Track Listing

1. Earth Calling
2. Born To Go
3. Down Through The Night
4. Awakening
5. Lord Of Light
6. Black Corridor
7. Space Is Deep
8. Electronic No 1
9. Orgone Accumulator
10. Upside Down
11. Ten Seconds Of Forever
12. Brainstorm
13. Seven By Seven
14. Sonic Attack
15. Time We Left This World Today
16. Master Of The Universe
17. Welcome To The Future
18. You Shouldn't Do That
19. Masters Of The Universe (2)
20. Born To Go

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16641 in Music
• Released on: 2001-08-20
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Extra tracks, Live, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .27 pounds

CD Description
Featuring Hawkwind's classic lineup, which included vocalist/guitarist (and band constant) Dave Brock and bassist/occasional vocalist Lemmy (soon to depart and form Motorhead), 1973's SPACE RITUAL is monolithic in stature and stands as thegroup's most impressive live (if not overall) recording. Although the ensemble often garnered comparisons to Pink Floyd, Hawkwind was far more aggressive than Waters, Gilmour, andcompany, charging through a potent, freeform set of cosmic freakouts (the trippy "Earth Calling") and rumbling metal ("Lord of Light" sounds like Black Sabbath in lunar orbit). While the entire outing is stellar, the British space-rock group really hits a stride during the epic "Orgone Accumulator", which settles into a deep, acid groove. Although the spoken-word segments (most notably a recitation of sci-fi/fantasyauthor Michael Moorcock's "Black Corridor" by vocalist/poetBob Calvert) might not suit everyone, SPACE RITUAL endures as both a document of its era and one of Hawkwind's finest releases.

Customer Reviews

If you value your immortal soul, buy this album.
Probably the most significant live album of all time. An absolute masterpiece. No other band has ever been as simultaneously chaotic and tight as Hawkwind are in this, their supreme offering. A piece of uncontrollable Godness come down to earth.

I still regularly (at least once a week - often more) listen to this album, despite first hearing it 30 years ago. I never tire of it, I never get bored. It still sends the same shivers down my back as it has done from day one.

Buy it. Play it. Revel in it. Faultless.

This is space rock
This is the album that defines space-rock. Never mind all the electronic tweaks & twiddles of Tangerine Dream et al. Hawkwind had those, too, but they also had unrestrained power. Before you buy this CD, be warned that it is LOUD. I don't mean loud: I mean LOUD. The version of Brainstorm here is probably the loudest and fastest piece of rock music you will hear, and several other tracks on the album come close to it.
The atmosphere is eerie and echoing, with even moments of relative peace such as Robert Calvert's The Awakening (actually the first stanza of his poem, "The First Landing on Medusa") and Calvert's recital of Michael Moorcock's The Black Corridor possessing a definite feeling of menace; some quieter songs, such as Down Through The Night and Seven By Seven shiver with an eerieness that was not so apparent in their original studio-recorded incarnations on the Doremi Fasol Latido album and the B-side of Silver Machine, respectively.
But when the peace is broken: boy, is it shattered. Calvert's Ten Seconds of Forever quivers into a stunning collision with Brainstorm, while his astounding performance of Moorcock's Sonic Attack (itself an unsubtle but potent rip-off of Peter Porter's famous poem, "Your Attention, Please") segués into a storming rendition of the Doremi-chant, Time We Left This World Today.
From the opening bars of Born To Go to the collapse of Master Of The Universe the band plays furiously but flawlessly. The CD bonus tracks include a frantic medley of You Shouldn't Do That and Seeing It As You Really Are that was a highlight of the mid-seventies collection, Roadhawks. This is definitely a CD to own, if you can stand the headaches.

Hawkwinds Finest Hour (and a half)
Absolutely mind blowing when heard on a dodgy bootleg cassette in 1976, as a spotty 15 year old who had hitherto only seen Hawkwind on Top of the Pops with bubble machine & Stacia shaking her considerable booty.

I knew that something had changed & in future I probably wasn't going to be listening to the, shall we say, rather precious stuff a middle class grammar school chap was supposed to like (that would be your Yes/ELP/Genesis)

Anyway back to the matter in hand. It starts with mournful far off howling and a disembodied voice calling across the cosmos - could be any pretentious 70's prog rock band so far. There is a pregnant pause & World War III starts - Oh My God this is THUNDEROUSLY LOUD & FLAT OUT & what are they thinking of & it blurs into the next track & that blurs into a POEM (!)and that blurs into another deafening track & that blurs.....

An hour & a half later you put it on again to see if it really happened....

I dont have any idea if, as certain other reviewers have claimed, that it influenced techno, or anything else. I don't really give a stuff who or what it influenced (except me!)

To summise, I can forgive Hawkwind all the cr*p that they have turned out since then (their quality control aint ISO 9002)just for this one moment of wonderousness....

Enjoy but please make sure it is maximum volume & non-stop or you wont really get that 1972 hit!