1 post tagged “robert calvert”

Bill Laswell's Praxis project, originally a turntable-and-sampler affair, changed direction in the 90s to invent the "cyberthrash" genre.  With a core lineup of Laswell, Buckethead, Bernie Worrell, and Brain, they constantly switched gears from funk to metal thrash to hip-hop to ambient to free jazz, often within the same song.  Praxis has always been primarly an instrumental band.  Their latest album, Profanation, includes a series of guest singers and a dose of nu-metal; it's watered down the Praxis concept, but on the other hand they now have some anthemic choruses to shout along with.  On first listen the fourth track, "Furies," grabbed my attention, because it sounded like Peter Murphy singing.  Peter Murphy on a Praxis album?!  Then as I listened and the singing went into a higher register and exhibited some very un-Murphy-like inflections, I decided it must be Iggy Pop, remembering that Bill Laswell had produced his Instinct album.  And it is indeed Iggy Pop, but did you ever notice how similar he and Peter Murphy sound sometimes?

It was not long after that that I happened upon Iggy Pop again, this time on the soundtrack to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which I was listening to for my spy music roundup.  The Stooges' 1973 classic "Search and Destroy" plays during the scene in which Steve Zissou drives the pirates from his ship, a perfect bit of snarling energy for the onscreen action:

So the other night I was watching the BBC Four Hawkwind documentary Hawkwind - Do Not Panic, and I heard "Urban Guerilla" for the first time.  I've been a fan of Hawkwind for over 25 years, but I was never a Hawkwind completist, and a good thing too because that's a losing proposition for sure.  I wouldn't say there are gaps in my knowledge of Hawkwind; it would be more accurate to say that my Hawkwind albums are gaps in my ignorance of their body of work.  My little collection of pre-Robert Calvert albums (Hawkwind, In Search of Space, Warrior on the Edge of Time), Calvert-era records (Quark, Strangeness, and Charm, Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music, PXR5), and the post-Calvert Live Chronicles provided plenty of listening enjoyment.  I never have been able to see the "real" (i.e. Dave Brock-led) Hawkwind.  I got as far as actually going to a show at DC's Bayou nightclub, but the band were unable to obtain visas and the show was cancelled.  Some years later I did get to see Nik Turner's Hawkwind at the 9:30 Club, with Helios Creed in the band, and that was good but not quite the full Hawkwind experience, I suspect.  So anyway, I was heretofore oblivious to "Urban Guerilla," but what struck me is how close it is to "Search and Destroy."  Both songs were written in 1973; they both contain first-person lyrics boasting of fighting, bombing, and general dangerousness; and while Hawkwind don't have the visceral punch of the Stooges, Iggy Pop and Robert Calvert deliver uncannily similar vocal performances.  Here's "Urban Guerilla" for comparison:

1973: the Vietnam War, IRA bombings (which caused the "Urban Guerilla" single to be banned by the BBC, and ultimately withdrawn from the market), the Baader-Meinhof Gang, the Red Army, revolutionary (and pseudo-revolutionary) terrorism and bloody counterterrorism were in the air worldwide.  Iggy Pop and Robert Calvert both picked up on it, apparently independently, and produced a pair of songs that will now be forever entwined in my mind.