Search - Hawkwind :: Warrior on the Edge

Mellotron madness!!!

D. Galante | watchcity, Ma | 01/29/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"No one seems to talk about this one. I think it just might be my fav of theirs (I scored this here on Amazon for about $15, 4 months ago...lucky!!!) This record makes me feel like I'm on an acid trip, floating through that Dr.Who tunnel.



Complete 70's mindf**k of a good time."

THEIR FINEST.

celestial3 | DALY CITY, CA. USA | 09/08/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"IF YOU'RE A HAWKWIND FAN YOU ALREADY KNOW HOW GREAT THIS CD IS. IF YOU'RE JUST NOW DISCOVERING THEM THIS IS THE ONE YOU MUST HAVE. A BEAUTIFUL SAGA, EPIC ADVENTURE IN MUSIC. HOPEFULLY THIS WILL SOON BE SHOWING UP IN A REMASTERED VERSION AS THIS IS THEIR HARDEST ALBUM TO FIND ON CD EVEN IN A IMPORT VERSION. WITHOUT A DOUBT ONE OF THE FINEST EFFORT'S FROM ANY SPACE OPERA, OR ROCK BAND IN GENERAL. BRAVO HAWKWIND."

The Hawk's Second Greatest Album

Fritz Gerlich | admin@audioetc.info | 12/14/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"*****************Musicians:

* Michael Moorcock - vocals ("The Wizard Blew His Horn" and "Warriors")

* Dave Brock - guitar, keyboards, vocals

* Nik Turner - saxophone, flute, vocals ("Standing at the Edge", "Dying Seas")

* Lemmy (Ian Kilmister) - bass guitar, vocals ("Motorhead" )

* Simon House - violin, keyboards

* Simon King - drums

* Alan Powell - drums



The thing to note here is the use of two drummers and the lack of Robert Calvert.



*****************Technical Stuff

This is the first Hawks album that was recorded and mixed well, but the master has been lost or destroyed so we will never get a great cd version of this album. I guess thats why EMI did not rerelease it when they did all the '96 remasters.



The first cd version in '92 on Dojo records was a vinyl transfer and sounds reasonable. Then in '93 a Canadian company, Griffin, sourced the American vinyl master, which was a copy of a copy, and used that as the basis for their cd. That version sounds better and is the preferred one. The sound is good given the source. There is no 'loudness war' junk (google or wikipedia it if you don't know what it is), so the music is fairly dynamic. The eq suffers though as the bass is very anemic and the top end a little too dominant. But overall, the sound is better than the Dojo version.



*****************The Music

I think this is their second best release behind 'The Space Ritual'. It is quintessential Hawkwind.



It starts with the amazing 'Assault and Battery/The Golden Void'. Great double drumming, Mellotron, synths, flutes, saxes, and great fuzz from Brock and Lemmy. Lemmy's bass played shocked me when I first heard it as I only knew him from the proto-punk noise of Motorhead. I was amazed how creative and innovative his Hawkwind work was. Too bad he was kicked out and started playing just thrash bass.



The next track is 'The Wizard Blew His Horn'. Some people don't like Morecock's spoken word contributions, but I quite enjoy them.



'Opa-Loka' is an experimental jam.



'The Demented Man' is a folk based song that harkens back to their first release, a very good acoustic song.



'Magnu' is a driving rocker with an Arabic touch. The violin jamming is the highlight of the song, along with Turner's shadowing on sax.



'Standing at the Edge' and 'Warriors' are the other two more Morecock spoken word pieces.



In between the above mentioned spoken word pieces is 'Spiral Galaxy 28948' written by Simon House and is an expansive synth based instrumental track.



'Dying Seas' ends the album proper with some great riffage complimented by superb violin and sax work. It is only three minutes though, and really needed to be longer to develop properly.



On the later cd releases, the bonus tracks 'Kings of Speed' and 'Motorhead' are included. They are great strait ahead rockers. 'Kings of Speed' has a fantastic violin solo and some great guitar by Brock. 'Motorhead' sounds very much like a Motörhead song, fast with aggressive guitars.



This is Hawkwind at their peak and finally being recorded and mixed professionally. It is essential for any Hawks fan, and a good second album for newbies."