Hawkwind: Space Ritual (tri-fold) 2LP 1972 United Artists UA-LA120-H2

$

37

Hawkwind: Space Ritual (tri-fold) 2LP 1972 United Artists UA-LA120-H2

Track Listing
A1. Earth Calling 1:46
A2. Born to Go 9:56
A3. Down Through the Night 6:16
A4. The Awakening 1:32

B1. Lord of Light 7:21
B2. The Black Corridor 1:51
B3. Space Is Deep 8:13
B4. Electronic No. 1 2:26

C1. Orgone Accumulator 9:59
C2. Upside Down 2:43
C3. 10 Seconds of Forever 2:05
C4. Brainstorm 9:20

D1. 7 by 7 6:13
D2. Sonic Attack 2:54
D3. Time We Left This World Today 5:47
D4. Master of the Universe 7:37
D5. Welcome to the Future 2:03

Like many other ’70s rock greats, British space-rock pioneers Hawkwind built their legacy onstage rather than in the recording studio. In May 1973, the band released its defining masterpiece. Space Ritual, their fourth overall LP and first live album, is a mind-numbing double-record behemoth that captures the Hawkwind experience in all its demented glory.

It’s called “space-rock” for a reason. Combining sci-fi lyrics, motorik pulses and trippy sound effects, Hawkwind’s music is the perfect simulation of space flight — a turbulent rocket blast through alternate galaxies of riffage and noise. And Space Ritual (recorded during a pair of performances in London and Liverpool) is their most explosive moment.

If there’s a lead instrument at all, it’s the distorted, brain-bullet bass guitar of Lemmy Kilmister. As a former rhythm guitarist, he brings a chordal, melodic presence to the band’s low-end, while the rest of the band (woodwind player Nik Turner, drummer Simon King, guitarist/vocalist Dave Brock and the twin synthesizers of Dik Mik and Del Dettmar) offers texture and turmoil.

Hawkwind are often labeled a “prog-rock” band, and on some levels, that makes perfect sense — as a whole, prog is saturated with spacey concept albums and indulgent textures. But Hawkwind were never virtuosos — their playing here is too raw, too reckless, too barbaric. The sheer repetition of the riffs puts them more in line with the kraut-rock scene, and the rhythm section (particularly King’s sloppy drum fills) points toward punk. Perhaps the band’s easiest reference point is Pink Floyd (who released a psychedelic masterwork of their own in 1973), but Hawkwind’s brand of space-rock is more aggressive and, well, nasty.

The Space Ritual Tour (in promotion of the band’s third studio album, 1972’s Doremi Fasol Latido) itself was a spectacle, filled with light shows, dancers, and spoken-word interludes delivered by sci-fi writer Robert Calvert. Through the sheer velocity of its music, Space Ritual the album feels like a multi-sensory experience, from the unrelenting psychedelic throb of “Born to Go” to the bluesy thrust of “Orgone Accumulator” to the sound effect showcase “Electronic No. 1.” Calvert’s mood-setting poems (delivered in a campy, borderline-Shakespearian accent) are a tad off-putting without a visual counterpart, but they do offer the album a welcome respite from the aural onslaught.

Space Ritual was the band’s most commercially successful album to date, landing at No. 9 in the U.K. and even cracking the Billboard Top 200 at No. 179. Today, it’s something of a cult-classic, a relic from an age of space-age wonder. Even now, there’s still nothing else quite like it.

Recorded at Liverpool Stadium, 22 December 1972 and Brixton Sundown, 30 December 1972 by Vic Maile and the Pye Mobile.

Personnel: Dave Brock – guitar, vocals; Nik Turner – saxophone, flute, vocals; Lemmy (Ian Kilmister) – bass guitar, vocals; Dik Mik (Michael Davies) – audio generator, electronics; Del Dettmar – synthesizer; Simon King – drums; Robert "Bob" Calvert – poetry, vocals ("poet and swazzle" on the album credits).

Sleeve: w/help from Wiki (thank you)

The sleeve was designed by Barney Bubbles and came in 3x2 panel foldout, the outer 6 panels being colour, the inner 6 panels being monochrome, the discs in psychedelic patterned orange & yellow inner sleeves were folded into this. It made Q Magazine's 100 greatest album covers list.

The outer foldout features an illustration of Miss Stacia flanked by the hounds of King over stage shots of the band.

The inner foldout features three panels of a photograph of outer space with three illustrations on each panel headed by lines from a Hawkwind song.

Inner panel 1: features a vintage photograph of a naked woman with listed credits.

Inner panel 2: chac bacab – features an image of a female nipple as a planet, and a legend of the Earth as a living entity.

Inner panel 3: kan bacab – features an image of a foetus suspended in space with the legend "The Universe resounds with the joyful cry I AM. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Naked I came out of my mothers womb and naked shall I return thither.

Inner panel 4: Features a mandala with the legend "Everything exists for itself, yet everything is part of something else. The One and the many contain in themselves the principles of time and space. The way up and the way down are one and the same."

Inner panel 5: Features a dedication from Lemmy to John the Bog, Supernova and Sue Bennett. zac bacab, tec bacab and bac bacab expounds upon religious and cosmological myths and sciences, starting with the William Blake poem "To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour", ending with the Alfred Whitehead quote "Give up illusions about ideas of order, accept nothing of inherited norm. Spread joy and revolution. It is the business of the future to be dangerous."

Inner panel 6: features a winged superhero grasping an electrical cable and lightning bolts, perched upon an Earth situated in a void.

This is the cover for the ages...There are a few kinks from being opened or closed. Most of them I have seen have been in the same shape. Very good overall. The LP's are (EX+) clean and glossy. One you would be proud of. Please view the pictures and use the ZOOM option for best results. I borrowed the last 6 from a source we all know and love. Ran out of daylight with the camera flash not helping much. Thanks

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