HAWKWIND – THERE IS NO SPACE FOR US (Cherry Red) (2025) (various formats)

This is the third in a trilogy of heavily synthesised albums that includes last year’s Stories from Time and Space and The Future Never Waits (2023). Electronics guru Timothy “Thighpaulsandra” Lewis has been involved in all three. A surprising stylistic departure occurs in the shape of the title track which tangentially embraces Americana as Dave Brock’s eco warrior credentials emerge in lines like ‘Humans’ stain on the Earth’ (and on opener ‘There is Still Danger There’ – “Lust, avarice, pride, wrath, envy, glutton when the humans came”). Synth loops prevail on the latter which could be Ozric Tentacles in places. Part spoken, part sung, the vocals deliver a pretty bleak message, but there was always an element of doom in Hawkwind music, who have a nice habit of building majestically on fairly basic chord patterns and hooks - witness the bass synth riff on Magnus Martin’s ‘The Outer Region of the Universe. ‘Neutron Stars (Pulsating Light)’ is classic Hawkwind so much as that is almost clichéd, sounding like the Hawkwind who wooed the open-air festival goers and even the punks. The reflective ‘A Long, Long Way from Home’ closes the album in fine style, with piano prominent.

At over 80, Dave Brock defiantly continues to deliver his apocalyptic sermons grafting the stories onto the music, leading a band who make a little go a long way (The music has always been more about viscerality than virtuosity) and the spirit and vibe of Hawkwind is still most certainly there, and long may it continue. They are still experts on how to do space rock with the added ingredient of pulsing electronica and doing it ever so well.

BTW The vinyl edition includes a couple of live rehearsals. Hawkwind are also touring parts of the U.K.

PS Don’t forget to read Joe Banks’ excellent book “Hawkwind: Days of the Underground. Radical Escapism in the Age of Paranoia” on Strange Attractor Press.