that don’t fit the sci-fi concept of his group vehicles, but paint a futuristic picture of his native England – so the Churchill portrait on the wall of Dave’s study on the album’s back cover is not incidental. But the music sometimes is.
It takes on the ambient, cinematic form like in instrumental “Ecstasy” or “Sunrise Drive” as opposed to solid rock songs such as glittery “Higher Plane” and “Kiss” which combine a space edge with dance grooves, up to cosmic fusion in “Dreams”, while wonderful “That Day In December” and other short vignettes ensure an emotional continuity. Never far from psychedelic wars that rage in the heavy “Who Do You Think You Are?”, Brock still can pull a surprise from his sleeve, bluesy, harmonica-harnessed “Menace To Society” and erotic “Lover’s Whim” being the most obvious. More so, for all the usual guitar heroics, there’s a gentle, acoustic texture in the folky “We Took the Wrong Step” and in “Lazy Days” where fiddle line and Richard Chadwick’s jazzy drumming draw in a hint of “The Concierto de Aranjuez” before an organ crawl and a horn blow.
Be warned, though: a perfect trip into a dreamland, this album may be addictive.
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