Eponymous title track ‘The Future Never Waits’ opens and reaffirms the fact the starship Hawkwind has long lurked outside the realms of mainstream acceptance. Still led and piloted by Space Commander Dave Brock, who’s now the only surviving original member left in the band. Despite a run of albums, many bands would sell their children to have released, they’ve never come close to being ‘stars’ or lauded with critical kudos, but for fifty-plus years (was it really 1972 I first saw Hawkwind?) they’ve steered their ship and followed their own destiny while building a very credible body of work. Dave Brock is now 81, still rich in imagination and still going strong .. whatever it is he’s ingesting, I’d like some!
This new release is Hawkwind’s 35th studio album .. on top of who knows how many ‘live’ albums, there’s nothing here to suggest they’re running on empty just yet. In the past six years, they’ve released 5 studio albums, 2 ‘live’ albums and celebrated their 50th anniversary with a show at the Albert Hall, London.
In their long career, Hawkwind have embraced psychedelia and prog, as well as influencing the 1980s Acid House scene, and elements of all these can be found on the album. There’s a lot of good music/sounds on this album, with the ten-minute title track employing the type of soft synths which project the sweeping panoramic vistas you’d expect from the sonic assassins as they hurtle you through space. There’s a paucity of words on the album, with no lyrics about exploring space or discovering new worlds. But on Aldous Huxley, we hear a recording of the man himself describing an acid trip, plus a contribution from his wife. And on the very doomy ‘The Beginning’, we’re told “upload your consciousness here and leave your body at the door marked Incinerator” and how “the phasing out of all carbon based humans is now unavoidable” in a song which brought the film Soylent Green to mind. But it isn’t all soft ambience. ‘The End’ is a fast-paced rocker with a similar chording sequence to ‘Silver Machine’. ‘Rama (Prophecy)’ is also a typical Hawkwind rock out, and with ‘Learning To Live Today’ being a mix of riffs and spacey ambience.
The Future Never Waits is a quieter, more introspective work with somewhat less of the usual driving space riffs, and frequent excursions into Steve Hillage / Ozric Tentacles territory. But at root, it’s still Hawkwind and if you know Hawkwind there’s little on this album you wouldn’t have been expecting or which surprises you. I fully accept they’re an acquired taste and are marmite to many, but you either ‘get it’ or you don’t. They have their niche and within it few others do what Hawkwind do better than them.
