Customer Reviews

Doremi Fasol Latido

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Previously they had only been in search of Space - now they were deep in HawkSpace - a previously unexplored region where hippy whimsy met extreme heavy metal while being adorned with electronic bleeps and howls old Mr Stockhausen might have recognised. Like nothing before & not really much since....

Hawkwind had picked up two new members by 1972, Lemmy on bass & Simon King on drums - the pair tightened up the rhythm section considerably and this now became the driving force of the Hawkwind sound.

It all starts with true classic 'Brainstorm' - this is what Hawkwind would be about from now on, thunderously loud & driving rock with the aforementioned bleeps, bloops & whooshes with the spectral sax of Captain Nik in the background. Next up is the almost ballad like Space is Deep with some gorgeous 12 string before the rest of the band cruch into action on top of a VCS drone. Slight dip in form with One Change - 50 seconds long & 50 seconds of your life wasted. Lord of Light - OK but again not a personal favourite. Down Through the Night - another semi acoustic looking back (almost for the last time) at the first two albums which leads into the magnum opus Time We Left This World Today which boasts lyrics of staggering silliness allied to a monster riff and allows Lemmy to show that he was streets ahead of any previous or later Hawkwind bass players - the climax to the track defies description. As a reward Lemmy gets to have one his own songs recorded, a sinister and understated piece pretty well consisting of acoustic guitar & very mixed down fuzzed bass. Great Stuff & virtually all the tracks on Doremi found their way onto the even more classic live double album Space Ritual the following year.

Very nice to have the extra 4 tracks- especially the infamous 'pulled' single Urban Guerilla and its B side Brainbox Pollution. All in all well worth the modest price it cost me - a regular on my cars CD Changer!!

Before re-mastering this was the defining album of Hawkwind from this period, this version is better still and well worth buying even if you own a CD of the core album. The icing on the cake is the great price!

For those that know the album, the extras are the first attraction - Urban Guerrilla is really clean and blends Turner, Lemmy and Brock behind Calvert splendidly; Brainbox Pollution is better than the perfectly fine rocking version performed around 2001 for its use of synth and Turner's jazz inspired sax; Lords of Light single version adds little and Ejection is yet another studio version for which it would be interesting to compare the line-up to that on Calvert's sole album.

For the core album, here is my take:

Structural (ignoring One Change) this is a collection of alternately pounding rock / more acoustic pieces.

The opener Brainstorm is clearly Nik Turner's most important piece and has everything here including the original tail-piece expanded in Space Ritual and dropped since. In terms of the re-mastering the sound is muddy and this is probably the least improved piece, I assume the master tapes / engineer prohibit doing better.

We cut to Space is Deep which has the most fantastic guitar work (often overlooked in Hawkwind) reminding me of water drops falling from icicles onto a frozen pond. The re-mastering leaves this really crystal clear. I also like the build at the end that brings the whole band in.

I will skip Once Change an odd and very short piece of keyboard / synth

Lord of Light is powerful and weird and works well in this mix (and I think the extra track is no better).

Down Through the Night is another melodic piece with some haunting lyrics and great playing.

Time we Left this World Today is a pounding rock masterpiece with hypnotic repeating lyrics and here the re-mastering of the bass / drums works very well and bears turning up to 11.

The Core album ends with Lemmy's haunting The Watcher which again has some lovely guitar.

Overall you wish that they had found a way to produce at least one more Studio Album at this time with the extras and maybe Orgone Accumulator / Seven by Seven added in. Ah well in a parallel universe maybe!

Five stars is a grossly underrated score for this, perhaps the supremely supremest Hawkwind album of all time. 50 stars would be perhaps nearer the mark. From the blindingly blistering opener 'Brainstorm' ( did Nik Turner ever surpass this?) to the creepy and sinister closer 'The Watcher' there is no let up. 'Space Is Deep', 'Lord of Light', 'Down Through the Night' and the mind-boggling 'Time We Left This World Today' (all Dave Brock classics from what I call his most creative period) leave you feeling as though you've been through a shredding machine. Listening to it again after some 15-20 years has left me wondering "How did they do it"? The production is inspirational and leaves nothing to the imagination. This album summed up the counter-culture and left nothing unsaid.

And now with the extra tracks - the difficult to locate 'Urban Guerilla', 'Brainbox Pollution' and 'Ejection' (strictly a Robert Calvert track) this CD is required listening material.

All my reviews are intensely personal and so may not be to everyone's liking but this album, as originally released, was building towards the Space Ritual tour of 1972. What better recommendation could there be?

Personally I believe that, after this album (apart from the Space Ritual live double which was really only a longer reworking) there was nowhere for Hawkwind to go. They said it all in this one statement.

For the newcomer to Hawkwind this obviously comes highly recommended - to those who are familiar with their material - enough said!!

Hawkwind's third studio album is also one of their best. There are few weaknesses on this album and a number of classic tracks which featured heavily in the band's live shows of the period. Opener "Brainstorm" is probably Nik Turner's greatest composition. It is a driving, rhythmic pulse of space rock and features some of Turner's best ever sax work. "Space is Deep" is a favourite of mine, with it's almost pastoral opening section leadng into the faster-paced, rocking coda. This is the first studio album to feature Lemmy, and his influence is felt in the pulsating rhythms driving "Time We Left This World Today" and his own composition (on which he takes lead vocals) "The Watcher". No doubt familar to Motorhead fans, this is a more acoustic version of the song, and the better for it. "Down Through The Night" and "Lords of Light" are classic Hawkwind rockers. Brock's vocals are excellent, and the band, whilst they would admit they were not the greatest musicians in the world, are tight and focused and deliver some of Hawkwind's best ever songs.

The extras are good. "Urban Guerilla" was set to be a major chart hit before it was pulled because of the IRA bombing campaign. "Brainbox Pollution" is a fast-paced rocker that would not have been out of place on Doremi itself. "Ejection" is a new song for me and is a classic slice of early Hawkwind.

This is one of the best albums the band ever released and is a must for any fan of either Hawkwind or early 70's space / acid rock.

I've had this LP on vinyl for a very long time, so I thought I was familiar with it. However, the bonus tracks and remastering make it an entirely new beast, and well worth getting for them alone. I do miss the silver foil cover and the gibberish on the back of the LP sleeve, but that's what you get when they re-package your favourite music! As for the music - it's clear that there wasn't much leadership in the band when this was recorded; members play on top of each other too much and the end result lacks some definition and direction. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater though - this does have some real genius. If you want to buy individual tracks from the album, stand-out tracks are Space is Deep, Lord of Light, The Watcher (Lemmy vocals and creepy atmosphere), Brainbox Pollution and Urban Guerilla.

1972 was when it all took off for hawkwind. A massive hit single, "Silver machine", the proceeds of which were used to record this album and to finance the "space ritual" extravaganza. Lemmy and simon king had arrived giving Hawkwind a much tighter, heavier sound. The album kicks off in the strongest way possible with "Brainstorm", a Nik Turner tune which had been kicking around as a jam for a while. Here,it is presented as a massive collision between Pink floyd`s "Astronomy Domine" and Grand Funk Railroad at their heaviest, with Dave Brock`s stoner riffs and psychedelic leads weaving through the mix and merging with Lemmy`s rock solid bass lines, Dikmik and Dels primitive electronics and Simons metronomic drumming to form a swirling, trancey behemoth of a track. Nik `s vocals give it an otherwordly aspect as it builds up to the nearest thing you can experience to an orgasm aurally. Exhausting,but fabulous. But,this is the only track which isn`t bettered by versions on the "Space Ritual". "Lord of light" makes a good stab at it -- but no cigar! Elsewhere, Del contibutes a short but beautiful instrumental " One change", and Lemmy`s excellent "The watcher" ends the album. 5 stars then for "Brainstorm" and the bonus material "Urban guerilla", "Brainbox Pollution" and the superb "Ejection". All in all a rewarding album with a dense, swirling production and perhaps the definitive Hawkwind sound and feel to it.

wot a cracking selection saw them live in the 70,s , im actually a trance fan but love HAWKWIND, they are THE MASTERS OF ROCK , if you want to know the roots of trance music get this NOW.SPACE IS DEEP , DOWN THROUGH THE NIGHT AND LORD OF LIGHT , ARE AB FAB yyyyyyyeeeeessssss

A blast from waaaay back and it sounds better now than it did then :-) I have filled up my Hawkwind gaps using the Atom henge releases. The quality is great - just buy it!

for years i have had debate and discussion and outright argument about which is hawkwinds best album. its either this or "Warrior...". but i bought this for £3.87 whereas the "Warrior.." deluxe edition just set me back over £70.00 on pre-order so for value alone Doremi wins. also this is short on spoken poetry and big on tunes, Brainstorm still works live today and Space is Deep is a truly classic wind tune. so as for the best wind album, for me, its Doremi. so just buy it.

Yes - I've bought this album 3 times now - vinyl, Cassette and now a CD. The original LP was what got me listening to Hawkwind. It really is the definitive studio album, with 'Space is Deep' being the highpoint for me. It is one of the few Hawkwind songs that doesn't seem to work as well in a concert setting.

If you haven't bought the CD yet, go ahead and turn it up to 11.