HAWKLORDS – We Are One

HAWKLORDS
We Are One
Hawklords 2013

There are many long and varied arguments that could take up an entire afternoon regarding the rights and wrongs of the name Hawklords. The publicity machine, as it is, claims that this is the follow-up, 34 years down the line to “Hawklords: 25 Years On”. Which is complete and utter tosh, as the Hawklords then were Messrs Brock, Calvert, Griffin, Bainbridge and Swindells. Granted, this time around the latter two are on board, although it seems that the ever revolving door has seen Steve Swindells wandering out of it. The name itself came out of hibernation back in 2009, and then it was really a successor to Space Ritual, the Nik Turner led outfit, and contained Alan Davey, Nik Turner, Martin Griffin and Danny Thompson. All now gone. To preserve some form of authenticity, ex Hawkwinders Ron Tree on vocals, Jerry Richards on guitar, and bass player Adrian Shaw are all present and correct, but the Hawklords it isn’t.

And it really doesn’t matter if they can come up with the musical goods. Something they nearly manage. The record starts out really well, with the punky ‘We Are One’, which actually could be a 1979 out take, and ‘Mothership’ which ups the space quotient. ‘The Ancient Ones’ is a cracking late seventies HW style tune, and there are plenty more like it on board. Granted, there is some utter tosh, and I count the spoken word interludes alongside the utterly dreadful ‘Global Warning’ as the worst offenders. Like most albums nowadays, it’s far too long, and could have lost three or four songs. but ny and large it’s an enjoyable release.

It picks up towards the end, which isn’t a good thing when it comes to sequencing, as that is when the keyboards take over the album, something that is redolent of the original Hawklords and the triptych of ‘Event Horizon’, ‘Is It A Dream?’ and ‘Spark in The Dark’ round things off really nicely. It’s all considerably closer in spirit and sound to “Otherworld”, the Space Ritual album from 2007, than it is to the Hawklords, nearly 35 years on, but pound for pound it’s better than the last Hawkwind album, and I’m glad to see the talents involved back on record. Now if they can only hold on to a line up for more than 5 minutes!

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