Odd Music

Of my Calvert collection (just blogged today) this album "Test-tube Conceived" is the best by a million miles. And considering the quality of the others that makes this one pretty damn good. As with a lot of Calvert's work it deals with futurism and science from a very dark perspective. If you've got personal experience of the "test-tube" process then you might want to stay away from this as the lyrics are biting:

Thanks to the scientists
That such a thing as you exists
Thanks to the scientists
Who made you...

It's really powerful stuff, especially considering the musical format is so very very sparse - there's no hiding place from the quality of each songs lyrical content.

The other thing that strikes about this album is just how very good Calvert is/was at seeing the "future". There's a song about Internet hacking which is bang up to date, and this was during the time when to most people a home computer didn't exist, and if it did it was a ZX-Spectrum (remember them?) or a BBC-micro. For most people computer-connectivity didn't exist. Couple that with emotive songs about animal testing and the test-tube process, you get a real dose of heavy reality that at times is difficult to listen to - because of the quality of the songs.

For me albums like this really show just how powerful a vehicle song-writing can be for getting points and opinions across. This is a "grown up" album about "grown up" themes. It's sad the Ca;vert died young because he'd have had a dark/depressing field day with the world as it turned out.

Very good stuff this album, nothing like Hawkwind in the traditional sense.

Now this is a very good album, Robert Calvert's first solo offering and it hits right in the middle of the Hawkwind sound of the 70's. Whilst it's Calvert's solo album he's helped along by messers Lemmy, Brock, Turner, King, Dettma and Authur Brown. In fact you name them, if they were in/around Hawkwind back in the early 70's then they are one this album.

And it's because of the cast list that I guess it sounds so very Hawkwind-like. Probably the main thing missing to make it "stock" Hawkwind fare is the lack of spacie/whooshie sounds. Similar, in some ways, to Freq in that it follows the song/talkie-bit/song/talkie-bit format. Again it's a concept album, this time around the German/US(?) debacle of purchasing a collection of fighter planes for the new Germany: the "Star Fighter". Sadly for those involved the Star Fighter was a bit of a "pup" and had problems staying in the air (big problem if you're a pilot!).

So Captain Lockhead charts the German process of the purchase and crash-and-burn life of the Star Fighter project. It's a very clever album, where the songs have one or two Hawkwind staples: "The Right Stuff" and "Ejection" are just classics from the hard-rocking phase of Hawkwind. But you see the otherside of Calvert's genius in "The Song of the Gremin" and "Hero with a Wing".

The first time I heard this album, I'd been lent it by a grown up friend of mine back in the late eighies. Since then I finally bought it sometime back on CD and it is still right up there. When compared to the rest of my Calvert collection, it's got very little in common song structure wise, as this is as close-to-Hawkwind-without-being-Hawkind as you can get.

It's one hell of a debut album. How do you follow it? No wonder he suffered depression!

Oh now this is a right odd-ball. There's another chap at work who's a big Hawkwind(et al) fan and this album is a complete no-no for him. I on the other hand really quite like it, don't ask why because for the casual listener it's going to be dropped on the "never listen to it again pile".

However, Lucky Lief is again a concept album by Robert Calvert, and documents the arrival of the Vikings to the new world of America. The style of music is way out on the edge of anything I've heard before: there's a couple of Hawkwind-esque classics, some poetry driven stuff, blue grass/US country banjo, and even a parody in the style of the Beach Boys!? Probably one of the reasons I really like it, is that it is so very different, and as such is one of those things I reach for when I am in that mood, you know the "I've got nothing to listen to, don't know what to listen to moods".

Lucky wasn't as well received by the press when Calvert released it, as it was his second(?) solo album. The first "Captain Lockhied" was an absolute monster, and the two are poles appart in terms of musical styling. The standout tracks are: "Ship of Fools", "Magical Potion" and "Ragna Rock".

Would I recommend this to other people? Well that's a difficult one, on the whole no I wouldn't because it is so difficult to listen to and "enjoy" without saying "this is crap". But if you can approach it from the other side, and are a Hawkwind fan then, yes it's worth a listen.

"Hype" is another album from Robert Calvert, and again is a concept album. I have to say, that out of the five Calvert albums I've got this is my least favorite. Again it's a concept album, and it's a clever one at that: focusing on the rise and fall of a certain new rock star Tom Mahler.

Where this album differs Freq and Test Tube Conceived is that it includes a number of other musicians including messers House, Moorcock and Nick Turner (friends and relations of Hawkwind). As with the afore mentioned albums Hype is also reasonably dark, the story being Mahler's raise to fame as a rock star that is propelled into the stratosphere as a result of his (pre-arranged?) murder.

I like this album less than the rest of my Calvert collection because to me it's simply just not as good. There are a number of very good songs on it: "Flight 105", "The Luminous Green Glow of the Dials of the Dashboard (at night)" and "Greenfly and the Rose", but overall it is slightly lacking. Perhaps it's the style of song that Calvert's attempted, they are not quite in the traditional (if there is such a thing) Calvert mold.

Don't get me wrong it's still a good album, and definitely different from most of the stuff in my collection.

"Freq Revisited" has the pleasure of being the first of my CD collection to get a quick review. Freq is one of the few solo albums put out by the late, and great, Robert Calvert. His life is one of interest and shows the fine line between greatness and madness quite well (he was a touch of a manic depressive) and died young at the age of 43.

Freq is a concept album (like all his solo stuff?) and is rather minimalist in both its production and musicianship. But because of this it's got a whole load of haunting qualities that make you (me) want to keep playing it over and over. The musical style is very Calvert-esque in that the lyrical content is incredably strong and quite dark in places. The album itself is about the "little man" and his fight against the machine, work, and future technologies. It's set with a backdrop of the 1980's miner strikes (remember them?), so is probably more effective as an album for people of a certain age. Particularly as there are interludes where Calvert's cut-and-paste talking bits from picket lines and so forth.

The songs are very strong and Calvert's slant on the future is remarkably insightful. This album's one for people who like "deep meaningful" music.

It's genre is somewhere between progressive rock and poetry.

Well I've decided that it's time for a new blog. This one's going to be about the music I keep listening to. Now a little known fact is that I do have (probably) the best musical taste in the world, so see this blog as a road to enlightenment for the masses... Okay, may be not!