Hawkwind - Into the Woods

Hawkwind Into the Woods cover
Hawkwind
Into the Woods
Cherry Red Records
2017
7
Hawkwind return only a year after “The Machine Stops” with the 30th album “Into the Woods”. But what prompted such a quick follow up, after an album that did seem to rejuvenate Dave Brock and his cosmic buddies? I suppose the lineup responsible for the previous album felt quite nicely bouncing ideas of each other and the ensuing tour only did more to getting their creative juices flowing… so from a rather morbid–sci-fi themed concept album, the band jumps into a new album all about the great outside, the forests and the trees, the mushrooms (!) and the buzzing beez, sounding just as dazed and confused as you might have expected them to, but possible even more dense and out there than before, following the fallout…
 
In fact, the stuff has a tendency to be too dense in places and too thinned out in others, with even occasional “spoken” parts, in conjunction with titles like “Wood Nymphs”, “The Woodpeckers” (complete with woodpecking sfx), “Cottage in the Woods” and such, being a little reminiscent of Spinal Tap unintentionally even. Still the texture rich title track, the elevating “Have You Seen Them”, the whirly “Space Ship Blues”, the punky throw up of “Vegan Lunch”, the out-worldly “Magic Scene” and “Magic Mushroom” (probably being the cause and effect of vice versa) will keep the casual listener as well as the fanatic well glued in this foray into a “greener” cosmos. Entranced then... I am.