Opening Dave Brock’s own “collectors series” of Hawkwind anthologies, Complete ’79 is an attempt to round up, and place into some form of chronological logic, the wealth of odds and ends recorded during the band’s 1979 tours — and hitherto spattered across more budget collections than bear thinking about. All seven tracks previously available on the Live ’79 collection are here, plus seven more dispersed across such budget-priced collections as Acid Daze, Anthology, British Tribal Music, The Castle Masters Collection, The Collection, and The Best & the Rest Of. In terms of sound quality, Complete ’79 offers no improvement on the already available recordings — it remains clear but distant, unmixed, and certainly un-remastered. It is the simple gathering of the material that matters, and the opportunity to hear the tracks resequenced to resemble a full Hawkwind concert. Opening disc two, keyboard player Tim Blake’s solo epics “New Jerusalem” and “Lighthouse” are especially welcome, while the version of “Master of the Universe” rates among the most dramatic in the entire catalog. Great guitar solo, too. Finally, the packaging is bolstered by a beautiful booklet reproducing the tour program produced for the concerts themselves. – Dave Thompson