Electric Tepee

Electric Tepee is the seventeenth studio album by the English space rock group Hawkwind, released in 1992. It spent one week on the UK albums chart at #53.

After a European tour in March and April 1991, long-standing bass guitarist and keyboardist Harvey Bainbridge chose to leave the group. Vocalist Bridget Wishart would also end her association with the group in September. The group would go on to operate as a three piece of guitarist Dave Brock, bassist Alan Davey and drummer Richard Chadwick, making heavy use of sequencers, synthesisers and computers, both in the studio and live. The style of Electric Tepee is predominantly space rock, with elements of trance, ambient and techno.

The album was recorded in 1992 at Brock's own Earth Studios, produced with Paul Cobbold. "Mask of the Morning" re-uses the lyrics from "Mirror of Illusion" from the 1970 debut album Hawkwind. "Death of War" uses lyrics written by Mark Rowntree, credited as "Rown Tree", a convicted killer who has been held in a secure hospital since 1976. "Rites of Netherworld" is a brief keyboard piece based on Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. The instrumental track "Don't Understand" includes samples of dialogue from Star Trek the Motion Picture and Star Trek the Next Generation (specifically the episode  The Offspring).

The cover is the first by Alan Arthurs, who was part of the band's crew and also worked on Brock's Devon farm. The album came in a gatefold sleeve with a painting of Castlerigg stone circle in the fold-out. It was the group's first of two for Essential Records, a subsidiary of Castle Communications.

The group undertook a 23 date UK tour in April and May to promote the album, appearing behind a curtain on which the lightshow was projected. An all-nighter at the Brixton Academy on 15 August, when they were joined on-stage by Salt Tank, was released as Brixton Academy 15.8.92, using an amateur video shoot of the event.

Personnel

 * Hawkwind
 * Dave Brock – electric guitar, keyboards, vocals
 * Alan Davey – bass guitar, vocals, keyboards
 * Richard Chadwick – drums

Release history

 * May 1992: Essential Records, ESDLP181, UK Double LP (Limited edition of 5000)
 * May 1992: Essential Records, ESSCD181, UK CD
 * May 1992: Essential Records, ESSMC181, UK Cassette
 * July 1995: Griffin Music, GN0931-2, USA
 * January 2009: Atomhenge (Cherry Red) Records, ATOMCD1008, UK CD