Nik Turner - Space Fusion Odyssey

Righty, right! “Space Gypsy” Nik Turner, the flute-Sax playing one, of the founding members of Hawkwind, a band who sort of does it for me on occasion, returns once more with another solo album that this time is a little more out there and free-er in form than his past couple of efforts, which however sounded better than those of his former bands... gathering quite a small galaxy of guest stars, like Robby Krieger (Doors), Steve Hillage & Gilli Smyth (Gong), John Weinzerl (Amon Duul), John Etheridge (Soft Machine), Billy Cobham (Mahavishnu Orchestra), among others.
 
Turner delivers a jazz rock fusion “fantasy” that at times is more disciplined but at other times goes completely bonkers and improviz-like. Mostly reminiscent other than Hawkz on occasion of mid-70s Embryo and Gong, I’d say (you vaguely get a “blurry” picture) this album will probably appeal to 60/70s prog/psych fans, but not necessarily to the “space metal” era fans of Hawkwind. The swirly musical landscapes tend to follow the “wind” / keys and most of the guitars are sort of either poignant or pointless, especially some of the solos when they outstay their welcome…
 
If you like the whole idea of a mostly loose, jammy, spaced out, almost instrumental album with spartial vocals, you can’t really go too wrong with this... but I think good ole Nik has done better than this too…