While we’re already in the second month of 2022, I realized that I either forgot or didn’t even know that a couple of bands whose albums I typically purchase like clockwork had released new albums in 2021. I also made good on my word and checked out a few 2021 releases that I had read or heard about. So, while I eagerly await the new releases from SAXON, VOIVOD, TONY MARTIN, and THE SCORPIONS, and am already jamming the new albums from JETHRO TULL and MAGNUM (reviews coming for all!), I decided, hey, why not do a recap of stuff I missed from last year? Also, it turns out all of these releases are cosmic or science fiction-y in some way. So, if you want some tunes to make you feel like you’re aboard the Enterprise, read on!

Hawkwind – Somnia

I was partly inspired to write about the latest release by HAWKWIND because I was annoyed at how lazily Pete Pardo at Sea of Tranquility reviewed it, claiming that about half the album harkens back to the driving 70s space rock style while the other half is reminiscent of their ambient stuff from the early 90s. What are you talking about, dude? Okay, while he’s right about the ambient part, since every Hawkwind album going back to 1970 has ambient parts, he otherwise sounds like he didn’t listen to the album very closely.

Somnia, which is all about sleep and going to sleep and dreaming and counting sheep and things you do when you sleep, sounds more like the motorik, repetitive, and hypnotizing sounds of NEU! mixed with the spacey atmospherics of TANGERINE DREAM than the driving heavy metal space rock of vintage Hawkwind. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say that one of the definitive ingredients of space rock, the thickly distorted, basic, and driving four chord guitar riffs, are entirely absent from Somnia.

Instead guitarist/singer/keyboardist/effects guy Dave Brock’s playing is reduced to creating sounds, soloing, and acoustic guitar plucking, while Richard Chadwick gets a bit more aggressive on the drums here and there, most of the time he’s just tippy-tapping on his kit as though he’s trying not to wake the neighbors in the flat next door. None of this is meant to say that Somnia isn’t a good album; in fact, aside from being a bit too long at 62 minutes, it’s quite enjoyable. But it’s definitely a mellower work and certainly not representative of the classic Hawkwind sound; especially if you think of Hawkwind as the band that spat out Lemmy of MOTÖRHEAD!

Now, while Brock is the sole original member of Hawkwind, and Chadwick has been in the group since 1988, thus making him the second longest lasting member of the band, Magnus Martin has only been with Hawkwind since 2017’s Into the Woods; but the strange thing is that this same trio used the name HAWKWIND LIGHT ORCHESTRA rather than Hawkwind for the 2020 Carnivorous album. The only other time the group used the Hawkwind Light Orchestra moniker was on their 2012 album Stellar Variations, because various circumstances prevented all five members from meeting up in the same place.

But Hawkwind recorded their parts for Carnivorous and Somnia remotely, so I don’t understand why they couldn’t get bassist Niall Hone and keyboardist Tim Blake involved, unless Hone and Blake just didn’t want to do it. Whatever the case may be, Somnia is more of a somnambulant pleasure cruise through the cosmos rather than a high speed space chase with laser beams and explosions. Oh, and “China Blues” is about the virus which shall not be named.

Hawklords – Time

On the other hand, Time, the ninth studio album by HAWKLORDS very much consists of the signature space rock sound Hawkwind invented in 1971; the one with the four basic, thickly distorted major chords and lotsa space effects, wah-wah guitar, and blaring saxophone on top of the four, basic thickly distorted major chords. In fact, there are quite a few nods to 70s Hawkwind glory on Time, as you shall shortly see.

Before you get confused, as people tend to do with Hawkwind and its extended family, this current Hawklords is an entirely different band from the original Hawklords that recorded 25 Years On in 1978. The band that released 25 Years On in 1978 was just Hawkwind with a different name due to some contractual issue that quickly got resolved. This new Hawklords essentially piggybacked off the name of the 70s group, because keyboardist Steve Swindells and keyboardist/bassist Harvey Brainbridge, both of whom played on 25 Years On, along with bassist Adrian Shaw, who played on other Hawkwind albums in the 70s, were initially in the band.

But, since neither Swindells, Brainbridge, nor Shaw are in the group anymore – Shaw is credited as a guest bassist on one song on Time – the ties to the 70s Hawklords have pretty much been severed. In fact, the only original members left from the Hawklords’ 2012 debut album We Are One are guitarist/singer Jerry Richards, who was in Hawkwind in the 90s, and drummer Dave Pearce, who as far as I know, was never in Hawkwind. For what it’s worth, Time is also the first Hawklords album with new keyboardist Fred “Dead Fred” Reeves, who played in Hawkwind during the 2010s, and sixth with bassist Tom Ashurst.

Regardless of lineup changes, the Hawklords have released a studio album every single year since their debut; except in 2020, when they released a live album. First of all, it’s impressive how much Jerry Richards sounds like long deceased Hawkwind singer Robert Calvert. In fact, it seems like the opening cut “Speed of Sound” was directly inspired by Calvert’s 1974 solo album Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters and its theme of dangerous high-speed aviation.

Elsewhere, you get a mix of styles; the hypnotic and funky Can/Brainticket/Krautrock-style vamp-jamming on “Lighthouse at the Edge of the World”; a hilarious throwback to the “Sonic Attack”/”Wizard Blew His Horn” spoken word pieces with 70s science fiction planetarium noises called “Obscura”; the customary ambient piece you find on every space rock album called “Kites”; and a groovy, hip-shakin’ number called “Take Off Your Mask”, which is the musical equivalent of a cute 1960s girl in a miniskirt dancing under a wash of psychedelic strobes, AND which tricks the listener into thinking it’s about those masks, but is just about taking off your phony persona, or something.

But the ones that really surprised me were “To the New Age” and “Empire of Sand.” The former is a straight-forward guitar rock song with no additional saxophones, synthesizers, keyboards, and other non-rock instruments to add color to the mix... which is probably why it’s the weakest track on the album. It’s not horrible but not particularly compelling either. On the other hand, the latter one sounds like the STRANGLERS! Specifically, it sounds like the Stranglers’ early 80s adult pop stuff. I’m not sure if this was intentional or not, and it would be super cool if it was meant as a tribute to deceased Stranglers keyboardist Dave Greenfield, but I have a strong feeling this was purely coincidence.

I also have a strong feeling that Pete Pardo at Sea of Tranquility wouldn’t be able to tell you all of that.

Chrome – Scaropy

I’m actually pretty surprised how little attention the latest CHROME album has received. In fact, I only knew that they released an album when I saw it in my local record store this past week! I googled it, and none of the major indie blogs were even talking about it! I found that really odd, because I was under the impression that Chrome had secured their spot among the terminally hip, and a new Chrome album would always get a write-up in a Pitchfork, Consequence of Sound, or Brooklyn Vegan. Instead, the only blogs that reviewed it are, well, kinda like this one!

For those who don’t know Chrome was the band most responsible for bringing psychedelia and space rock into the indie and punk world a few years before the BUTTHOLE SURFERS and FLAMING LIPS arrived on the scene with their own brands of acid punk. While Chrome’s 1976 debut album The Visitation has some hippie residue, guitarist Helios Creed joined shortly after and with keyboardist and singer Damon Edge morphed the group into a spaced out, experimental rock band that was all into retro-futurism and new audio and video technology; along with channeling a similar mad-scientists-in-a-basement vibe as the RESIDENTS and early DEVO.

After a handful of lovely oddball albums and EPs like Alien Soundtracks, Red Exposure, Blood of the Moon, Read Only Memory, and their masterpiece 3rd from the Sun, Creed embarked on a prolific solo career which bridged the gap between the psychedelic boomer Hawkwind crowd and gen X kids on the college indie and alternative rock scenes; meanwhile Edge released more Chrome albums. Then, in 1995, Damon Edge died, and Helios Creed took the Chrome name for himself, at which point, Helios Creed and Chrome albums pretty much became interchangeable.

So, here we are with a new Chrome album, their first since 2017’s Techromancy, and, well, it’s a Chrome album. It’s got everything a Helios Creed and Chrome fan should expect from Helios Creed and Chrome; catchy songs with basic, three chord rock riffs played through a processed guitar tone that sounds like video game heavy metal, along with plenty of wah-wah soloing, some extra weird sounds, echo-effects, phasing, and alien robot vocals. And, while I basically just described the majority of Scaropy, not to mention the majority of the Helios Creed and Chrome discographies, the devil is in the details.

For instance, the song “H of Spades” sounds like a Motörhead song done Chrome style; fast, bluesy, punk-metal riff but sent through the super-processed video game metal guitar tone and with alien robot vocals. I’m not sure what the joke is behind the song title – maybe the “H” stands for Helios? – but then I’m not sure there’s much of a message anywhere on Scaropy when one song just repeats “I won’t take your shit” over and over again, and another does the same with “Can’t push, push me around.”

Now that I think about it, what is a “scaropy”? Initially I thought it was a portmanteau of “scare” and “therapy”, but then it should be spelled “scareapy”, right? What’s even more confusing is that the spooky, haunted house doom metal title track would imply that my original theory is correct.

I dunno, but just by doing a google search for some of the other song titles, I learned that “Tataria” is a made-up ancient civilization that had advanced technology, and that “Kilauea” is an active shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands. I’m also surprised Helios Creed/Chrome hasn’t used such implicitly science fiction song titles like “Terminate” or “They’re Coming to Get You” on earlier albums. Also “Hello Sunshine” sounds like a funky pinball machine.

But, hey, bassist Hilary Stench, who played on early Chrome albums, is back! Isn’t that exciting? And longtime alum of the tiny space rock scene Tommy “Cyborg” Grenas from FARFLUNG, PRESSUREHED, ANUBIAN LIGHTS, and THE BRAIN, all of whom I love, is on keyboards! And the second guitarist, who might or might not be the skinny guy in glasses wearing the Dillinger Escape Plan t-shirt when I saw Chrome in Los Angeles a few years ago, is named Lou Minatti XIII!!! Get it!? He’s making fun of CONSPIRACY THEORISTS!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!

Ya know, considering how much retro/cassette-futurism plays a part in the entire Chrome and Helios Creed philosophy, I find it surprising that Helios Creed /Chrome hasn’t made a synthwave album yet!

Say, that reminds me…

Hollywood Burns – The Age of the Saucers

Of all four releases in this write-up, HOLLYWOOD BURNS is both the newest artist and the one I know the least about. As I mentioned in my top ten best albums of 2021 article, I wanted to delve deeper into the world of Blood Music and synthwave in general. And, seeing as I’m a fan of 1950s flying saucer and giant lizard movies, when I read the description of the second Hollywood Burns album as synthwave mixed with a 50s science fiction theme, I had to see what that was all about!

I saw the Angry Metal Guy review The Age of the Saucers, so that was my cue to pick it up, as it seems that synthwave is getting some pretty strong attention from the metal scene. In fact, all of my synthwave recommendations, from early genre pioneers like KAVINSKY and PERTURBATOR to more obscure acts like FAZZIO, have come from metal fans; in fact Razorfist hipped me to Fazzio when he played “Midnight Rider” at the end of one his videos.

Emeric Levardon is the man behind Hollywood Burns, and he’s released one other full length album with a similar alien invasion theme called, uh, Invaders. Most of the cast from the previous album are back to help bring Levardon’s Twilight Zone/Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers/The Thing from Another World/It Came from Outer Space vision to fruition; specifically Olivier Marechal and Rémi Meilley on guitar and drums on a few tracks and some entities known as Volkor X and View from the Coffin on production and the neato artwork respectively. And, I’m not sure where the name Hollywood Burns came from, or if there’s a message there, but if Hollywood were to burn, I sure as hell would not complain about it!

Anyway, it’s nice to know that all the music was “produced, composed, and mixed by Emeric ‘Hollywood Burns’ Levardon”, because a stupider me might have assumed the intro track “Once Upon a Time (in Hell)” was sampled from a movie on account of its use of big, bombastic strings. They’re fake strings, I guess, else Levardon has access to an orchestra or something.

After that, you get dance grooves galore backing the Twilight Zone/X-Files-meets-John Carpenter melodies. I swear a lot of The Age of the Saucers sounds less like 1950s flying saucer movie music and more like the spooky soundtrack to cheesy and faked investigative reporting shows from the 90s when everybody who lives in a trailer park or old shack in a cornfield claimed they were being abducted by aliens. And, speaking of Twilight Zone, the addition of awesome arena rock vocals on the second to last track “Skylords” turns it into the synth-heavy dead ringer for a certain GOLDEN EARRING song.

And speaking of vocals, I don’t know if it’s meant to be ironic, but “Saturday Night Screamer” has someone, presumably Everdon, singing “We are your friends” through a Vocoder during the middle of a flying saucer attack. Get it? They’re NOT actually your friends, haha, that guy, haha.

As mentioned before, Levardon’s buddy Olivier Marechal pops in with some fun guitar solos on three of the tracks to rock things up a bit; the guitar-heavy final track “The Heist of Area 51” practically sounds like Misdemeanor-era UFO, as synthwave tends to do when you add the metal guitar. And, though, a lot of The Age of the Saucers would qualify as “dance music”, Rémi Meilley uses some complicated, Ginger Baker-esque drum patterns whenever he plays his electronic drum pads.

As such, it should be clear that The Age of the Saucers isn’t all dance music. First of all, there are plenty of rock style breakdowns and parts in general, particularly on “Silent Fortress”, which is slow and has more in common with a synth-prog band like GOBLIN, than, I dunno, some dance music. And secondly, the dancier segments shouldn’t be heard as “club music” but as the soundtrack to a high-speed chase scene or the opening to Hawk the Slayer.

On top of all that, it’s only 36 minutes long, so it’s hardly taxing on your time and a nice entry point for people curious about the synthwave genre in general. My only question is, now that they’ve made the soundtrack, when are they gonna make the movie?

Edwin Oslan
Revenge of Riff Raff
9th February, 2022