Spacehead United Kingdom

"Beginning in the early 90s as a solo sideline of Krel bassist Mr Dibs, today Spacehead are a core band in the UK spacerock scene. Dibs is, of course, a well known Hawkwind associate, and indeed subbed for Alan Davey last weekend at Hawkfest 2007. It is thus no surprise that Brock's Babies are Spacehead's major influence.

This is the band's latest full length album, self-released on CDR and available direct from the band [details at their MySpace site http://www.myspace.com/spaceheaduk]. Recorded live at the 2006 Roadburn Festival in The Netherlands it is a superb example of classic spacerock with lengthy space-psych guitar jams, superior sonic ornamentation via spacey wibble effects and excellent keyboard work [including what sounds like some Mellotron samples], all over a tight rock rhythm section controlled by Dibs on bass.

The classic Hawkwind [ie pre-sequencers] influence is evident all through the album which is littered with references, but the guys have enough presence to be far more than a clone, with a voice of their own and a distinct style. Riffs and jams are the order of the day, but without the over-heaviness of contemporaries Litmus.

The album maintains a uniformly high performance standard throughout. Old classics Copters and Continuum stand out, as does the instrumental Eclipse with wonderful hypnotic rhythm and superb mellow effects, but there are no duds. The recording is excellent, though I find the soundstaging a little odd at times, and perhaps the vocals get a tad samey after a while in a sort of tuneless-shouty kind of style, but otherwise there is little to fault.

Any lover of classic Hawkwind needs to investigate this band and this is an excellent place to start. Highly recommended."