P.X.R.5 [Bonus Tracks 2009] [PA]

Performer: Hawkwind
Producer: Dave Brock; Calvert; Hawkwind; House
Distributor: Infinity Entertainment Gr

Notes: Personnel: Dave Brock (vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards). Audio Mixer: Ben Wiseman. Recording information: DeMontford Hall, Leicester, England; Hammersmith Odeon; Rockfield Studios, Monmouthshire; Week Park Farm, Devon, England. Author: Dave Brock. Better remembered for the controversy that surrounded its original artwork than for either its contents or its genesis, Hawkwind's comeback from the yearlong Hawklords hiatus is historically one of the lesser-celebrated LPs in their canon. Not only was it their worst-selling new album since their debut nine years earlier, but the sheer confusion that surrounded its release, and (erroneous) reports that it was largely comprised of outtakes and off-cuts, lent it almost black-sheep status. But its original CD reissue remains a powerhouse collectible, and this remastered repackage restores it to the front line of Hawkish attractions. No less than eight bonus tracks double the running time of the original disc through the inclusion of two cuts mysteriously substituted on the earlier CD (a studio version of "High Rise" and a briefly extended take on the title track), plus a clutch of demos and alternate takes and a period live performance of "Quark, Strangeness and Charm." It's still a confusing and, in places, disheveled album, but the inclusion of such live favorites as "Uncle Sam's on Mars" and the breathless "Death Trap" establish it as a true Hawkwind classic. ~ Dave Thompson Regrouping following the year-long Hawklords adventure, Hawkwind's end-of-the-'70s incarnation was the last to feature vocalist/poet Bob Calvert alongside fellow veterans Simon House, Simon King, and, of course, Dave Brock. It is also the last in the sequence of brittle, pop-inflected records the band launched with Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music. But what farewells it contained. The opening "Death Trap," the ruminations of a doomed race car driver, kicks the album off with an explosion of energy and excitement that is positively punk-ish in its intensity. More than any of their own contemporaries, Hawkwind both understood and allowed themselves to absorb the energies of new wave, and only a faint unease about the band's supposed hippie leanings prevented them from linking with the Stooges, the New York Dolls, and the Velvet Underground in the pantheon of punky godfathers. The atmospherically drifting "High Rise," too, packs a certain fashionability, dwelling upon the rigors of life atop the towering concrete rabbit hutches that were springing up over the nation's cities, and haunting listeners with one of the most anthemic choruses in the entire Hawkwind canon. But traditional Hawkwind themes are not overlooked. "Uncle Sam's on Mars," while not a patch on the live versions of the day, is a throbbing and deeply spacy return to Space Ritual pastures, and the roughshod "Infinity" could have slipped out of In Seach of Space. Compared with the albums that preceded it, P.X.R.5 is not an all-out classic -- indeed, at the time of release, it drew more attention for a sleeve design that depicted the wrong way of wiring an electrical plug than for the music. But no best-of of the band's late-'70s output would be complete without at least half of P.X.R.5 falling into contention, and "Death Trap" is worth even more than that. ~ Dave Thompson Better remembered for the controversy that surrounded its original artwork than for either its contents or its genesis, Hawkwind's comeback from the yearlong Hawklords hiatus is historically one of the lesser-celebrated LPs in their canon. Not only was it their worst-selling new album since their debut nine years earlier, but the sheer confusion that surrounded its release, and (erroneous) reports that it was largely comprised of outtakes and off-cuts, lent it almost black-sheep status. But its original CD reissue remains a powerhouse collectible, and this remastered repackage restores it to the front line of Hawkish attractions. No less than eight bonus tracks double the running time of the original disc through the inclusion of two cuts mysteriously substituted on the earlier CD (a studio version of "High Rise" and a briefly extended take on the title track), plus a clutch of demos and alternate takes and a period live performance of "Quark, Strangeness and Charm." It's still a confusing and, in places, disheveled album, but the inclusion of such live favorites as "Uncle Sam's on Mars" and the breathless "Death Trap" establish it as a true Hawkwind classic. ~ Dave Thompson

Inspired equally by the hippie lifestyle/marathon jamming of the '60s West Coast bands and the interstellar excursions of Pink Floyd, Hawkwind helped invent "space rock" as we know it today. Through countless albums and personnel shifts, they've continued to combine heavy rock with science fiction in a futuristic setting, inspiring a generation of bands and several international space-rock festivals.

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