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Following an earlier session at AIR Studios in London, where the group assembled to record a version of 'Master Of The Universe', Hawkwind's record label moved the band into Olympic Studios in Barnes with George Chkiantz on engineering and co-production duties.

Chkiantz had pioneered the effect of flanging on The Small Faces' 1967 hit 'Itchycoo Park' and stereo phasing on Jimi Hendrix's 'Bold As Love', and applied these effects to the end section of 'Master Of The Universe'. Meanwhile, 'You Shouldn't Do That' had emerged from the lengthy jams the band had played at Canvas City outside the Isle Of Wight Festival in 1970. The recorded version was open ended, but its structure was shaped by musical cues.

'That cowbell at the end that just keeps going – we were meant to finish there, but then we all came back in again and did another bit', drummer Terry Ollis later recalled. 'The whole thing was very organic.' 'Adjust Me' was an even more spontaneous piece, made by editing two studio improvisations together.

The final track, 'Children Of The Sun', was a last-minute addition to the running order, apparently because the album had come up five minutes short. It was mainly performed by Anderson and Turner, although the former had already quit the band after an alleged attempted assault with a weapon by Dik Mik.

Brock recalls the studio playback of the album: 'We all took LSD and listened to the album when we had finished it. I remember "You Know You're Only Dreaming", and listening to Dik Mik trying to make seagull noises on his audio tone generator.'