Saturday, November 24, 2012

40 Year Itch: Space Chuggin





Space rock pioneers Hawkwind followed up their #3 UK charting single "Silver Machine" with their third album  Doremi Fasol Latido, a record that would appeal to the same "fanboys" of the early 70's who liked sci fi novels, prog rock and dropping acid in their basement apartments. This is the first album to feature bassist Lemmy from Motorhead and drummer Simon King. Doremi Fasol Latido was recorded at  Rockfield Studios in Wales which Lemmy described as a barn surrounded by mattresses. To appeal to the fanboys, the back cover includes the legend: 

 The Saga of Doremi Fasol Latido is a collection of ritualistic space chants, battle hymns and stellar songs of praise as used by the family clan of Hawkwind on their epic journey to the fabled land of Thorasin.



In his review for Sounds, Martin Hayman  gets to the essence of space rock's appeal:

The bass and drums batter on with unflagging pace, synthesisers swirl and whistle around the thunderous block riffs whose endless repetition generates that numbed hypnosis, tuneless and menacing voices incant largely incomprehensible lyrics. This is not to knock Hawkwind: the sound they are getting is thicker, fuller, more convincing than ever before. Its total effect is pretty devastating, but the means by which the effect is achieved is no revolution in sound."




The subsequent tour included dancer Stacia who was the subject of an earlier post. This clip includes some NSFW shots of Stacia and Lemmy's explanation of how he joined Hawkwind.

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