Spiral Realms

Spiral Realms is the brainchild of legendary violinist Simon House of Third Ear Band, Hawkwind's finest era (In the Hall of the Mountain Grill, Warrior on the Edge of Time, Astounding Sounds, 25 Years On, Quark, Strangeness & Charm and PXR 5) and David Bowie fame. In 1995, he decided to take a brilliant track off Warrior called Spiral Galaxy 28948 (according to legend, his birth date!) and produce two albums of similarly spectacular, spacey, psychedelic and totally original electronic music of the highest caliber. The first one ,"Trip to G9" is a collaboration with American Len Del Rio (keyboardist with Nic Turner's Sphynx as well as Hawkwind side project Anubian Lights) and it is a most rewarding electronic symphony that owes a little to the Tangerine Dream/Klaus Schulze style but is way more violin driven which gives it a completely different aura…

The Space Box contains three discs of prog rock and art rock, as well as trance-inducing Kraut rock, from the early '70s. Most of this music was inspired by the sonic experimentalism of late-'60s Pink Floyd – it builds on the long, free-form coda to "Interstellar Overdrive." There are subtle differences between the bands – for instance, Hawkwind tends to lean toward hard rock more than their contemporaries, who explore psychedelia and classical music flourishes. Even though the set is well compiled and contains some fine songs (Faust and Gong sound particularly good), there's no denying that there is a limited audience for this, even among prog-rock fans. It's experimental music that is oddly limited, working the same vibe, if not the same sound. If you're not a fanatic of space-rock, then the three discs of The Space Box will simply be too much to digest.

Two CD set that features over two hours of Pink Floyd tunes covered by a wide array of Alternative, Goth and Prog artists. Taking the Pink Floyd experience to new highs are Psychic TV, Alien Sex Fiend, Nik Turner (Hawkwind), Sky Cries Mary and leading members of the contemporary USA hard edged scene.