Search - Hawkwind :: In Your Area

Big Goofy Mess - Not One Of Their Best

happydogpotatohead | New Orleans, LA USA | 09/10/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

"It starts off with a live version of "Brainstorm" which is pretty good, but just as it gets up a head of steam the whole thing sort of drifts into a...uh...reggae song? And a bad reggae song at that! Which deflates all the impetus they've built up, so even when they try to segue back into "Brainstorm," the energy is lost. "Alchemy," the following track, is better, even if it is basically a rehash of "Hassan I Sabah," but then all of a sudden everything comes crashing to a halt with "Love In Space," which is dreadful, awful, and cheesy; lounge music for the Starship Enterprise. After that nothing really takes off, although I have to give points for the "Rat Race/Aerospace Age Inferno/First Landing On Medusa" medley; it rocks. But even that is shot down by the silly "I Am The Reptoid," which is followed by the even sillier "The Nazca," with a cosmic female voice announcing New Age platitudes over a mushy synth track. The rest of the CD gradually runs completely out of energy, terminating in "Diana Park," which is dreadful fake-Santana noodling. Even dedicated Hawk fans won't find much to like here, and non-Hawk fans will find it unlistenable. Better luck next time, guys."

How the mighty are fallen

Stephen E. Andrews | Somerset United Kingdom | 09/08/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"What has Dave Brock done since about 1992? The answer - getting quite a number of people with very little talent into Hawkwind, taking them down the route of bad reggae, idiotic and illiterate raps filled with ecological/political cliches etc..this is not an album that will impress the serious Hawkwind fan, who prefers original musicians of quality to today's sad latecomers
Well, this album has two high points, the beautiful instrumentals 'Prairie' and 'Diana Park', but suffers terribly from poor track indexing (some cuts run together -and I don't mean segueing).
Come on Dave - get people of the quality of Simon House back into the group and start making real music again."

Hawkwind - 'In Your Area' (Griffin Music)

Mike Reed | USA | 12/08/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Since Griffin had come back in business,this was their first new release.A mix of new studio cuts,unreleased tunes and a few old songs performed live.Guest vocalist Capt. Rizz sings sort of a rap number "Hawkwind In Your Area" that is sandwiched between a decent version of "Brainstorm".A new song "Rat Race" is played in the middle of a modern day Hawkwind classic "Love In Space".Two long-lost Bob Calvert gems are here,the fantastic "Aerospace Age Inferno" and "First Landing On Medusa"(actually it's a reworking of "the Awakening").I was decently impressed with most of the new tracks like "Your Fantasy",the tripping "Hippy" and "Luxotica".Founder Dave Brock and new guitarist Jerry Richards both display plenty of good keyboard work on this twelve track effort.Better than their disc that came out just before this title,'Distant Horizon'.Good space rock with last power.Check it out."