When Robert Calvert released his fifth solo album, Test-Tube Conceived, in July 1986, the future that he foresaw was still unspooling… slowly. Having led Hawkwind through two of the most significant eras in their long career, 1972’s Space Ritual tour, and a triumvirate of career-best albums at the other end of the decade, Calvert had long since established himself among the most visionary lyricists of his era.
Two solo albums in between those times, 1974’s Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters and the following year’s Lucky Leif and the Longships, meanwhile, made it clear that there was far more to his work than the sci-fi tinged poetry and lyrics that characterized Hawkwind, with Henry Rollins just one voice among the many that still proclaim “Robert Calvert's album Captain Lockheed And The Starfighters should be in every record collection.”
Calvert’s fifth solo album, 1986’s Test-Tube Conceived, deserves similar accolades, as the UK paper Melody Maker’s review declared. “Seven months into 1986, and the album of the year may already be with us.” And, on December 18, Test-Tube Conceived returns to the shelves with a special 40th Anniversary edition, the original 10 song album joined by eight bonus tracks, replaying the majority of the album in Calvert’s original demo form - plus, streeting today as a single, a previously unreleased 2026 remix of the so-prophetically titled “On Line.”
SINGLE: https://orcd.co/robertcalvert_online2026remix
Releasing on slipcased CD and across three strikingly colored vinyl discs (clear, translucent blue and coke bottle green), Test-Tube Conceived finds Calvert still fascinated by the electronics that powered his previous album, Freq.
But whereas its predecessor feels minimalist, home-made even, Test-Tube Conceived sparkles throughout. The album was recorded at Foel Studios in Wales, with the studio’s owner, fellow Hawkwind alumnus Dave Anderson, guesting on bass, the album plays across a broad musical palette. And when that aforementioned Melody Maker review proclaimed “side two [of the vinyl]… ranks among the strongest bodies of work Calvert has yet produced,” that was not hyperbole. Neither was the observation that Calvert’s vocals were “forever one of rock’s most lethal weapons.”
Test-Tube Conceived was not Calvert’s first album to warn of what the future held. He had touched upon the titular subject before, in Freq’s “Acid Rain,” home to the blindingly brilliant observation that “heredity is chosen by anyone who wanks” (“jerks off” in American parlance).
Later in the song cycle, “Thanks To The Scientists” revisited a theme that Calvert first broached in the poem “The Starfarer’s Despatch” - the first piece he ever performed with Hawkwind, in 1971, and later to become Hawkwind’s “Spirit of the Age.”
“Thanks to the scientists… who made you / You’re always there right by my side / my biotronologic bride”
What separated Calvert’s writings from so many other artists whose eyes were also fixed upon a future dystopia, however, was his refusal to preach. Like so much of his work, Test-Tube Conceived was observation, not condemnation, as Calvert explained in an interview in 1982.
“I do not attempt to put any political/social comment in my lyrics at all. What I’ve always done, I’ve used fantasy and sci fi elements to actually try to be relevant to more everyday things.”
It was just that this time, those “everyday things” released tendrils that are still unfurling today - meaning Test-Tube Conceived might well be more relevant in 2026 than it ever was forty years ago.
CD/VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=robert+calvert+test-tube+conceived
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/robertcalvert_testtubeconceived
Track listing
1.In Vitro Breed
2. The Rah Rah Man
3. Telekinesis
4. I Hear Voices
5. Fanfare For The Perfect Race
6. On Line
7. Save Them From The Scientists
8. Fly On The Wall
9. Thanks To The Scientists
10. Test-Tube Conceived
CD BONUS TRACKS
11. The Rah Rah Man (Demo)
12. Telekinesis (Demo)
13. I Hear Voices (Demo)
14. On Line (Demo)
15. Fly On The Wall (Demo)
16. Thanks To The Scientists (Demo)
17. Test-Tube Conceived (Demo)
18. On Line (2026 Mix)
