Believe!

Tom Mahler was a fictional character; the protagonist of Calvert's only published novel, Hype.
Much of this album could be understood as being a soundtrack to that novel, which is a nice twist on the familiar film related package; but then, Robert Calvert liked to twist the familiar.

In this, the first of Calvert's albums to heavily rely on electronica, his detached, staccato, sometimes machine-like, ethereal vocal brought enormous amounts of authentic feeling to these songs.

His mini-anthems - narratives inspired as much by Astounding Stories magazine as Bob Dylan - trip along to accompaniment Devo-like with its use of percussive synths and rhythmic stun-guitar.

His gorgeous couplets; sometimes funny ('We Like To be Frightened'), metaphysically freaky ('Greenfly and the Rose'), or damn-right odd ('The Luminous Dial of the Dashboard') always catch you out; and like much great poetry, every encounter seems fresh, new: alive.
He can even make a rainy afternoon in Margate seem like a cosmic experience ('Hanging Out on the Seafront').

To accompany Calvert's new direction, he needed a new wave sounding band, and he called on an old Hawkwind connection, Bethnal; a band who had toured with the Hawks back in seventy-seven, when Hawkwind began associating themselves with young punk acts.

Bethnal had been doing 'punk' since the early seventies, and by seventy-six, seventy-seven they were already well on their way to becoming a prog band, or post-punk as it became known.

By eighty-one they were perfectly primed to accompany Calvert's take on the new wave; and they do a great job; and along with slots from Michael Moorcock (12 string), Simon house (elctronica), Nik turner (sax) and Pete Pavli (cello), Calvert couldn't have asked for better musicianship.

The best comes last on this album, as it closes with one of Calvert's finest anthemic epics: 'Lord of the Hornets', one of his live highlights.
Listening to this I can still envisage him on stage, and no matter how big his audience, he always flogged his guts out; giving it everything he had; all in the name of art; in the name of rock n roll.
And we liked it.
Thanks Bob.
Amen.

Robert Calvert - Hype (1981)

Over My Head
Ambitious
It's the Same
Hanging Out on the Seafront
Sensitive
Evil Rock
We Like to be Frightened
Teen Ballard of Deano
Flight 105
The Luminous Dial of the Dashboard
Greenfly and the rose
Lord of the Hornets

Excellent cassette rip @320kbs
Catch the Hype here

Living in the Future

If Philip K Dick had made records this is what they would have sounded like.

This has to be one of the most paranoid (but preternatural with much of it, like all good sci-fi) albums ever made.

And despite the obvious link to the previous post, this is the absolute antithesis to the music Nik Turner went on to make when he left Hawkwind.

This was Robert Calvert's last proper album (1986), and the minimalist and pared down keyboard, synthetic beats and clipped guitar sounds that he uses to accompany his words only add to its bleak, dystopic poignancy.

From the opening words:

'I was kept in deep freeze
And allowed to grow'

the listener is aware they are in the presence of a master metaphysician; but one with an awful lot on his mind.

Test-tube conception, vivisection, surveillance (on and off line), medical and bio-ethics, eugenics and insanity are all topics Calvert examines and shares with the listener on this album.

I say share intentionally, for as with much great poetry (and Bob Calvert was a poet), the narrative voice possesses your mind, it virally infects and infiltrates your 'own' thoughts.
We share and hear his voices - for voices he had - but perhaps they're not really that dissimilar to the voices we all have in our heads.

The album ends where it began, with a different version of the opening song.
So the circle is complete: and it all goes round and round...

But this time the song has a heavier vibe and the delivery is more embittered and angry - no longer the passive, will-less victim, but now a rebel, a fighter: the fighter pilot he apparently always wanted to be, perhaps.

I was fortunate enough to see Bob Calvert perform with his band the Starfighters several times when he made a comeback in the mid-eighties on the back of this album.
He would often play a noise generator oscillator type thing; and boy was he manic with it; the sounds he used to create from this thing would send you spinning round the venue, whipping you from one side of the joint to the other; and he would do this while maintaining the most manic of expressions, as if these sounds were emanating from his very troubled being.

I'd gone to see the band one night at The Jolly Boatman, an old boathouse that had been converted into a music venue perched on the edge of the Thames in Kingston, London, and found myself standing at a urinal, as you do, when Bob came alongside to use my urinal's neighbour.
Now it's difficult enough to talk to another guy who's pissing alongside you while you're pissing alongside him, right.
But here was Bob. Fully donned in leather flying cap (one of those old World War 2 things with the ear flaps), goggles that covered pretty much three quarters of his face, brown leather flying jacket with a big sheepskin collar, white silk scarf, a pair of those flying trousers that have sticky-out hoops on either side of the thighs and knee high brown leather riding boots.
So I didn't get to talk to him.

I still regret that.
Because that was one of his last gigs; a couple of weeks later news was announced of his death from a heart attack at his home in Ramsgate, England.
He was forty-three years old.

Much of Bob's music has been re-released on CD, so if you like this or find it interesting do go and check out his other albums.
And certainly acquire a copy of Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters, as it is truly essential; and considered by many (myself included) to be the greatest Hawkwind album they never made.

Robert Calvert - Test-Tube Conceived

In Vitro Breed
The Rah Rah Man
Telekinesis
I Hear Voices
Fanfare for the Perfect Race
On line
Save Them From the Scientists
Fly on the Wall
Thanks to the Scientists
Test-Tube Conceived

This is a cassette rip of excellent quality @256 kbs.
I have let a couple of tracks run into each other as the segues are too vital to break.
You'll get the picture.
And you can get it here