Hawkwind: Palace Springs (1991)
I won’t forget that day in 1996 I was in Rod’s Second Hand Store which was in Port Orchard, Washington. Now this isn’t the kind of store for the hippie in mind. Basically the store sold used Nintendo and Sega Genesis games and game machines, some crappy portable radios, and CDs and tapes. The CDs and tapes sold were Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, New Kids on the Block, Bon Jovi, Poison, Skid Row, Milli Vanilli, Mötley Crüe, that type of stuff (basically the crap from the 1980s and early 1990s people became really embarassed they ever liked).
In the cassette department, I was rather surprised to see a Hawkwind tape, Palace Springs, released in 1991. I was already familiar with some of their albums already: Hawkwind (1970), In Search of Space (1971), Doremi Fasol Latido (1972), Space Ritual (1973), and Hall of the Mountain Grill (1974). I usually assume a band’s earlier material was the best and they eventually go downhill after several albums. I mostly bought Palace Springs to see how they sounded like in the early 1990s and I was utterly shocked the band did not sell themselves out whatsoever. This is the classic Hawkwind sound all over, but of course, with a few updates, like the use of digital synthesizers you expect from a 1991 release.
The opening cut is a brand new cut, “Back in the Box”, with something very different from the usual Hawkwind: a female vocalist (Bridgett Wishart), and despite that, it sounds like classic Hawkwind. Dave Brock sticks with guitar here, with some great violin work from Simon House (one of the rare members who rejoined Hawkwind, he was previously with the band from 1974-1978).
The next cut is another brand new cut, “Treadmill”. This time, Dave Brock handles the vocals, and it’s an incredible piece. It sounds like classic ’70s Hawkwind, although it’s from 1991! Great violin solo, once again, and I really dig the synth solo at the end, sounds like they were using a Mini Moog (although they could’ve been using a digital facsimile).
The next two songs are “Void of Golden Light” and “Lives of Great Men” although I think they screwed up the track listing, because I’m pretty sure “Lives of Great Men” started first. Regardless, again, I am utterly shocked how much this one too sounds like classic Hawkwind (the digital synths are the only thing revealing that this isn’t the 1970s).
“Time We Left” is actually a version of “Time We Left (This World Today)” from Doremi Fasol Latido, again, sounding so inspired, you might forget it’s actually a remake of a song from an earlier album. The song then segues in to another remake, “Heads”, which originally appeared on The Xenon Codex (1988). This version is obviously the result of the then-current lineup doing the song (the band witnessed a lineup change between The Xenon Codex and Palace Springs). Both the original version and this version are great.
The next cut, “Acid Trip” is left up to synthesizer player Harvey Bainbridge, here the band goes in to one of their odd, electronic techno experiments, of the style that you know right away this is from the early 1990s. The song then segues in to “Damnation Alley”, another remake that originally appeared on their 1977 album Quark Strangess and Charm, only this time around, the band decided to experiment with reggae in the middle part (I just wondered if the band was thinking of the Ozric Tentacles, who also happened to experiment with reggae with songs like “Iscence”, “Sorry Style”, “The Dusty Pouch”, “Crab Nebula”, etc.).
Why Palace Springs had so many remakes was it was apparently recorded live. Some of the songs do end with the audience cheering, but I can’t be sure if it’s all live or not (it doesn’t say on the liner notes). As I’ve said before, Hawkwind was notorious for giving us a lot of crap, thanks to all those non-official releases, bootlegs, badly recorded live albums and poorly selected compilation albums, but Palace Springs was an official release. That means it was done right, and the results is another wonderful album.
Hawkwind was one of the rare bands from the 1970s who continued on making great albums in the 1980s and 1990s, so that means be sure to add Palace Springs to your collection.
– Dave Brock: vocals, guitar, synthesizers
– Alan Davey: bass, synthesizers
– Harvey Bainbridge: synthesizer, spoken dialog
– Bridgett Wishart: vocals
– Simon House: violin
– Richard Chadwick: drums