Stories From Time And Space

Album review

When Hawkwind released their self-titled debut album in 1970, they seemed slightly behind the times, trading in sci-fi-tinged psychedelia at a time when the U.K. psych scene was fading out in favor of prog and art rock. Fifty-four years later, Hawkwind exist in a time zone all their own, having evolved with the passage of a few decades but still trading in their singular brand of space rock, with chugging guitars and buzzy electronics accompanying Dave Brock's tales of interplanetary sonic exploration. According to its accompanying press release, 2024's Stories from Time and Space is Hawkwind's 36th album (though the number is much higher if you add in all their live releases), and Brock was four months away from his 83rd birthday when it was released, so the album's lyrical concerns with how long these characters and their world can go on has a certain autobiographical undertow, even if the slightly doomstruck tone isn't that unusual for this band. (There's also a love story involved, but don't feel bad if you don't immediately recognize it without reading the liner notes.) Hawkwind don't rock as hard in the year 2024 as they did in their prime, but Stories from Time and Space doesn't sound rote or weak-willed, either, and if there's nothing here quite like the ten-minute pulse/drone track that opened 2023's The Future Never Waits, Brock and his synth-playing bandmates Magnus Martin and Thighpaulsandra are still traveling the spaceways with their extended journeys into abstract soundscapes and serialist rhythms, especially on the triple-play of "Traveler of Time and Space," "Re-Generate," and "The Black Sea." The group's focus is tighter on more song-oriented tracks like "Can't Last Forever" and "The Tracker," but even the most conventional-sounding performances show Hawkwind's commitment to aural questing is as strong as ever. The music boasts a strong sense of adventure, while this edition of the band plays with an admirable blend of tight musicianship and eagerness to follow the spirit wherever it feels like leading them. Hawkwind still sound like themselves and nobody else on Stories from Time and Space, and if it doesn't break new ground, it's the work of a band with interesting ideas and the talent and imagination to make something of them, which not many groups can manage, let alone one that's been doing this for more than half a century.

© Mark Deming /TiVo