Song of the Day No.58

Master of the Universe

by Hawkwind (In Search Of Space, 1971)

Cream, The Clash, Jimi Hendrix, writers and film-makers all have associations with Ladbroke Grove, so too do Hawkwind. Centred around clichéd hippie values such as squatting, free gigs getting stoned and taking acid the band moved on from their proto-Hawkind psychedelic sounds when synthesisers became involved. The electric whirls and live improv sessions helped define the space-rock genre while feeding into/from the worlds of krautrock and prog rock at the same time. Dave Brock is the mainstay of the band seeing out many line-up changes and hosting, amongst other musicians, a pre-Motörhead Lemmy, Ginger Baker and Arthur Brown.

Written by Dave Brock and saxophonist/flautist Nik Turner 'Master of the Universe' became an almost permanent fixture in live performances. The vocals drone out lyrics of omnipotence over crunching, driving guitars, pounding drums and cosmic gleeps, gloops and whirps, all the while swirling distortion feeds in and out orbiting the aural expanse. The charging pulse hits reset a couple of times but only in order to build up an entirely new head of steam before evaporating into the ether.

AR

Song Of The Day No.36

Preteen Weaponry Pt. II

by Oneida (Preteen Weaponry, 2008)

Oneida have been around since the mid-1990s and have released ten full-length albums to date, over these albums musical influences from krautrock, post-rock, psychedelia and hard-rock have all been embraced with songs ranging from lo-fi efforts to loud-as-you-like compositions but in amongst this spectrum there is one constant: repetition. The band have a penchant for repetition and it shows, featuring heavily in their music.

This track is a prime example. The second of three songs on the album, 'Pt II' starts where 'Pt I' left off with crackling, distortioned sound mimicking spacial explosions or a volcano's wrath. The deep, thundering drums power the song and provide a tribal march and the base repetition for the song to be layered upon by textured guitars. Some guitars zoom in and out, humming, screeching and roaring while others replicate a more electric, futuristic wail and whine before, after seven minutes or so, soaring vocals start chanting in a complementary fashion. The song is a slow, hypnotic journey that penetrates through vibrations and sound to the core, as the song ends the noise level is lowered and slowed and finished off with the gratifying hum of feedback.

AR