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Hawkwind - Ambient Anarchists (Discs 1-2) (1998)

Track listing:
  1. Sonic Attack
  2. Urban Guerilla (Live)
  3. The Right to Decide
  4. UFO Line
  5. Abducted
  6. High Rise
  7. Earth
  8. Motorway City
  9. Love in Space
  10. Psychedelic Warlords
  11. Sonic Attack
  12. The Forge of Vulcan
  13. Life Form
  14. Uncle Sam's on Mars
  15. Green Finned Demon
  16. TV Suicide
  17. Confrontation
  18. Virgin of the World
  19. Motorhead
  20. Utopia
  21. Assassin
  22. Streets of Fear
  23. The Camera That Could Lie
  24. The Joker at the Gate
  25. Time and Space
  26. Vega
  27. The Last Messiah

Notes

A two-disc collection covering over 20 years of Hawkwind standouts, Ambient Anarchists is a good choice for listeners new to the group's trippy universe. A live version of the controversial '70s single "Urban Guerilla" leads the record off nicely along with the proto-punk "The Right to Decide." From these relatively spastic origins, listeners are led through several eras of swirling space rock, prog metal, and sci-fi electronica. The fantasy material on disc one has an appealing attitude that's strangely ambitious and innocent. The Lemmy Kilmister-penned "Motorhead" is just one of the many old-school highlights. The disc two selections are even more theatrical, but some of the urgency of Hawkwind's earlier work gets lost in the wash of synth affects and spoken accounts of space travel. Fortunately, "Love in Space" leads a pack of melodically grounded songs that prevent Ambient Anarchists from becoming overcooked by the stars of so many distant galaxies.