Swell Maps/Space Rock....

*It's a funny thing I've never heard those Rowland S Howard & Nikki Sudden Records. Well as you can tell I was big on the Birthday Party but I'm also a massive Swell Maps (Sudden's band formed with his bro Epic Soundtracks in the mid 70s) fan. Swell Maps have got to be the most underrated British Post Punk band. Their debut LP A Trip To Marineville would be in my all time top ten. The follow up Jane From Occupied Europe is also ace and International Rescue is one fine compilation. Maybe they were too broad in their musical output to be truly considered a post punk band, I guess a bit like the Homosexuals in that regard. Wasn't the whole point of post punk though to be fearless and travel your own experimental path. Funnily enough in the early 90s when most post punk was seen as passe they were still having some kind of impact, their records were still in print and they had an influence on the indie scene ie. Pavement et al. So I guess their influence was beyond mere post punk revivalists that came later loving/impersonating their Gang Of Fours and Joy Divisions. Swell Maps having a much broader influential scope. I should check out those Howard & Sudden records.

**After watching that Hawkwind doco I obviously dug out the Space Ritual double live record which is one of the space rock peaks. One that never seems to make it to any lists is Warrior On The Edge Of Time which could be my fave Hawkwind record of all. Sonically it's not that far from Space Ritual -glorious deep, dark and mysterious space rock man with great bass and rhythm. It put me on a trip of acid/space/electronic rock classics Agitation Free's Malesch, Amon Duul II's Phallus Dei and Yeti, Lobby Loyde's Beyond Morgia, Tonto's Exploding Head Band's Zero Time, White Noise's An Electric Storm, Can's Unlimited Edition and further on and out.......

A grade space rock grooves