Hawkwind were always a band that enjoyed developing and reimagining themselves. They hit a peak in the period of 1981-1982 where the band was stripped back to a 5 piece featuring Dave Brock, Huw Lloyd-Langton, Harvey Bainbridge, Martin Griffin and occasionally Keith Hale. As ever though members joined and left with dizzying regularity such that Ginger Baker was in the band for a while, Nik Turner came back again and many others drifted back in to the Hawkwind maelstrom.

What was constant though was the essence of Hawkwind – the music. Based around the heavy riffing and thudding rhythms of the band the periphery of their sound was filed with electronics and effect. Vocally they tended to shout from the depths, the voices often having to compete with the music but never ignored – the words are a crucial part of the Hawkwind vision of dystopia and decay.

OK, hands up, I have always been a massive fan. As part of that following the band I have seen them hit some remarkable heights and plumb some unimaginable depths in their music but the three albums here represent some of the best of Hawkwind, a couple of years after losing Bob Calvert and following a period of refining their sound and vision.

The three albums in the set are ‘Sonic Attack’, ‘Church Of Hawkwind’ and ‘Choose Your Masques’ and everything that is great about Hawkwind is here.

Opening with a reworking of their ‘Sonic Attack’ the first of the three albums loses some of the arch quirkiness that Calvert delivered and adds more of a martial imperative to the poem/song. The synths create a sense of impending attack brilliantly while the vocal disappearing under a rising tide of rhythm and electronics is truly chilling. The album continues with well worn Hawkwind shapes and sounds and, considering that it was released at the time where punk had given way to power-pop and New Romanticism, the drive and sheer power was the antithesis of the soul laden music that was the norm. This just about pre-dated the rave scene, if you like bridging the head gap between acid and ecstasy but bringing all of the constant repetition that made the name of many of the bands that came after.

‘Church Of Hawkwind’ sees them in a more space-oriented mode featuring classic numbers such as ‘Star Cannibal and ‘Fall Of Earth City’ as well as the massive ‘Nuclear Drive’ with its harking back stylistically to ‘Silver Machine’ Side 2 of the original album is more taken up with philosophical matters, delving into the heart of the computer. ‘Experiment With Destiny’ and ‘The Last Messiah’ take the band into a digital direction, foreshadowing much of what was to come from the band.

The third album ‘Choose Your Masques’ seems to take the band backwards to their classic days, once again setting the band on a spaceship heading for oblivion. Use of samples and electrickery draw you in but it is the power tracks – ‘Arrival In Utopia’, a stunning reworking of ‘Silver Machine’ ‘Farenheit 451’ – that are most satisfying. That having been said, the album is probably the most varied of the three.

Anyone who is familiar with Hawkwind should have these albums but if you don’t already have them the set is a great collection of one of the best periods of one of Britain’s finest bands.