Hawkwind

Menacing and exhilarating in equal measure, Hawkwind’s songs are built for speed.

That description applies whether the British band’s preferred mode of transportation was the motorcycles they celebrated on their burly and explosive 1972 hit, “Silver Machine,” or the interplanetary craft that filled the science-fiction-inspired lyrics on albums like 1975’s Warrior on the Edge of Time.

Founded by guitarist Dave Brock in London in 1969, Hawkwind became heroes of the UK’s post-hippie underground by merging rock’s most experimental, aggressive, and cosmic-minded strains to create a sound that soon became known as space rock.