“Released at a time when many fans didn’t know the band still existed, it contains some of Robert Calvert’s finest material”: Hawkwind’s PXR5 plugs into the more celebrated Hall Of The Mountain Grill

PXR5 was Hawkwind’s final LP for Charisma, creeping out to minimal fanfare in June 1979 at a time when many fans didn’t even know the band still existed.

Yet despite its undeserved reputation as an odds-and-sods compilation, it contains some of the Robert Calvert era’s finest material. With its eclectic selection of studio and ‘live’ tracks, it’s like a late 70s counterpart to the more celebrated Hall Of The Mountain Grill from earlier in the decade.

The tracks roughly divide into showcasing Hawkwind at both their most confrontational and most accessible. Definitely in the former camp is opener Death Trap, a snarling punkoid rocker where Calvert’s ultra-committed vocal threatens to overspill into total mania.

Simon King’s snares are like blows to the kidneys, and Dave Brock’s crunching guitar is a reminder as to where the year zero generation got their riffs in the first place.

The non-stop throb of Uncle Sam’s On Mars is similarly brain-pummelling, with Calvert’s mordantly comical take on colonial hubris and omnicidal arrogance as relevant today as ever.

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And then there’s the spiky Robot, a vicious satire on white-collar capitalism where Simon House’s wailing, electronically-distorted violin is literally out of this world.

On the flipside, there’s the lush cosmic pop of Jack Of Shadows, a brilliant piece of melodic songwriting, and Infinity, that rarest of things – a Hawkwind ballad.

But perhaps the album’s stand-out track is High Rise, in which mournful organ chords and Adrian Shaw’s swooping bass create a suitably emotional backdrop for Calvert’s angry vocal decrying the dehumanisation of urban life.

The latest in a series of vinyl reissues of Hawkwind’s classic albums (also available on CD with additional tracks) the sound is crisp and relatively detailed, though the remastering doesn’t yield any great surprises.

But a nice touch is the restoration of the original back cover artwork with its mock government warning: “This Wiring Can Seriously Damage Your Health.”

PXR5 is on sale now via Cherry Red.