Hawkwind - Space Ritual (1973/2015) [Hi-Res]

Released in May 1973, Space Ritual is a unique piece of British music history. Across its 88 minutes, it delivers one of the most mind-bending, trance-inducing and flat-out immersive experiences available for your ears and brain. It’s one hell of a trip and certainly the finest heavy psychedelic album produced in this country. Yet for all its influence on generations of star-faring mantric music makers that have followed in its wake, it still remains an under-acknowledged record in the great rock canon.

„If anything could ever satisfactorily record the work of a drug fuelled, commune-dwelling jam band with a large breasted dancer, then Space Ritual was the Hawkwind album that did so. Trance-inducing occasionally nightmarish, and filled with some inspirational moments, the album was a turbulent ride through psychedlic experience. Impressively it still is. Fashion has undoubtedly come and gone around this music - but like a footprint on the moon, this remains as strongly defined as it did when it was first made.“ (Uncut)

„There can never be another album quite like Space Ritual. Captured live, for many, it's Hawkwind's very apex - the sound of your brain being fried. Originally edited into four glorious sides, it now spills across two extended discs with bonus tracks. From hereon in, Hawkwind were permanently cast as sonic overlords with wit and intelligence just as strong as the substances coursing through their veins. There was always something of the whiff of Campari about poet and sometime frontman Robert Calvert among the heavy sweating hairies, as if he was puffing a cigarette through a holder, observing, detailing. The doom metal of Time We Left This World Today slamming in after Calvert's Richard III-isms on Sonic Attack still thrills. Space Ritual is as central to the 70s as The Dark Side of the Moon of the three-day week.“ (Record Collector)

Dave Brock, vocals, guitar
Bob Calvert, vocals, guitar
Nik Turner, vocals, flute, saxophone
Lemmy Kilmister, bass, background vocals
Del Dettmar, synthesizer
Simon King, drums
Dikmik, programming, electronics
Stacia, dancer

Digitally remastered