Pre-Med 2013
Einstein’s Day Off
Science can be groovy when imagination strikes and the HAWKS-bitten engine revs up.
Not the most prominent branch of the HAWKWIND labyrinthine tree, this band’s third studio album keeps their course close to the mothership but adds hefty humor to the cargo. Backed by the "Chronicle Of The Black Sword" rhythm section of Alan Davey and Dan Thompson, singer and prime composer Danny Faulkner came up with an electric suite which takes a prog rock swing at the Large Hadron Collider and other explorations that puts the planet at risk, so “Bang Goes The Theory” opens it all with a funereal choral before Phil Oates’ guitar casts an urgent metal riff to direct the vocals towards the instrumental hope of “The Event Horizon”.
The initial formula works nicely throughout up to the clang of “Fragile Ship”, although a repetition quotient is quite high, especially in cuts like the 8-minute “Cern”, but it’s kept in check by imaginative percussion and Steve Leigh’s synthetic swooshes, and when another long track, “The Robonaut Project”, slows the pace down, cosmic solemnity sets in.”The Stargazer’s Apprentice” resolves it with arresting soloing and the solid-gold bottom end which Dave Brock has been lacking lately, yet in the title piece, the drift takes a pop turn – for the better – with a catchy hook and infectious, if slightly shoegazing, chorus which takes a life of its own in the atmospheric, exquisitely woven “Biosphere”. Perhaps, too serious on the first glance, this album has some charm.
***4/5
