It hardly ever happened but in 1988 the moment finally arrived: Dave Brock, the fearless leader of the spaceship Hawkwind, formed the hobby band The Agents Of Chaos with local unknown musicians. The most prominent of them was Julian 'Crum' Crimmins, who would play an important role on the only record of the Agents. Not only because he composed quite a lot of the tracks, but also because of his large musical input. Of course, the music of the Agents resembles that of Hawkwind - how could it otherwise with the constant factor Dave Brock - but the involvement of Crimmins certainly meant that a lot of tracks deviated from the well-known Hawkwind-sounds. Because of this the Agents were a welcome presence. Unfortunately the record didn't receive a lot of attention because of all the noise the metal hair bands made in those days, so it's good that Esoteric Recordings has dug up the album The Agents Of Chaos. This can't be said of Distant Horizons, released in 1997 by the mothership. Of course that ship was commanded by space captain Brock with old-timers singer and now also bass player Ron Tree - as Alan Davey had left the band - drummer Richard Chadwick and new boy guitarist Jerry Richards. Hawkwind had experimented with trance rock before and on this record that musical trend unhappily got the upper hand. That resulted in a string of scanty pieces that weren't very attractive and, to be honest, just plain dull. What saved Distant Horizons a bit were the tracks that harked back to the glory days of blasting space rock. This re-release contains three previously unreleased songs that are quite nice, but they can't save Distant Horizons of its status of a nonentity in the large oeuvre of the best space rock band of all times. *** (Brock) / * (Hawkwind) André de Waal (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
