What can we say about Hawkwind? Certinaly nothing describes their prime-era better than Julian Copes words - "They were a collection of disreputable star rats fuelled by a battery of hallucinogenic influences and united only by an incorrigible sense of psi-powered, pre-1976 cosmic punk rock attitude broken off and gobbled as though it was their sole means of sustenance while playing riffs into the grooves with an relentless head of steam. The rhythmic repetitions offset by wordless trance-chants are hypnotic to the core and the whole mess is performed at raw and rambunctious paces as it blazes with one damn racket with nowhere to go but hurtling through space at the sound of speed, anyway. Towards anything and everything. With the jaws of black oblivion not far behind nipping at their respective asses they were already in process of playing off of so furiously. For they sank a couple hundred pounds of pressure into one square foot and punched it in with a single, swift and confident stroke of a psychic ball-peen hammer at the only point on reality’s windscreen overlooking the edge of oblivion where in its entirety, its safety glass pane turned into a sightless fog of equal, fracturing veins before shuddering weightlessly apart and floating gently outwards into the future".

Our cast of stellar devotees surely know all this and put it to good use in their interpretations of classic Hawktracks in the Sonic Attack triology of 7"s.

Sonic Attack (Lords of Light) are Bardo Pond and Kinski. Bardo Pond take Lord of Light on a psyche rock astral journey. A psychbliss epic version where guitars swirl and shimmer, drifting lazily across a gauzy sun dappled sonic sky. A spaced out jam of expansive guitars, dusty clouds of sonic whir, grungy outbursts and metallic undertones. Kinski lock into Masters of the Universe and build it from Krautrocking metronome-drone outer-space atmospherics to fuzzed-out mantric heaviness, fusing their twice removed blues with kosmische grooves.

Limited edition 7" in full colour picture sleeve.

Nov 2008, TR015.

This is sold out from trensmat.com but is available from our distributors - Cargo in the UK or Aquarius, Revolver & Thrill Jockey in the US and other good online vinyl stockists.

Bardo Pond - Lords of Light
Kinski - Masters of the Universe

Support :

The third and final instalment of the trilogy sees the groove space being shared by Seattle space cadets Kinski and the mighty Bardo Pond who between them source two of ‘space rituals‘ cornerstones for inspiration. Last featured in these very pages with that ultra limited and dare we say schizophrenic twin set for the Great Pop Supplement imprint entitled ’I guess I’m falling in love’ (see missive 28) and currently to be found wowing the Sub Pop faithful with their current full length ’down below its chaos’, Kinski go head to head with Hawkwind’s ’masters of the universe’ - admittedly not as full on as the original mix, instead these dudes apply a stripped down gridlocked motorik kraut groove to the mix that’s armed with a serious heads down heavily fuzzed and psyched out lysergic trading stoner grind which admittedly gets all superbly wigged and spaced out mid way through wherein everything goes all frazzled rawk in a kind of grizzled Sabbath way which is all mighty fine in our book.
Flip over to find Bardo Pond tangling themselves up in ‘lords of light’ and provide - push come to shove - the trilogy’s best moment by far. Rewiring the originals edgy full throttle dynamics the shade wearing Bardo’s apply a superb psychotropic glaze to the proceedings, beautifully wasted for the best part, the druggy stoner vibes reverberating seductively amid halos of glassy cosmic swirls and free forming tripped out trance like arcs of fuzzing wah wah’s that once they get their sh*t silkily coalesce into a driving slice of galactic dream weaving kaleidoscopic bliss pop that will leave most jaw dropped in swoon like awe.
Losing Today


Yep lets unleash the beast of Hawkwind to a load of psyched out funsters who are getting into the likes of Magic Lantern and Wooden Shjips. The fuzzy psyche space rock revival is happening whether you like it or not. I quite like the Bardo Pond track on here as they cover 'Lord Of Light'. It's a big heavy mogadon rinsed sludgey mess of a tune which makes me wish I had long hair and was dancing around with a load of big titted topless dancers like what Hawkwind used to have follow 'em around and that. Kinski cover 'Master of The Universe' and it's a fuzzy classic. I can't but help think of Monster Magnet. Man they were a great band. You should check out Tab folks. That rules!
Norman Records


Where to even start... HAWKWIND. The mighty lords of drugged out space rock, without whom, most of the bands we love might not even exist. These four Hawkwind records: Doremi Fasol Latido, Hall Of The Mountain Grill, In Search Of Space, and Space Ritual, are pretty much all anyone needs to know about space rock. Or whatever it is that Hawkwind do, long sprawling jams, extended psychedelic workouts, heavy and trippy, totally drugged out and divine, while at the same time, surprisingly catchy. But yeah, aQ folks probably already know how much we love Hawkwind.
So if we were to pick six bands to cover classic Hawkwind tunes, we might not have picked these six, but then again, we very well might have: Mudhoney, Mugstar, Acid Mothers Tempo And The Cosmic Inferno, White Hills, Kinski, Bardo Pond. Holy hell! If this were just a comp with those bands, we'd be all over it, but the fact that they're covering Hawkwind seems like it was made just for the aQ faithful, and who knows, maybe it was. Spread out over three 7"s, we almost didn't list these separately, but as a set, 'cause to our minds, who the heck would only want one or two of these? But you never know, so for those of you who didn't already freak out and toss all three into your cart, here's a brief bit about each specific 7":
On volume three, "Lords Of Light", Kinski definitely get their Hawkwind on, covering "Master Of The Universe", and like Mugstar on the first volume, not so much making it their own, as transforming themselves into a vessel through which the spirit of Hawkwind can flow, and flow it does. That main riff is such a killer, all the band have to do is ride it out, adding plenty of freaked out effects and psychedelic leads, the vocals buried in the mix, not getting in the way of the endless spacepsych jamming.
And finally, the series is closed out by another group of modern psychedelic masters, Bardo Pond, who add female vocals to their take on "Lord Of Light", the vocals drifting ethereally, over a roiling black cloud of FX drenched guitars and some seriously pounding drums, even a bit of flute (we think), and maybe more than any of the others managing to meld the sound of the original with their own, plenty of wah wah guitar, loads of effects, most of the track spent drifting through space, cloaked in blown out super distorted psych guitar and shimmering outer space ambience. Surprisingly heavy and totally blissed out.
The packaging is brilliant, perfectly tripped out psychedelic acid flashback, naked lady, geometric design, cribbed from the original Hawkwind artwork (or at the very least, an incredible simulation), the sleeves are printed complete with shelf wear and corner creases (so don't complain, they're meant to look like they've been on your shelf for decades), each one SUPER LIMITED, and already sold out at the label, we have a bunch, but these will be the only copies we'll ever have!!
Aquarius Records