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The vocals recording quality isn't so good, however, that make the Cd sounds really 'live'. The drums and bass performance was amazing.
This IS the greatest live album ever released.35 years later and it still sounds as good as the first time I heard it.Totally unique (to me) in its day. never heard a live album come close.Les.
Have you ever wondered what inspired Japan's Boredoms to shift abruptly from the frustrating, one-and-a-half-minute blasts of noise that characterized their early work, to the 10-minute-long psychedelic excursions that started around the time of the "Super Are" album. I have. And I think I found the answer -- Space Ritual. If you have any appreciation for that, you should get this record.
It is very good. I've been working my way backwards through the Hawkwind collection after stumbling across the Greasy Truckers re-issue and being blown away by that muscular performance from 1972. I'm particularly impressed by Lemmy's highly inventive bass playing and his interplay with Dave Brock's guitar playing. I bought the 1999 disc after belatedly realising that it wasn't recorded ten years ago, but found it 'lite' with one or two exceptions [such as The Watcher]. I had avoided this [Space Ritual] because of the drippy cover but eventually it was time [or on sale]. All in all, this has to be the standard against which all the other legit albums are measured. Where next.
Now, here's another interesting thing- the band not only blended these jazzy ideas with punk and hard rock elements, but they somehow came up with this genius idea to give the entire thing a space rock edge, which just blows my mind that a band who already shocked the heck out of me with their amount of creativity managed to pull something MORE out of their magical hat.So yeah, Hawkwind rules, and Space Ritual is exactly the right album by them you need to own. It was like the band wanted to make a statement with this mighty fine selection of tunes.For those of you who don't believe the saxophone can be used as a "cool" musical instrument combined with space rock, atmosphere and punk rock guitar riffs, guess again. This Hawkwind album does something I knew the band attempted before, but never THIS much- jamming out, in a jazzy style, while some punk rock guitar riffs play in the background. Favorite song. An album like Deep Purple's Made in Japan happens to have the same features and everyone remembers that album. Some people may get sick of the sound and style the band was going for after a while, but to me, it just gets better and better. This song is brilliant in words that I simply don't have stored in my head.Another great thing about this album is that the band knew exactly what their best songs were, and chose to use most of them for this live performance.
It always sounds so adventurous and mysterious, similar to making yourself dizzy and watching everything swirl around in circles, and fits right in with all the other musical ideas taking place. What a great idea, not to mention an innovative one if we keep in mind the time this album was created. I absolutely LOVE the way this band jams with the saxophone. An album that may SOUND dated but is actually quite refreshing because it sounds like nothing else out there.Hawkwind is just one of *hundreds* fantastic rock bands from the 70's if you ask me. "Orgone Accumulator". The bass playing on Space Ritual is quite fantastic as well.Maybe this album should be considered one of the very best live performances from the 70's, because it's very very good, contains an original sound and style, and captures a band at their absolute peak. Why not remember this one too.
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