The Judge
RAVES!
Date: 16/06/14
Hawklords - "Psi Power" (1978) PLUS BONUS TRACK!
When Hawkwind broke up in chaos in 1977 (the second time in just over two years), it appeared that that - cosmically speaking - was that.
What actually happened was that the two focal forces of the band - founder/guitarist Dave Brock and singer/lyricist Robert Calvert - reconvened at Brock's Devon home to put together a new project. This - for a combination of legal and artistic reasons - they preferred to call Hawklords.
Jettisoning the other three musicians who had appeared on '77's seminal Quark, Strangeness And Charm LP - keyboardist/violinist Simon House had gone off to join David Bowie, and bassist Adrian Shaw and drummer Simon King had simply been cast off (although King did return during the recording sessions for what followed) - Brock and Calvert recruited drummer Martin Griffin and bassist Harvey Bainbridge from local group Ark, plus ex-Pilot keysman Steve Swindells to record the album which became known variously as 25 Years On (its original title) and simply Hawklords.
The overall feel of the LP is pretty far from the acid-saturated space rock for which the Hawks had become famous/notorious, and represents a more subtle, less bludgeoning musical style; a further development from the sound on Quark, and one perhaps more in tune with the times. There's a humour bordering on playfulness in places (Flying Doctor, for example, where the Australian protagonist is heard talking to his base about his drug situation, "It's getting rather tight...about as tight as a kangaroo's khyber, I'd say"); there's also a near-punk attitude in at least the lyrics of the title track ("They didn't like my looks/I burned my books"); and there are moments of sublime beauty such as the soaring The Only Ones, which contains Calvert's most poetic lyrics on the whole LP ("Half human, half bird, ascending so high/The whisper is heard from deep in the sky/Of wings as they climb, they beat and they soar/Through space and time towards heaven's door").
In fact, that was the track I nearly picked out for this piece, but the one which is currently a most welcome earworm is the opening one, Psi Power. In it, Calvert describes the upsides and downsides of being telepathic. The upside comprising of being able - as a youth - to get "...inside the mind of any girl that I wanted to meet"; and the downside being that, "It's like a radio you can't switch off/There's no way to get peace of mind". I can overlook the slight technical inaccuracy of his description of Zener Cards (they don't include a triangle) when the track is as good as this. And not just lyrically, either; the arrangement (including guest trumpet from veteran sessions man Henry Lowther) is deft and unobtrusive, and the instrumental coda or playout is something I could happily listen to an a loop for a good old while.
Bonus Track!
Actually, sod it. Have The Only Ones as well, because you deserve to be introduced to something as bloody marvellous as this:
