The song writing is superb, the music rocks hard, if you need a reference point, well known Hawkwind track 'Urban Guerilla' is very representative of the sound and would not sound out of place on this album. If anyone had told me that a long time favourite of mine would be a concept album that takes the WW2 era Lockheed Starfighter Jet as its theme, I'd have thought them crackers. The Widow's Song" was included in the libretto and Calvert had hoped to record it with Nico singing. For better or worse, somewhere during the hazy decade of the 70s, the concept album became de rigueur for many bands and artists tiring of the obligatory, song-based full-length records. These songs do bear some stylistic similarities to the parent band (big, crunchy, guitar bombast; fluid sax lines; dense, rhythmic underpinnings) to the mothership.

A concept album about a business deal between a megalomaniac German and an American salesman, in which the ultimate war plane is purchased , outfitted, and launched. My own favorite tracks are the "Aerospace inferno" with nice pulsing rhythm and creation of moods, a really well rocking "Ejection" which was later also played by Hawkwind on stage, and definitely the end hymn "Catch a Falling Starfighter", which I found very touching conclusion. Recorded live at the Underworld in Camden, this concert finds the band performing Hawkwind’s classic 1974 behemoth Hall Of The Mountain Grill in its entirety plus additional fan favorites! The music's ok in a generic Hawkish way and its a potentially interesting subject - did the US knowingly offload the potentially lethal (to the pilot) Starfighter jet on Germany - but the sub Monty Python "Ve haff vays of making you talk!

overalls onstage at times during his Hawkwind days) saw the headlines generated by Lockheed’s abysmal legacy surrounding the Starfighter F-104 as creative stimulus. And co-joined by Paul Rudolph (on 6 string and bass guitar), Twink, Arthur Brown, Adrian Wagner, Brian Eno, Vivian Stanshall and Jim Capaldi the result was a virtual Hawkwind EP peppered by spoken word skits and a two part Arthur Brown-tormenter, “The Song of The Gremlin. I'm very allured by psychedelia and many other releases of these spaceheads, but this is just different kind of music than majority of their releases. I’m too high to die” intones Calvert, and Rudolph proceeds to tear it up with yet again before the final crash. Both music and storyline are more sophisticated and serious than in an average Hawkwind album, maybe because Robert had more control over the production.

It's a satirical concept album with both songs and spoken interludes based on the story of the poor quality of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter planes. It was these severe structural modifications which rendered the jet unstable and difficult to control. they sound like on the surface - as with all Hawkwind, you may need to dig deep for the massive payback.

The sketches between tracks are comedy gold, displaying a sophisticated, very British humour and help expand on the album's theme. Similarities exist elsewhere to other groups outside of the Hawkwind orbit: “The Right Stuff” is first cousin to Blue Oyster Cult’s aviation-themed “ME262,” while the riffs of “Widowmaker” reimagine Black Sabbath with brass. For an album made in the early 70's it does not sound in the least dated, with Eno and Hawkwind's Del Dettmar on synths a track like 'Gremlins' (which also has a superbly effective guest vocal from the 'God of Hell fire' - Arthur Brown) moves into proto techno territory. In the seventies I purchased the vinyl single ejection by captain lockheed and the starfighters thinking this was a one off novelty single.

correct matrix numbers, labels and so on) but no signs that there was ever a booklet stapled/glued/whatsoever to the inside of the gatefold - no staple holes, no residues. It doesn't matter what track I choose they are all fabulous, from the outright Spacerock of Biometrics to the simplicity of Journey, where else can you hear past members of Hawkwind mixed in with various, sometimes unexpected guests (even if a few of them are dead), doing what they do best, making great albums. A screeching electronic swirl crashes open the Hawkwind-styled “Ejection” with classic Calvert lyrics that rhyme every word with the title over repeated rhythms and omnipresent Simon King high-hat and piston-like fills. Musicians who appeared on the album include members of Hawkwind, The Pink Fairies, Brian Eno (although not credited as Eno), Arthur Brown and Adrian Wagner.This concept album deals with the tragedy that occurred when American made Lockheed Starfighter jets were purchased in the sixties by the West German Air Force in a supreme act of folly. Let's forget Hawkwind for a minute, if you have a penchant for intelligent hard rock which embraces electronica and has humour in abundance, you need this album. The sputtering of a trashed Luftwaffe plane starts up the album over Calvert’s brilliant portrayal of the West German Defence Minister as a raging psychopath who begins angrily berating his country’s air force power, which mutates into a vainglorious fantasy of a “reawakening of German air supremacy” as his raving overdubs into backward Strauss masking and into the first of four 1973-styled Hawkwind hard space rock thrash outs, “Aerospaceage Inferno.

Side two continues with vocal skits, and it is interesting to note the inclusion of “The Widow’s Song,” which appears in the printed libretto. I think this realistic theme is interesting subject for contrast of more abstract cosmic operas, though Hawkwind also has had political themes on their agenda. The purchased fighters were converted to unconventional operational military usage for saving money, which caused many accidents. And I am hugely impressed, previously, I had the Hawkwind album around Moorcock's works, and that was fun also as a space opera. The dirge-like “Catch A Falling Starfighter” is surrounded by ghostly electronics as Twink beats a funeral march over the assembled moaning of blackened Starfighter pilots.

The storyline of the record is political and related to the time when album was written, focusing to a case when German government bought jet fighters from the America. The musical guests included Hawkwind, Arthur Brown and Brian Eno, making for a unique and legendary album. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.