Space Ritual

Some of the music was really brilliant but overall it felt like the acid hit a little too hard.

Liked it. Didn't love it. Had a slew of albums lately with good musicianship, but average/mediocre vocals.

1,001 Album Generator does it again. "Oh, well we can't pick one of the great individual Hawkwind albums, but we would really like to represent this eclectic band, and make sure we get something where Lemmy was still in the band. We can't necessarily put a Greatest Hits album on the list. Does Hawkwind even have a Greatest Hits album? How about another non historically significant Live album, hey it worked with Thin Lizzy, let's just do that and it covers up all the problems listed above" ....

Not bad but so long it eventually became background noise.

Not another live album, please.

Weird shit. Somewhere in the melee Sun Ra meets the Stooges meets Blue Cheer. Lemmy's bass steals the show. It's the sound that would power his future legendary punk metal outfit Mötorhead. I liked this album alright but I could use about 45 minutes less of it.

Lemmy is originally from outer space.

Not the Lemmy I wanted but I’ll take it.

Love and respect to Lemmy but I ain’t got time for this shit

I have issues with this being added as a live album. Moreseo than Cheap Trick, Thin Lizzy and all of those because this was intentionally supposed to be some kind of psychedelic multimedia show and just listening to the audio is a hilariously bad approach to it. It's like listening to a jam-band's bootlegs sober for an event you didn't go to 10 years after the fact. It's a disservice to this band. Also just having no control over your effects chain doesn't create de facto psychedelia I'm just going to put that out there.

You know, just because something exists doesn't mean *I* have to listen to it.

Boooooring. RYM: N Saved a song: N

In 1986 or so I worked for a furniture rental company that also dealt in home electronics. I was tasked to deliver a turntable cabinet with a stereo system to a chap in St. Paul, MN. He was my last stop on a Friday night and he was happy to see me and pleased that I set up his new system for him. He asked me to stay and have a drink and smoke with him to christen the new stereo and the weekend. Wouldn't you know, Space Ritual was first on the turntable. Hawkwind and their fans..good people.

Mostly just very dull. I assume the song lengths are the appeal but I wish each one was trimmed by 3-4 minutes. Occasionally has some fun driving rock.

Rather long, but much better than I expected. Not quite psychedelic or stoner rock, but definitely on the way there. Rather enjoyed a lot of this. 4/5

Fun stuff! Great but not ML.

A psychedelic live rock show that's full of surprises! Mellow like Floyd in some places, with deep blues influences in others. Weird sounds you never thought possible from an electric guitar... not a fan of the "poetry" portion of the event, but overall the music was good.

Wow. So much everything

I made it 29 albums before I straight up had to stop playing an album...I did make it halfway through this 2 hour slog. This one actually made me reference the book, and it sounds like this was chosen primarily for the live show itself...something that isn't really conveyed in this album (IMHO). Not my cup of tea.

I want to love it. I’m a huge sci-fi fan and I think it’s so fun how they’ve made this big space concert. There definitely were things I enjoyed, but there were also things I didn’t like. I think a lot of the songs go on too long without justifying their length with interesting changes. I understand wanting to include a bunch of sound effects and imagining a space sound being full of synths but at times it was difficult to listen to. I did love the appearance of the saxophone and the flute though, and there were some guitar parts I really enjoyed. I liked the spoken word sections even if they’re a bit cheesy at times, I think it added to the atmosphere. I have such mixed feelings about this album, but I am happy to have listened to it. It does make me want to go and read a sci fi novel though. It also made me think about The Hair Carpet Weavers which is the last sci fi novel I read and while pretty different in tone is also a big weird space story (with flutes). Really on the 3/4 cusp for me, but I think because it did spark all those sci fi feelings in me and really created an atmosphere, I’m going to give it a 4. Fav song: Lord of Light Least fav: Electronic No 1

so chaotic and so good

Despite being released in 1973, this live album from Hawkwind was recorded in the 1960s and you can tell pretty clearly. This album is trippy as hell and full of killer guitar riffs and an overemphasis on space in all its mysterious glory. With that being said, these guys ramble on way too much and each speaking interlude is always just a bit too much for me. I hate that about half the songs here I did not enjoy and had to throw away because this project doesn’t have very many to begin with. This project is played beautifully when it comes to the instrumental tracks that go on and on in such a crazy fashion, but again whenever this band decides it has something to say it really puts a halt to the momentum it had. This album feels like driving a stick shift car in the city, it is stop and go the entire time and it really wears you down. I wish I could say I enjoyed this more but it really has only itself to blame for why it comes out so clunky.

This is Spinal Tap. This album raises 2 questions: 1) What the fuck? 2) Why the fuck?

Such. Endless. Turgid. Tripe! It's amazing to think that Lemmy Kilmister could have emerged from this and into Motorhead. Equally amazing to read that this album somehow made it to #9 on the UK Albums Chart. I'm sure that the live shows they put on--especially accompanied by the self-stylings of the ultimate groupie Stacia--were far better than this live recording, but I'm guessing a lot of that had to do with all the drugs everyone was consuming to get their minds off the fact that they played endless variations of the same sounds for hours on end; the only tracks that even had a semblance of a structured song were "Orgone accumulator" and "Time we left this world today", and even then they too often moved from lyrics and structured rhythm into random and often sax-infused noodling. They're nowhere near as bad or intolerable as "The Incredible String Band", and I somewhat enjoyed it that the poet/speaker Bob Calvert sounded a lot like Alan Rickman, but not even that, or the fact that Michael Moorcock (one of my favorite British authors) was involved with some of the music and lyrics ("Sonic attack") and poetry ("The black corridor"), can really redeem this chore of an album.

interesting, albeit kind of weird music. Described as "space-rock". seems a bit repetitive for a 2 disc, 2 hour album.

Experiencing this live must’ve been cool under the influence of certain substances, but this was just not my cup of tea. The album art is super sick though 👍. Top track: Orgone Accumulator

some great performances, really sick

Kind of trippy rock music that I have never heard. It's not bad and would be great for a chilled out listen or background at a relaxed get together.

Live space rock? No thanks

Kinda enjoyed this and will revisit. There were some parts that were quite 70's (specifically the spoken word space poetry), but then there were other bits that were definitely the kind of stuff I like. The riffage and atmosphere were great and I would have loved this concert. (Listening again and edited this to 5 stars. It's awesome)

So I didn't hear the audience until they were asking for an encore. I felt they were equally as bemused as me by how badly they played, how poor the lyrics were and was completely baffled by a request for more at the end. Needless to say I wasn't tempted to listen to the alternate takes at the end of the album.

Not my vibe

This was the first live album to review, and also the first foray into the subgenre of space rock (DSOTM is more psychedelic). It's a good listen, though I don't find that I am as a captivated to it as an actual live performance. Track by track, many of them sound the same. However, as a blended "audio experience", it is fantastic music making. Favorite Song: Born to Go Score: 83/100

Heard some Hawkwind before, actually a fun fact about me is that I talked about them in my BA thesis (they fit the space theme I was talking about). That said, I don't care for them that much. The music's just fine but a double live album from a random band just makes me more pissed off that Stop Making Sense was snubbed from the list of albums 2/5

Muy mafufo. Bye

Nothing really sounded bad, but nothing really stood out to me either. It looks and sounds interesting, but it just isn’t my thing. Not to mention it’s two hours long…

Something about that 1970s cover art that just tickles me. Good to know overwrought psychedelic nonsense was happening this early on!

Sunday, 27 September, 2026 Great stoner rock precursor.

Hawkwind is hawkwind major wig out but all good fun and tuneful if pretentious. Of it’s time.

Listened before?: never Earth Calling - no rating Born to Go - 4/5 Down Through the Night - 5/5 The Awakening - no rating Lord of Light - 5/5 The Black Corridor - no rating Space Is Deep - 4/5 Electronic No. 1 - no rating Orgone Accumulator - 5/5 Upside Down - 4/5 10 Seconds of Forever - no rating Brainstorm - 4/5 7 by 7 - 5/5 Sonic Attack - no rating Time We Left This World Today - 3/5 Master of the Universe - 5/5 Welcome to the Future - no rating Average score: 4.4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ this album is loooooong and there's a lot of 2-minute filler tracks, so i'm not gonna bother to round up my score this time. fortunately, i did enjoy this quite a bit regardless, so this would likely be 4.5 stars if i could give such a rating

I am so tired of live albums. This was pretty much unlistenable. The sound was so muddled. The vocals were so quiet at times it sounded like the singer was 10 feet from the mic. This is a 1 star purely for how badly it was put together

I really did not enjoy this one. Sure, its a good enough live album for prog rock (space rock) but I just did not enjoy it for a first listen. Only did the first disc though because this thing is dang long.

This is a ritual to listen to. For a start it's far to long. The version iv got is over 2 hrs long with added poetry. If ever an album didn't need to be lengthened it is this one. Of coarse there is flutes and endless noodling. That was tedious I actually looked forward to the poetry so the din would end

LONG ASS ALBUM

Amazing cover by the legendary Barney Bubbles. Record drones on forever. You either like Hawkwind or you don't. I do.

Pretty goofy, but they own it. I am a sucker for lazer sounds. I'm guessing there were dump truck loads of drugs at this show. Can you confirm? Space is neutral and it is cold. Space does not care. It does not sleep. Space cannot be measured. Space is there. It is not large?? I wish I would have known about this in highschool, I think it would have radically altered the arc of my life, or at least given me some good material to make fun of with my amigos. I liked it at first but really hard to listen to for any extended period of time sober.

This may feel Upside Down to some. Welcome to the Future.

Uma capa com mulher nua, duas onças e um amarelo no maior estilo "Rei Amarelo". Pelo visual, achei que encontraria algo místico, espiritual e com um forte cheiro de Woodstock. Em vez disso, recebi caos, guitarras, espaço sideral e Born to Go convocando todo mundo para a festa. O mais engraçado é que o álbum não parece fazer a menor questão de se explicar. Ele simplesmente acontece. Pegou a vibe? Não? Então deixa a gente fazer o nosso som aqui, colega. Agora uma coisa me pegou desprevenido: impressionante como a voz do vocalista lembra a do Buffalo Bill. Toda hora eu lembrava de O Silêncio dos Inocentes. No fim, saí com vontade tanto de escutar o álbum novamente quanto de reassistir ao filme pela milésima vez.

Hawkwind? More like Passedwind, amiright?!?!?!?!? OK, the Generator is clearly messing with me now. More 70s bollocks, this time - SPAAAAAAACE ROOOOOCCCCCKKKKKKK!! The music isn't absolutely terrible (but it isn't great, either), but the ridiculous, portentous voiceovers between some of the songs have to be heard to be believed - total shite!! How anyone can think this is an essential album to listen to before one shuffles off this mortal coil and back to being part of the space rock that we formed upon, it's just totally beyond me. Nearly 2 hours that I’ll never get back…….

Two hours of live jam with pedals. They’re like a really good really long opening act.

Long, but pretty good. It would be never be my go to, but solid work. Plus, Lemmy on bass!

Yeah, it's triple album length and long winded. Yes it's corny as fuck and spaced out to the 75th Century. It doesn't matter, it absolutely fucking rips. How these dudes managed to concoct this sound in 1972, yanking influences from every damn direction, into a total package that feels like it exists in another universe while being so of its time - it's kind of a miracle it ever appeared. Good shit, and cements Hawkwind as some of the best space rockers to travel through Planet Earth.

There are some good parts, but

Psych rock ritual across the wind waker world.

No 2 hour experience I need

Great spacey guitar sound. The long jams are a bit much in one go though.

this isnt my kinda thing but it still occasionally REALLY rules

Tja, hva skal man si. Å bare repetere en akkordprogresjon i det uendelige med noen tynne gitar og fløytesoloer er ikke akkurat innertier hos meg. Mye spamming av pentatoner skala, lite melodisk solo, slitsomt

Ser man bort fra det som var mest spacet (hehe), var mye her ganske fett.

Vippen mellom 2 og 3. flere digge 3-4-perioder, men for mye rot og støy mellom.

Tidvis ok, men for mye dritt. Ble ikke to gjennomlytt på denne

Didn"t mind it at all. Sonic Attack a bit too much like Spinal Tap though. Reminded me of QOTSA in places.

Some influences from stuff I really like - Floyd, Sun Ra and some from stuff I like less - Sabbath, Prog. But, overall, very much its own thing - and I dig!!

Not many songs on this I vibed with, almost a cliche of 70s hippy rock. Also, live albums don’t count.

They’re really good at playing their instruments, and the melodies are pretty good. Some nice choruses too. The vocals are whatever, and the talking bits are insufferable, and go on for far too long. So does the album. 90 fucking minutes of this. Come on.

i did not like when they talked

It's an amazing album! It's proggy and psychedelic! It's one of the best albums of the 70's! The musicianship is amazing! It's a wonderful album!

I can't be objective here, this album is a fundamental part of my musical psyche - heavy (only Sabbath were making heavier music in '73), groovy, spacey, and not giving a fuck. Motorik beats, huge growling bass (wonder if their bassist would ever go on to do anything else?), cosmic noises and shlocky lyrics even mean that this record displays all the hallmarks of the yet-to-come electronic music scene which (a version of) Hawkwind would later immerse themselves in. You can't just dismiss this as yet more hippie noodling/prog pretentiousness! America has The Grateful Dead with their pristine sound, arena shows, theory-minded wanking and modern revival with John fucking Mayer - we've got dirty, nasty, messy Hawkwind still being led by the eternal Dave Brock. This album both defines, and represents the absolute peak of, space rock - all the pastiche, kitsch and lack of imagination present in that genre is shown right up by the real thing. We took the wrong turn years ago. Favourite tracks: Born To Go, Space Is Deep, Lord Of Light, Master Of The Universe, Sonic Attack

I would have far preferred a studio album from Hawkind, although this was an experience. But it’s messy, sometimes in a good way, sometimes not. The songs can get repetitive which isn’t a surprise for anyone that knows Hawkwind, but the longer songs can really drone. The spoken word doesn’t work for me at all. Probably a great live album for fans and I like the band, but this wasn’t for me.

GET A JOB

It’s too psychedelic tune for me to continue listening

Even back then and under the influence I would not have enjoyed this.

Very very long. Would have been better while under some influences.

You know I love a jam band and these guys rip. Never heard of them before! I love when bands get weird with it too, and they definitely did.

Album #199: Hawkwind – Space Ritual ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ What a way to round off the last hundred albums with a five-star new discovery here. I’m not the biggest fan of live albums, and I’m definitely not the biggest fan of prog music, pretentiousness in music, or anything like that. So, when you’ve got a live space rock opera that had a literal programme provided to the audience when they arrived, with something as orchestrated as this seems to be on paper, with spoken-word poetry in between songs, I thought to myself, this is a recipe for total disaster. But it wasn’t until I got to Sonic Attack, where my feelings were confirmed about the total kitschy nature of this thing and the total lack of seriousness in the theme, that I fully relaxed, and my previous feelings of total joy listening to this thing were validated. I’ve reviewed few albums on this list that I’ve enjoyed more than this one. It is a heavy-duty heavy metal jam album. I’ve been in hard rock bands before, jamming this and jamming that, and as much as I would have liked, I’ve never had any song at any stage remotely come close to the kind of level of jam rock. The tunes are long, they’re powerful, meaty, seemingly simple, and they’re not prog at all. They’re more akin to a really stretched-out early Stooges song or something like that, minus the Bo Diddley beat, with the wah guitars and the heavy bass. It’s kind of ironic that, to the layman out there, Hawkwind tend to be known almost as just the band that Lemmy got his big break in. Just the band that predates Motörhead, when there’s so much more to them than that. But, Lemmy’s actually the best thing about this album. His bass just grounds everything and pushes it forward. It’s weighty and he fills in the space in between with some lovely melodic playing as well, which isn’t something you hear that often on Motörhead albums. It’s a different tone, but it’s driving bass at the forefront of everything, and it sounds like a live album because of that. It sounds very, very faithful to probably what it sounded like on the day. And that can be a good thing or a bad thing with live albums, but here it’s an excellent thing. The class thing is there was so much more to this show than just music. There were light shows, scenery, naked women dancing on the stage, and all this other shit that you can’t see when listening to it. But the music alone carries it through and gets the message across. It is feels ridiculous at times, and the themes of it are definitely ridiculous. I mean, these guys just fucking love space. They’re obsessed with space. And looking into their Wikipedia, they’re still going and they’re still making albums, as of 2026, about space. I hope they get to space someday. I really, really do. And this album, it really sounds like they’re trying to get to space. But it’s so pulverising, it sounds like they’re trying to go through the Earth first before they get there. Fuck it. I don’t give a shit what anyone else thinks. It’s a five-star album for me. I have immensely enjoyed this one.

If you’re not in a chemically altered state, this starts to drag on pretty quickly

I never have, nor probably ever will be, on the correct amount of whatever drug I'm supposed to be on to listen to this. And even if I was, I don't know if I would want to if we're being honest. 2/10

Earth calling - 2 Born to go - 3 Down through the night - 3 The awakening - 2 Lord of light - 2 The black corridor - 2 Space is deep - 2 Electronic no 1 - 2 Orgone accumulator - 2 Upside down - 3 10 seconds of forever - 2 Brainstorm - 3 Seven by seven - 2 Sonic attack - 2 Time we left this world today - 3 Master of the universe - 3 Welcome to the future - 2

INTENSE! These guys did not stop for 3 hours… it was a wild exercise of power.

Too long!!! The 1970s are starting to piss me off

A 13 minute "song" is just ridiculous! I don't appreciate sounds that seem like they are from outer space.

Just looking at the runtime brought me closer to skipping than any other album so far in this challenge, and getting to the end of the first disc made me wish I had. I dragged myself kicking and screaming to the end but Jesus, what a slog.

Hmmm bit slow, bit long, but not without merit

Astronomy Dominatrix.

This wasn't a bad album, it wasn't very intrusive either. I was able to do other tasks and not fully get distracted by it, which maybe is a bad thing for an album like this?

Too many interludes, drum breaks, and guitar solos, decent when it's actual singing. Favorites: Upside down, Lord of Light

The biggest immediate turn off on this is the length. Also just in general was not intrigued by 90% of the stuff on here. 4/10

This would have been great if it was about 45 minutes long instead it’s twice that so it becomes repetitive.

2 hour plus live album by a British psych rock band… Yeah that went about as expected. Got through most of the first disc, and couldn’t take any more. It’s not the worst album, but not worth 2+ hours of my time

Some pretty cool (psychedelic) jamming. Was quite fun while listening but it's a little too long and probably won't really stay in my mind for long. Still happy I got to hear it as Hawkwind is one of those bands I vaguely know but hadn't gotten around to listening to yet.

I'm not listening to 2 hours sorry. It's probably good though

This is just too long. 2 and a half hours on a live album is ridiculous, even if there are some good moments here. Was bored halfway in

oh my god

Sure!

An incredible record. I first read of Hawkwind in Harry Sword’s book on drone music, Monolithic Undertow: In Search Of Sonic Oblivion. He described their experiments with primitive homemade electronic effects boxes and what that early innovation did to shape Hawkwind’s trajectory as a band, as well as the continued interest in utilizing drones in music. This really is a fantastic record. I’m not a big fan of psych rock, but Hawkwind does something special on every song. I would argue they, like Pink Floyd, manage to carve out a place all their own beyond simple psych rock. Hawkwind's place is out there, somewhere, amongst the stars.

A great ride. Way too long though

There’s some good stuff on here, but, between the awful spoken word stuff and the meandering wank sections, the miss to hit ratio is off the charts.

I don't like double albums, I'm not keen on live ones either, but I love almost everything else about it. I really love the driving beats.

Correcto

This was a difficult listen. One person's classic rock is another person's pretentious crap and I don't like it at all. It's just a noise with wibbly 70s sound effects, very psychedelic with serious yet meaningless narration trying to sound important in between the never-ending guitar solos. I think Space Is Deep was OK in some parts, but I lost interest quickly on the first playing of the album, more quickly on the second and I'm not attempting a third. I have better things to do. 1 star, barely.