Hawkwind has been on a real roll the past few years, as tough, acid-fried albums Blood of the Earth and Onward exploit the things that made the three-and-a-half decade-old band great: raging guitars, swooshing electronics, loping space rock melodies and plenty of plain old chemically-assisted weirdness. Despite being an odd hodgepodge of remakes, stray tracks from side projects and new tunes, Spacehawks keeps that train on the track. Deep cuts like “Seasons” and “Sunship” (from the albums mentioned above) get shiny remixes, while classic tracks like “Assault and Battery,” “Masters of the Universe” and the wonderfully ridiculous “Sonic Attack” get spiffy new coats of paint without modernizing them in any way. “We Took the Wrong Step” (retrieved from a Dave Brock solo album) and a recut “Demented Man” (originally from Warriors On the Edge of Time, a bizarre record even for this band) set phasers for stun instead of annihilate; new tracks “Sacrosanct” and “Touch” puts the Hawkwind spin on EDM and Pink Floyd balladry, respectively. Though more of a goulash than a soup, Spacehawks still delivers that tasty Hawkwind deliciousness.
