276. Hawkwind | The Space Ritual Alive in Liverpool and London (1973)

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Wikipedia Entry

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Tracks

1. Earth Calling
2. Born to Go
3. Down Through the Night
4. The Awakening
5. Lord of Light
6. Black Corridor
7. Space Is Deep
8. Electronic No. 1
9. Orgone Accumulator
10. Upside Down
11. 10 Seconds of Forever
12. Brainstorm
13. 7 By 7
14. Sonic Attack
15. Time We Left This World Today
16. Master of the Universe
17. Welcome to the Future

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The Space Ritual Alive in Liverpool and London is a blistering album. The music is hard rock. The songs vary between long, thick, intense guitar-laden sings heavy on jamming and light on singing, and cosmic keyboard-driven, spoken-word interludes. A quite notable feature is the melodic, lyrical bass lines the weave their way effortlessly through a powerful wall of sound.

The music is relentless, pulsating, loud, single-minded and merciless. It does seem like standing at the edge of the ocean while being continuously pummelled by large, fast-moving ocean waves that are being created by a powerful storm out at sea. That is, doing that while resisting with all one's effort from being knocked over and tossed around by the sea.

This album is both overwhelming and comical when listening for the first time. The album is so long that it was hard to get my bearing for where I was in the album. The album also has, for a story or concept, all this pseudo-scientific and futuristic mumbo jumbo, as if 1960s hippie culture had been transplanted in a faraway future near the end of the universe's existence. Despite being silly and outlandish at first, the nonsense story ultimately adds to the experience, that is, if one is able to suspend disbelief and hold in one's guffaws.

This album is worth listening to hands down. It is more than just an album, it's an experience. The audiences who did in fact experience this performance got their money's worth. This album definitely deserves to be on the 1001 Albums list; not only because is it excellent, but also because hardly any bands will ever be so adventurous again. Like King Crimson's Larks' Tongue in Aspic, this album is the high point of progressive rock.

All the long songs are outstanding. The short songs are pretty good, too if you are willing to suspend disbelief.

★★★★★★★★★★