AMG Review of Night of the Hawk

Dave Thompson
All Music Guide

Following on from two volumes of Independent Days, Night of the Hawk (not to be confused with the live video of almost-the-same-name), rehashed three tracks from the earlier sets -- "Motorhead," "Hurry On Sundown," and the title track -- but added 11 more, recorded at different points during the 1990s, and including at least two tracks -- "Valium Ten" and "Needle Gun" -- that ranked among the group's finest latter-day releases. Once again, much of the collection had already seen duty on Flicknife label 45's -- and, once again, too much of it has since been recycled over a myriad of other labels' output. Among these is the Powerhouse label's CD reissue that adds two further tracks from Independent Days ("Who's Gonna Win the War," "Motorway City"), plus the "Assassins of Allah"-restructuring of Quark Strangeness and Charm's "Hassan I Sahba." However, as with so many other aspects of the Hawkwind catalog, there's a serious need for all of this material to be correctly cataloged, annotated, and then released in coherent form. Dave Brock's own Weird Tapes and #Collectors Series releases have made a start on this task, and inquiring minds are best advised to wait for him to address the issue before taking the plunge on any of the many compilations.