''Choose Your Masques'' is the thirteenth studio album by the English

space rock Space rock is a music genre characterized by loose and lengthy song structures centered on instrumental textures that typically produce a hypnotic, otherworldly sound. It may feature distorted and reverberation-laden guitars, minimal drummin ...

group

Hawkwind Hawkwind are an English rock band known as one of the earliest space rock groups. Since their formation in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including hard ...

, released in 1982. It spent five weeks on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

, peaking at No. 29. The group's line-up for this album remained unchanged from the previous '' Church of Hawkwind'' album, although for this recording the group started to heavily use drum machines and drum loops, with most of Griffin's contributions being relegated to disjointed drum fills. Griffin was unhappy with this role, and group-leader Dave Brock was dissatisfied with Griffin's

timekeeping Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to compa ...

, so they mutually agreed to part company, although Griffin reluctantly agreed to fulfil the scheduled tour commitments. The album was recorded in June and July 1982 at Rockfield Studios. Science fiction author

Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has wo ...

contributed lyrics to the album, but credited his wife Lynda Steele in order to bypass his music publisher Douglas Smith with whom he was in dispute. The lyrics to "Fahrenheit 451", which had been written by former lead singer

Robert Calvert Robert Newton Calvert (9 March 1945 – 14 August 1988) was a South African-United Kingdom, British writer, poet, and musician. He is principally known for his role as lyricist, performance poet and lead vocalist of the space rock band Hawkwind ...

and originally recorded but unused in 1978, were based on

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...

's book ''

Fahrenheit 451 ''Fahrenheit 451'' is a 1953 Dystopian fiction, dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury. It presents a future American society where books have been outlawed and "firemen" Book burning, burn any that are found. The novel follows in the ...

''. The album makes use of samples, featuring

Ian Holm Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert (12 September 1931 – 19 June 2020) was an English actor. After graduating from RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and beginning his career on the British stage as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he became a ...

from a 1981

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

serialisation of ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...

'' on "Dream Worker", and the spoken introduction of '' The Outer Limits'' on "Void City". " Silver Machine" and " Psychedelic Warlords" are re-recordings of the early 1970s singles which were not originally intended for inclusion on the album. The group undertook a 29-date UK tour in November and December to promote the album, with support from the Spanish rock group Barón Rojo. Saxophonist and singer Nik Turner rejoined the group for this tour. Recordings from this tour have been issued on the albums '' Zones'' (1983), '' Out & Intake'' (1987) and '' Choose Your Masques: Collectors Series Volume 2'' (1999). A full double album recorded on the tour was finally released in 2016 as ''Coded Languages''.

Track listing

Side 1

# "Choose Your Masks" (

, Dave Brock) – 5:28 # "Dream Worker" ( Harvey Bainbridge) – 4:58 # "Arrival in Utopia" (Moorcock, Brock) – 5:47 # "Utopia" (Brock) – 3:00

Side 2

" Silver Machine" (

, Brock) – 4:22 # "Void City" (Bainbridge, Brock) – 6:48 # "Solitary Mind Games" (Marion Lloyd-Langton, Huw Lloyd-Langton) – 3:58 # "Fahrenheit 451" (Calvert, Brock) – 4:48 # "The Scan" (Bainbridge, Brock) – 1:02 # "Waiting for Tomorrow" (H. Lloyd-Langton, M. Lloyd-Langton) – 3:46

EBS/Griffin bonus tracks

"Silver Machine" (Calvert, Brock) – 7:25 # " Psychedelic Warlords" (Brock) – 4:52

Atomhenge bonus tracks

"Psychedelic Warlords" (Brock) - 5:02 # "Silver Machine" ull version(Brock, Calvert) - 3:46

Atomhenge bonus disc

# "Void City" lternate version(Brock, Bainbridge) - 6:38 # "Candle Burning" (H. Lloyd-Langton, M. Lloyd-Langton) - 2:48 # "5/4" (Bainbridge, H. Lloyd-Langton) - 3:21 # "Waiting For Tomorrow" lternate mix(H. Lloyd-Langton, M. Lloyd-Langton) - 3:43 # "Radio Telepathy" (Brock) - 5:44 # "Dream Worker" xtended version(Brock) - 2:34 # "Lato" (Brock, Bainbridge) - 5:34 # "Oscillations" (Brock) - 2:01 # "Recent Reports" (Brock) - 5:48 # "Lato Percussive Electro" (Brock) - 3:45 # "Solitary Mind Games" lternate version(H. Lloyd-Langton, M. Lloyd-Langton) - 5:06 # "Silver Machine" hort single version(Brock, Calvert) - 2:58

Personnel

;Hawkwind * Dave Brock – electric guitar, keyboards, vocals * Huw Lloyd-Langton – electric guitar, vocals * Harvey Bainbridge – bass guitar, keyboards, vocals * Martin Griffin – drums ;Guest musician * Nik Turner – saxophone on "Void City"

Credits

* Recorded at Rockfield Studios, Monmouth – June & July 1982. Produced with Pat Moran. * Sleeve designed by Andrew Christian and Terry Oakes.

Charts

Release history

* October 1982: RCA/Active, RCALP 6055, UK vinyl * October 1996: Emergency Broadcast System Records, EBSCD124, UK CD * October 1996: Griffin Music, GCD613-2, USA CD * October 2010: Atomhenge ( Cherry Red) Records, ATOMCD2026, UK 2CD

References

External links

Choose Your Masques at Atomhenge Records
{{Authority control 1982 albums Hawkwind albums Active Records albums Albums produced by Pat Moran Albums recorded at Rockfield Studios