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Otherworld | 
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| Artist: Space Ritual
Label: Esoteric
Category: Music
List Price: £10.99
Buy New: £8.38
You Save: £2.61 (24%)
New (28) Used (4) from £8.38
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 27806
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
EAN: 5013929711129
ASIN: B000VWYEX6
Release Date: November 5, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Ships from U.S.A., to anywhere in the United Kingdom! Orders only take 7-10 days! We specialise in service to the U.K. and only ship airmail.
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| Tracks:
| » | Return | | » | Otherworld | | » | Black Corridor | | » | Bubbles | | » | Communique II | | » | Ritual Of A Ravaged Earth | | » | ASDF | | » | Sonic Savages | | » | Droid Love | | » | Time Crime | | » | Arrival In Utopia | | » | Atomik | | » | Riddle | | » | Cold Planet | | » | Walking Backwards |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 A CD with a hole in it July 3, 2008
There's one thing that would have made 'Otherworld' perfect... and that's Robert Calvert. Sadly, he's been dead for two decades. Some of his work is mentioned in passing, and more than a few of the songs on this album are 'Calvertesque.'
Elsewhere, we have some original and very catchy tunes (my personal favourites are Time Crime and the title track)... but I find myself wishing that the bipolar space poet had survived and contributed to this album. Without him, the lyrics tend towards the obscure, rather than deep. What exactly does 'Banged up in the spires of bone and glass, a heavy blue chain dragged the pencilled kid down' mean, anyway? It's still very good to listen to, and a must for anybody with a vintage Hawkwind collection.
 Heads still together in space... March 12, 2008
Apocalyptic space rock your manna from heaven? This eccentric collective deliver the goods: former members of one of the genre's masters - Hawkwind - they jumped ship, carrying both the medals and the scars. Latest release 'Otherworld' makes for a smoother passage than the Hawks' 70's masterpieces; the production is rich, almost ripe, and the spoken word passages and jazzy instrumental interludes engaged to drive a eco political narrative veer at times toward the pastures of 'new age'. What lifts the album are those moments when the band gets to what it does best: full-on sonic attack with Capt. Nik Turner's jabbered vocal almost buried in a wall of trademark synthesisers, squalling guitars, honking sax driven by waves of heavy bass and the good time-keeping of Terry Ollis's steady, insistent drumming. The space cadets of Hawkwind are seasoned travellers now; mercifully they've not come down to earth yet. Still capable of whipping up a storm in the galaxy of their collective head, still out there ...
 Hawkwind all over again! March 4, 2008
I got this the other day not thinking it was going to be a classic but wanting it all the same for the sake of completeness. It reminds me of a direction the band could have took after Choose Your Masques, in their RCA period. Its actually a lot better than most of the recent output of the 'real' Hawkwind. I thought 'Electric Tepee' or 'It Is The Business of the Future...' to be the best of the recent Hawkwind CDs, but this stands well above either of those in terms of 'Hawkwindness'. It has soundscapes, sure, and monotone delivery of lyrics, but no one complains about 'Master of the Universe', in fact, the delivery seems, quintessentially Hawkwind. It has that same 'spacey' feel of most spacey bands, if you know what I mean, bands like Porcupine Tree et al. But it has something more, also. It has humour, that ironic touch that characterised the early stuff. You know, that knowingness that means you wouldn't feel embarassed to play it in front of your mates. It has beautiful nods to the past, stuff from Moorcock, redone with a different soundtrack. Parts of the vocal are reminiscient of Calvert at his most lucid. Theres the Black Corridor, Arival In Utopia and a nod to 'Utopia' for the oldies and a host of other inventive greats, Walking Backwards being an early favourite of mine.
To be honest, Ive bought recent Hawkwind CDs in the spirit of loyalty to a once-great band, and although I hesitate to rank this alongside 'Doremi...' or 'In Search of Space', it, believe me, sounds like a modern version of the same band. Great, Nik and the guys, just great.
...let the space wars commence... January 27, 2008
And so the battle recommences. In case you've been missing all the action over in Hawkwind world, the last few years has seen a bewildering amount of legal action, as Hawkwind mainstay Dave Brock pursues numerous ex Hawkwind members through the courts in his successful bid to stop them calling themselves, um, X-Hawkwind. Despite them all being ex Hawkwind, and him being the only ex Hawkwinder in Hawkwind. Confused? You will be....
Anyway, X-Hawkwind did the next best thing and renamed themselves after the best known Hawkwind album, so Space Ritual it is. They released a rather splendid live DVD last year, but this is a whole new ball game, namely an album of new(ish) material. A bit of a risk considering it's been a long, long time since any of the members were at the forefront of the whole spacerocking movement. But, quite amazingly, Messrs Turner, Anderson, Ollis, Dettmar, Slattery and Crimble have done a rather splendid job, aided and abetted by a few special guests including another ex Hawkwinder, Jerry Richards, as well as John Greves who was in Robert Calvert's group on "Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters".
It's not perfect, but it's so much better than I'd anticipated, bearing in mind the dearth of writing credits most of the members accumulated back in the day, and there are a few wibbly Nik moments I could have done without. Hello, 'The Return' and the truly dire 'Communique II'. But the good far outweighs the bad, and there are some absolute gems on offer here.
'Otherworld', the track, is a surprisingly restrained, tuneful and melodic ditty and 'The Black Corridor' takes some aged Michael Moorcock lyrics and sets them to some Pink Floydian backing. In case you were wondering Mr Moorcock took the X-Hawkwind side during the court battles. A similar effect is added to another set of Moorcock lyrics on 'Ritual Of The Savage Earth'.
Naturally, I'm on the lookout for some actual rock, and 'Sonic Savages' dishes it out, despite being a song that Nik has had knocking around for ages. There's more on 'The Riddle', where Mr Turner goes rather beserk with his sax, and the guitars scream freakout, as they actually do head back to 1972! 'Bubbles' is also a rather nifty rocker, presumably a tribute to Barney of that ilk.
Harking back to the great days circa "Warrior on the Edge of Time", it's by no means an exercise in redundant nostalgia, rather a tremendous example of some hoary old rockers proving that they've still got it in spades.
Interesting January 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The album grows on you, some excellent tracks. The lyrics are too deep for me to understand, would love to know what some of them mean. The word "Annwn" is in the 1st track. Annwn was the Otherworld in Welsh mythology. Annwn was essentially a world of delights and eternal youth where disease is absent and food is ever-abundant.
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