Well this arrived yesterday - had to go out last night so dipped my toe into the new stereo remix by Stephen W Taylor who did the Space Ritual boxed set as well.
I’m aware the cost of the set has a lot of Hawkwind fans up in arms and I can understand why to some extent - the Space Ritual set had a new stereo remix, the 2 full concerts from which the original album was collated and the Sunderland gig not released before.
If ISOS was not one of my favourite albums, if I had a record player so getting one of the original gimmix cover LP was a great idea I likely would not have paid for this either.
But it is one of my favourite albums and I don’t have a record player…
The box itself is about 10 inches square, so the cover image is great.
The booklet is extensive and reproduces the Hawkwind log - something I really missed since my original album was stolen many years ago. However, I would have preferred more interesting band pictures as photos of the master tape box covers doesn’t really grab me.
There is also a small issue with attention to detail in these sets - in this booklet the log is reproduced from a scan of an original - I would have thought a restyle so things like lines from the other side of the page and improving readability would have been nice. One of the images in the original log went over 2 pages and to look at the image you had to turn the book sideways and then read the type under the upside down picture of the band.
In this version they have separated the image and spun the pictures 90% so the writing is immediately readable, but the picture is split - I’m sure the effort of turning the book round is not beyond the capability of fans…
The music:
An online review said it is like taking thick blankets off of your speakers - I would agree.
Everything is clearer - voices, synth and audio generator sounds, drums, guitars, bass etc…for example in ‘Adjust Me’ on the original, as the main vocal speeds up you know a number of other voices are repeating ‘Adjust me’ - but in the remix you can clearly hear the words and pick out the different voices and tones.
The remix also manages to pull out a lot of texture in the sounds that I’m going to have to A/B against my previous copy from the ‘This is Your Captain Speaking, Your Captain is Dead’ disc. Brocks guitar almost snarls in places, giving a sense of his (and the bands) sound developing towards Doremi and Space Ritual. The drum is more palpable, vocals have more depth.
All this makes for a very different listen. I love the original - it has a very spacey sound and a hypnotic quality. The remix has the hypnotic quality, but also definitely chugs along, like the spaceship lifting off and revving up, ready to go…
Something else that struck me - there has always been a focus on the Brock / Turner / Calvert energy within the band in the ‘classic’ period. This version pulls out the Terry Ollis and Dave Anderson contribution more. The drumming is much more varied than Simon King would shortly provide, and at times I felt I could hear the Amon Duul II influence from Anderson in a way I’d not really thought about before - even when playing my earlier copy only 2 days ago.
I really enjoyed listening to it and tonight I’m dog sitting so thinking of taking my portable set up to indulge myself.
