Earthed To The Ground [CD]

Dave Brock's solo work is certainly interesting if not always successful. The most interesting thing is that we see the roots of the techno synth and sequencer and guitar workouts that dominate the Hawkwind sound.

Earth to the Ground starts in grand style with the title track and one of the best tracks on the album, dominated by a simple sequencer line. After that there's a mixture of tracks some we've heard before and some new. Assassination appeared on the Weird 7 cassette, now available as a CD, and also Church of Hawkwind as Some People Never Die. Green Finned Demon had already been heard as a Hawkwind track on the Earth Ritual EP though this version, without the band, but providing the core of the track makes for worthwhile listening. A fine track indeed. Spirits is a synth track and is not too exciting. Sweet Obsession was resurrected for the latest Hawkwind album. It's not a great track and not really worth resurrecting. Oscillations is a decent short song over a pleasant synth line. Machine Dream is a frenetic mix of guitar and synth and synth organ but ultimately doesn't do a lot. Winter of Discontent is another track from the Weird 7 album featuring crunching guitar and Will Shakespeare's famous Richard III speech. Another highpoint on the album. On the Case is a song with guitar riff, drum machine and synths and is not terribly successful. So besides Earthed to the Ground most of the best bits we've heard before. The bonus tracks don't add a great deal. Wired for Sound uses the Magnu riff and the Earthed to the Ground lyrics. Social Alliance appeared on the live side of the Hawkwind album Zones and this version is preferable as we don't have to put up with Nik Turners honking saxophone.

Overall the album of reminiscent of the Weird 7 album with demos, fiddling around in the studio though with a few solo songs.

Three years later we get the Agents of Chaos album where Mr Brock is joined by Crum on synths. Overall it's a better album and feels more like an album than a mixture of studio demos and studio fiddling. The style is similar though. High Tech Cities is an excellent synth driven song. A day is a nice synth track. In the Office is a short piece with a nice synth line and lyrics that later featured on Back in the Box on Palace Springs. Hades Deep brings the guitar to the fore over synths and drum machine with a strong middle section. Not unlike the Hawkwind of the next 6 years. Words of a Song starts with sound effects and finally a radio tuning in and then out of a snippet of a song using further lyrics that ended up in Back in the Box. A good start for side one of the original album.

Side two of the original album starts off even better. Heads is one of my all time Hawkwind favourite track with a superb combination of bass line and guitar riff over Roger Neville-Neil's splendid lyrics. This version is better than the Hawkwind version from Xenon Codex. We then get The Day again as Nocturne. Wastelands of Sleep also appeared on the Xenon Codex and this is a very good version as well. Empty Dreams (actually Into the Realms) uses a fairly familiar Hawkwind riff on bass synth and there's lot's of cacophony synths and some guitar and spoken vocals. Not bad but weaker than what has gone before. We then get the bonus track Infinity before the end. This seems to be the largely the same as the one on PXR5 without Simon Kings drums and no sign of Lemmy. Not sure what it's doing on the album. Mountains in the Sky is a pleasant synth ending reminiscent of some of Hawkwind's more ambient tracks.

Overall then Agents of Chaos provides a much better album than Earthed to the Ground. Some fine tracks, better production, more consistent and none of the weaker elements of that album I'd given Agents of Chaos four stars and Earthed to the Ground three.

Part of me wants to say this is for Hawkwind/Brock fanatics only, which it probably is... a lot of the material on here is electronic and experimental, if you know your Hawkwind, you'll recognise a lot of tunes from previous albums, 12"s and so on - "Assassination", for instance, is a re-titled "Some People Never Die" from the CHURCH OF HAWKWIND album, "Green Finned Demon" was previously available on the NIGHT OF THE HAWKS / EARTH RITUAL PREVIEW e.p. and a lot of the tracks from the AGENTS OF CHAOS album are embryonic versions of songs that would appear on THE XENON CODEX and there's also a synthed-up version of "Infinity" from the P.X.R.5 album, which, by the way, is not a bad thing. There's a clear Science Fiction element to all the music too, which will no doubt send a few running, but there's 25 tracks here, and you're bound to find something you like.

Earthed to the Ground/The Agents ov Chaos package together, great idea great offer recivicing these first two albums from Hawkwinds Captain and lifelong member/leader. Both a complete change from his works within the band although one can not mistake his incredible voice or guiter sound, both unique in their own right. For a first time listen a wonderful introduction to where the man is rooted and his worldy ideals and forsight ov how humans take so much for granted are firmly etablished upon hearing these albums. A must for any avid Dave Brock fan
, for the newbe a fantastic journey into the mind and work ov a Genuis......