Hawkwind's fifth studio album found the band enjoying a rare oasis of stability after the multitudinous personnel shifts of the past five years. Only the recruitment of a second drummer, Alan Powell, disturbed the equanimity of the lineup that created the previous year's Hall of the Mountain Grill, although it would soon be time to change again. By the end of the year, bassist Lemmy had departed, vocalist Robert Calvert had rejoined, and the group's career-long relationship with United Artists would be over. In the meantime, Warrior on the Edge of Time ensured that it was brainstorming business as usual. Decorated with a magnificent sleeve that unfolded into the shape of a shield, Warrior on the Edge of Time delivered some of Hawkwind's best-loved future showstoppers - Simon House's far-reaching "Spiral Galaxy 28948"…

Recorded live in December 1972 and released the following year, Space Ritual is an excellent document featuring Hawkwind's classic lineup, adding depth and weight to the already irrefutable proof that the group's status as space rock pioneers was well warranted. As the quintessential "people's band," Hawkwind carried '60s countercultural idealism into the '70s, gigging wherever there was an audience. The band's multimedia performances were a perfect accompaniment for inner space exploration and outer space imagination. Though not concerned with rock's material trappings, Hawkwind was among the hardest-working groups in Britain, averaging a show every three days during the year preceding the recordings…

From the futuristic, synth-laden opener of ‘Our Lives Can’t Last Forever’ and innovative psychedelic swirl of ‘The Starship (One Love One Life)’ and ‘Traveller of Time & Space’, to the lamenting saxophones and menacing riffs of ‘What Are We Going To Do While We’re Here’ and ‘Stargazers’, the band deliver 13 tracks of classic material. The album has everything Hawkwind fans new and old could ask for – from Dave Brock’s trademark vocals and chugging guitar riffs to roaming solos, gradual melancholic crescendos and rapturous peaks, it’s a record that sits tightly in the Hawkwind groove, delivering an intense concentrated fusion of musical styles.

Hawkwind are an English rock band and one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. Formed in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and they have incorporated different styles into their music, including hard rock, heavy metal, progressive rock and psychedelic rock. They are also regarded as an influential proto-punk band. Dozens of musicians, dancers and writers have worked with the band since their inception. Notable musicians to have performed in the band include Lemmy, Ginger Baker and Huw Lloyd-Langton, but the band are most closely associated with their founder, the singer, songwriter and guitarist Dave Brock, who remains the only original member.

Although it is not necessarily the most essential Hawkwind package you will ever be offered, Sonic Boom Killers is, nevertheless, among the most sensibly structured, its 18 tracks offering up most (but not quite all) of the band's 1970s singles - most of which were released at a time when chart success was a very real possibility, a point proven by the opening salvo of "Silver Machine" (a U.K. number two in 1972) and "Urban Guerilla" (number 39 in 1973). That the band did not otherwise especially bother the Top 75 is simply a sorry quirk of fashion - "Hurry on Sundown" (from 1970), "Psychedelic Warlords" (1974), "Kings of Speed" (1975), "Quark Strangeness and Charm" (1977), and "Who's Gonna Win the War" (1980) all received a modicum of broadcast support, while "Shot Down in the Night" (1980) scratched to number 59 purely on the back of Hawkwind's adoption by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal…

Something of a wasted opportunity, UA - Hawkwind's label throughout their early-'70s years of most vital significance - delved into the vault and emerged with little more than an expanded version of Cleopatra's earlier Psychedelic Warlords gathering of non-album singles padded out with great swathes of the Space Ritual live album. There is, after all, so much that could be done with Hawkwind's back catalog, beginning with a box set that delves deeper into the period archive - with many of this set's prime rarities having already surfaced on the expanded versions of the original LPs, the need for a mere single disc's worth of odds-and-ends was minimal, to say the least. All of that notwithstanding, of course, the sheer quality of the music on Stasis remains unimpeachable…

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a band emerged from the bitter end of the '60s, a group seeded by the ideals of the hippie/acid scene with feelers reaching into the spacy side of Krautrock, while germinating an aggressive sound all its own. Hawkwind's ability to forge their own path, yet remain open to incorporating new styles of music that grew up in their wake, is legendary, and never more apparent than on this double album. Originally released in 1996 and recorded live during the band's 1995 Alien 4 tour, this is not the sound of a 25-year-old band limping around stage lost in space and time, but a defiant celebration of everything Hawkwind had accomplished and were still set to do…

The band's best studio album, coming off of the success of Space Ritual. The group's rock roots are juxtaposed effectively with the swelling synthesizer flourishes and pretentious song ideas, creating the quintessential guitar-oriented space rock record. The highlight was the live recording of "You'd Better Believe It," with its crunchy guitars, but nobody minded keyboardman Simon House's languid synthesizer-laden "Hall of the Mountain Grill" (especially as it was followed by the Lemmy-sung "Lost Johnny," a great all-out rocker). The sound, especially the mix of ballsy high-volume guitar playing and soaring electronic keyboards ("The Psychedelic Warlords," "D-Rider"), would later get co-opted by outfits such as Blue Öyster Cult ("(Don't Fear) The Reaper") and Kansas…

Doremi may not be Hawkwind's most renowned album, but it carries the same type of prog rock spaciness as their first two releases. Even though the keyboard playing is trimmed down just a tad, the introduction of Ian Kilmister, otherwise known as Lemmy of Motörhead fame, makes up for it. With Lemmy's hard-lined guitar playing and Del Dettmar's synthesizer stabs, tracks like "Space Is Deep" and "The Watcher" are infused with elaborate instrumental meanderings in perfect Hawkwind fashion. The longer tracks, both "Brainstorm" and "Time We Left This World Today," find Lemmy settling into the band's extraordinary milieu, but it ended up being the album's strongest cuts. There's a harder feel to the songs all the way through, with the guitar and drums coming to the forefront ahead of DikMik's "generators" and "hot electronics"…

In Search of Space strengthened Hawkwind's science fiction-type brand of progressive rock, gaining bass player Dave Anderson and galactic poet extraordinaire Rob Calvert, while losing John Harrison at the same time. The album opens with the mind-numbing galactic haze of "You Shouldn't Do That," a spooky little 15-minute excursion that warps, throbs, and swirls with Dik Mik's "audio generator" and the steady drum pace of Terry Ollis. Then comes the ominous whispering of the title, set to the pulsating waves of Dave Brock's guitar and Turner's alto sax, with Dettmar's synth work laying the foundation. Wonderfully setting the tone, "You Shouldn't Do That"'s improvisational looseness and rhythmic fusion smoothly open up the album into the realm of Hawkwind…

Produced by former Pretty Things guitarist Dick Taylor, Hawkwind's first album was rightfully compared to Pink Floyd's early sound: an appealing conglomeration of hippie rock grooves and interplanetary guitar trips set to the phosphorescent wandering of Dik Mik's electronics and Nik Turner's cool sax playing. Hawkwind may not have been their most lucrative album, but it's where it all began. Hawkwind's initial galactic blues-rock sound is based on Dave Brock's guitar playing, rising smoke-like through the haze of lyrical space funk. The two opening tracks set the tone, with "The Reason Is" sinking in nicely to the mood of both Dave Brock's and John Harrison's guitar viscosity. After this, the real Hawkwind begins to emerge, as the eight-minute "Be Yourself" is delightfully plastered with echoed vocals and comic book ominousness, putting drummer Terry Ollis in the spotlight this time…

Palace Springs is a Hawkwind live/studio album taken from a 1989 performance at LA's Palace Theatre, preceded by two studio tracks recorded in a mobile studio at around the same time. In terms of its musical style, the studio material seems to be a continuation of the sound found on The Xenon Codex as well as showcasing the talents of new vocalist Bridgett Wishart; the same is true of the live set, which finds the band giving refreshing updates to a chunk of their old repertoire. There are really no weak cuts here, and it all flows very well, creating a rather fluid listening experience. The "Void of Golden Light"/"Lives of Great Men" set is particularly powerful.