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.

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

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


This is a series of three split 7”s celebrating the music of Hawkwind. Each of these bands, well known on the underground psych rock scene, give their own unique take to 6 songs from the 70s Hawkwind and some of them really are awesome at channelling that stoned spirit of Hawkwind. Both Mudhoney (Urban Guerrilla) in a slightly punked up version and Mugstar, with a killer version of Born to Go, slay. Bardo Pond, give a stoned nod to Lord of Light while Kinski take on Master of the Universe and take it really slow like the original version from the Dawn of Hawkwind CD. The White Hills take on Be Yourself from the first Hawkwind record and do a pretty cool and psyched out version coming into the theme of the song at the end. Acid Mothers Temple go full throttle into their psychic universe with Brainstorm. A brilliant set of three 7” records. Good luck finding them as they are sold out at the label source.
Aural Innovations


Ireland-based label Trensmat pay their respects to space-rock pioneers Hawkwind through the labels favourite medium: the 7". Over this trilogy of vinyl-only releases, six very different outfits cover their heroes and mostly keep things relatively faithful to the source material.
You can trust Acid Mothers Temple, talking on 'Brainstorm' (from the 1972 LP Doremi Fasol Latido) on their side of the split with White Hills, to go down the typically freak-out route. And seeing as they are the band most overtly inspired by Hawkwind - to the point of being their tribute band - their entry sounds like, well, Acid Mothers Temple. On the flipside, White Hills take on 'Be Yourself' in their own fuzz/psych-rock mode. As for the rest, Bardo Pond and Kinski go head to head with renditions of 'Lord of Light' and 'Master of the Universe' on the relatively straightforward split, as expected doing Hawkwind filtered through their signature styles, while Mugstar submit a facsimile of 'Born To Go' on their flipside with Mudhoney, whose MC5-style rendition of the 1973 single 'Urban Guerilla' stands out as a definite highlight.
A great idea all in all, and one that will have fans,collectors and Hawkwind junkies foaming at the mouth.
Rock-a-Rolla


This collection of split singles finds modern psych and hard rock bands, each owing some debt to Hawkwind in their own approaches to music, paying tribute with fairly faithful covers. They’re split up by mood: Mudhoney and Mugstar get the rockers, AMT and White Hills take the more abstract numbers (White Hills’ read of “Be Yourself” being the most revelatory of the entire set), and Bardo Pond and Kinski splitting up the weighty, psychedelic side of things. Reminiscent of the ‘90s in every way – in particular the Ceres Records’ comp Assassins of Silence/Hundred Watt Violence, in itself a double-LP tribute to said space rockers – this is a straight-up pleasure, somewhat of the guilt-studded variety. However, all the participants step up, Mudhoney’s Peel Session take of “Urban Guerrilla” having blown me away when I caught them live some years back, and you could certainly do worse than support high quality bands covering one of the touchstones of modern intelligent rock music in all its squalor. Lovely artwork.
Dusted


Third and last installment of the inspired “Sonic Attack” split single series of Hawkwind covers on Ireland’s Trensmat Records. Seattle’s Kinski tackle “Master of the Universe” while Bardo Pond unleashes “Lord of Light” Spacy driving psych-pop slowly melts your brain.
Candy coated electrodes glow as they repeatedly pump the pulsing waves of energy into your very being, delivering them to your synapses to be dispersed throughout the whole. Arrayed before you in chronological order are the colours. All in the perceived spectrum are represented with more bleeding in around the edges. They slowly blend with the energy coalescing into an infinite sound radiating now from all the pours on your body as you are lifted to a higher plain by the hawkwind.
KFJC 89.7FM


This is a series of three split 7”s celebrating the music of Hawkwind. Each of these bands, well known on the underground psych rock scene give their own unique take to 6 songs from the 70s Hawkwind and some of them really are awesome at channelling that stoned spirit of Hawkwind. Both Mudhoney (Urban Guerrilla) in a slightly punked up version and Mugstar, with a killer version of Born to Go, slay. Bardo Pond, give a stoned nod to Lord of Light while Kinski take on Master of the Universe and take it really slow like the original version from the Dawn of Hawkwind CD. The White Hills taken on Be Yourself from the first Hawkwind record and do a pretty cool and psyched out version coming into the theme of the song at the end. Acid Mothers temple go full throttle into their psychic universe with Brainstorm. A brilliant set of 3 7” records. Good luck finding them as they are sold out at the label source. I got mine on Ebay.
Lowcut


Three in Trensmats Sonic Attack Series of singles, on each of which two groups cover two Hawkwind tunes with stellar results. From the White Panther spuzz of "Urban Guerilla" (courtesy of Mudhoney) to the fully smoked squiggle-dive into "Lord of Light" (by Bardo Pond), this is a fantastic set of records, paying tribute to a group thats not as well remembered as they ought to be. The sleeves are excellent too - a nod to the departed brilliance of designer Barney Bubbles. My only regret is that they didnt ask Wurm to tackle "Silver Machine".
The Wire


Bardo Pond's version of "Lord of Light," from a series of excellent-looking Hawkwind tribute singles on Trensmat, is reminding me just how damn good they are. Seeing them destroy the crap out of a hundred or so eardrums at Ottobar a bunch of years ago is still one of the pinnacles of my live-music-watching career. And Bardo Pond covering Hawkwind is basically the reason God invented bongs.
Chicago Reader


Let's discuss Hawkwind for a moment, shall we? To steal from an associate of mine- DRUG SOUP. All this "Space Rock" or "Druggy Sound" that you have to hear cheems go on and on about these days- those dome-melters wouldn't exist without Hawkwind. I'm not going to go on and on, I will just say that I thought my friend was joking when he recommended me a hawkwind record at age 15. I listened to it and became a little less of a tool.
Trensmat, great new psych label across the water, released a limited set of three 7"s comprised of six contemporary bands covering Hawkwind. The records were more or less sold out before they even made it to stores. Shit is out of control and you need to hear it. Of particular note- the Bardo Pond track is absolutely garunteed to introduce you to an entirely different level of thought. Be sure to send me a postcard when you hit that next level of consciousness. Righteous.
Shredding from Beyond