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Album Details

• Artist: Hawkwind
• Album: In Your Area
• Label: Voice Print UK
• Year of Release: 1999
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: gwhill on 2013-03-05

One part live album, one part studio, In Your Area shows Hawkwind doing space rock as they are the experts in doing. The album includes several long time Hawk favorites, and several new cuts. The only real change to the familiar Hawkwind sound is a bit of a reggae edge to several of the numbers. On this disc, Hawkwind is Dave Brock, Richard Chadwick, Ron Tree, Jerry Richards, Capt. Rizz and Crum.

Fast-paced, frenetic, and rather metallic, the album starts with a live version of the Hawkwind classic number “Brainstorm.” The cut features some wonderful guitar work and a driving beat. It slows to segue into "Hawkwind in Your Area.” A reworking of an older Hawkwind cut, “Hawkwind in Your Area” has new lyrics and a definite reggaeish angle to it. Although the reggae influences are strong, this is still definitely space rock. It actually works its way back into "Brainstorm" for a while. Starting off a bit like “Assassins of Allah,” “Alchemy” is a somewhat funky and very modern sounding hard rocking space number with almost death metal tones at times. The keyboard textures and potent performances by all the musicians really make this instrumental a stand out cut.
    
Beginning in a distinctly Hawkwindish ballad mode, "Love In Space" has some very intriguing vocal arrangements on quite a mainstream approach. Although this is a short segment, it returns after the next cut, essentially serving as a frame around that number. “Aerospace Age Inferno” is another hard-edged, fast cut. It is originally from an album by the late Robert Calvert that featured his Hawkwind bandmates. It dissolves into chaos as it moves back into "Love In Space.” Keyboards with sound effects and spoken space poetry make up “First Landing on Medusa.” This space travel tale takes on an unusual percussive groove after a time.

Beginning in a chaotic old Hawkwind mode, “I Am the Reptoid” is very trippy and odd, but also quite fun. It ends with drums that move the listener straight into "The Nazca.” Textural and very spacey, “The Nazca” is brief and quite intriguing. As it should by its title, “Hippy” starts off very much in the mode of old psychedelia, eventually giving way to a bouncy number that seems to merge the psychedelic with modern rock tones and trademark Hawksounds. The cut moves back into those psychedelic modes, before heading back into more familiar Hawkwind ground. Even this more stereotypical Hawkwind mode still contains the psychedelic leanings, though.

A very pretty acoustic guitar based cut, “Prairie” is quite an intricate and progish instrumental. Later segments become more percussion dominated. Whooshing keys start “Your Fantasy,” which then moves into more balladic mode. It then changes gears again, speeding up into a more rockish mode with reggae vocals. A good way to describe this one in one phrase is "classic Hawkwind with a reggae twist to it." A dreamy sound effect based mode begins “Luxotica.” It then becomes a very jam oriented and bouncy Hawkwind number. Then it drops into a completely different mode that features an almost Santanaish jam, complete with Latin sounding percussion. It is an instrumental. A percussion oriented intro gives way to a pretty, almost Latin, sounding jam on “Diana Park.” Again this shows definite elements of the music of Santana while still maintaining a strong Hawkwind mode. It drops back to just percussion for a time.

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