The Machine Stops
ARTIST: Hawkwind
RELEASE: 2016
INTERVIEWEES: Dave Brock, Kris Tait
It's never too late to embark upon new creative adventures. After nearly 50 years of making high-energy, exploratory hard rock with science fiction and/or literary trappings, prolific English psychedelic rock heroes Hawkwind decided to go full-bore and create a concept album. Inspired by a classic, century-old story, the group would weave a dystopian tale told in musical form for its 29th studio release: 2016's The Machine Stops.
The inspiration for The Machine Stops is more than a century old, but the themes still resonate. E. M. Forster's 1909 novella of the same name "is pretty much what's happening now," suggests Brock. "What a wonderful writer that he could visualize over a hundred years later; it's very similar."