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Album Details

• Artist: Hawkwind
• Album: Acid Daze: The History Of Hawkwind
• Label: Receiver
• Year of Release: 1999
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: gwhill on 2013-01-03

Given the subtitle on this, you’d expect it to be a chronological compilation with detailed liner notes. Well, if you want that you need to get Epoch Eclipse. What we have here is a good selection of Hawkwind songs. They are presented in no particular order that I can discern and the liner notes are pretty much non-existent. It’s a good CD to get a bit of a cross section of Hawkmusic, but don’t expect enlightenment beyond the sounds. Beyond the lack of any kind of real liner notes, another issue with the labeling is the fact that “Angels of Death” is listed as being on disc 2, but it’s nowhere to be found on the set. All in all, this is pretty much a set that’s recommended for completists, but more casual listeners might find it a good introduction to the group.

It’s hard to tell if everything here was previously available on other sets, given the lax state of the liner notes. A couple possible “first time ever” releases here are “Motorhead” and “Watchfield Festival.” The version of “Motorhead” here, doesn’t sound the same as other versions I’ve heard of the tune (which was written by Lemmy and later recorded by Motorhead). “Watchfield Festival” is a live version of “You Shouldn’t Do That” and it features some great vocals and saxophone from Nik Turner. Other oddities include the blues rocker “Dealing with the Devil.”

It should be said, though, that while much of this music has been available on Hawkind albums previously, some of the choices are unexpected. For instance, something like “British Tribal Music” is rather obscure and not the most obvious inclusion on such a release.  The same could be said of such songs as “World of Tiers” and “Ghost Dance.”  Yet classics like “Spirit of the Age” and “Master of the Universe” are also included. While probably not the first choice for Hawkwind compilations, this set is worth having in any extensive Hawkwind collection.

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