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Hawkwind In Your Area Review by Gary Hill 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. Although the date on this one says "1998", it really didn't seem to show up 'til early in '99. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: The Early Years Volume 1 at garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-The-Early-Years .

Track by Track Review

Brainstorm Fast-paced, frenetic, and rather metallic, this is a live version of the Hawkwind classic number. The cut features some wonderful guitar work and a driving beat. The number slows to segue into "Hawkwind In Your Area".

Nawkwind in Your Area A reworking of an older Hawkwind cut, this one has new lyrics and a definite reggaeish angle to it. Although the reggae influences are strong, this is still definitely space rock. "Hawkwind in your area, Hawkwind on your land, So jump up and down, Swing yourself around." This cut actually works its way back into "Brainstorm" for a while.

Alchemy Starting off a bit like Assassins of Allah, this cut 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.

Love In Space 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 Another hard-edged, fast cut, this one 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".

First Landing on Medusa Keyboards with sound effects and spoken space poetry make up this cut. This space travel tale takes on an unusual percussive groove after a time.

I Am the Reptoid Beginning in a chaotic old Hawkwind mode, this one is very trippy and odd, but also quite fun. It ends with drums that move the listener straight into "The Nazca".

The Nazca Textural and very spacey, this one is brief and quite intriguing.

Hippy As it should by its title, this song 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.

Prairie A very pretty acoustic guitar based cut, this one is quite an intricate and progish instrumental. Later segments become more percussion dominated.

Your Fantasy Whooshing keys start this cut, 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."

Luxotica A dreamy sound effect based mode begins this one. It then becomes a very jam oriented and bouncy Hawkwind number, then drops into a completely different mode that features an almost Santanaish jam, complete with Latin sounding percussion. This is an instrumental.

Diana Park A percussion oriented intro gives way to a pretty, almost Latin, sounding jam. 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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