The Hawklords formed from the remains of Hawkwind in the late 70s and released a solitary album before disbanding soon after. Theirs has been one of the more curious revivals of recent years. Co-founder Robert Calvert is no longer with us of course, while the likes of Dave Brock and Simon King are busy elsewhere.
Which leaves Harvey Bainbridge as the sole survivor from the original line-up, joined by various members of the Hawkwind fraternity – Adrian Shaw, Jerry Richards, Ron Tree – as well as more recent addition Dave Pearce, better known as The Bevis Frond’s drummer.
2012’s We Are One was a decent enough comeback, but Dream, alas, doesn’t work as well. Ostensibly a comment on society and the times in which we live, the lyrics too often resort to cliché, while Tree’s vocals are thin at best. Some of the songs (Nature’s Dance, I.D. Man, Nowhere Everywhere) sound like reheated leftovers from the nervy new wave of the post-punk era.
On the plus side, the weirder, synth-driven tunes fare much better, be it the backwards FX of Dead Air or sinister oscillations of an epic live version of Psychic Eyes. Not a complete miss, then.
