Spiritualized
Created | Updated Mar 27, 2002
A drone-jazz-space-rock band raised from the ashes of the Spacemen3 who were Jason Pierce and Sonic Boom from Rugby, England.
The Spacemen had a brief minute of indie-schmindie fame with their 'Revolution' single and notorious rumours of extreme droog abuse. They were very White-Light/White-Heat period VU in the simplicity of their approach.
The last album 'Recurring' saw the two musicians drifting apart and they wrote one side each.
On splitting up, Sonic Boom was first off the blocks with his Spectrum album but it was pretty unimaginitive one-dimensional fuzz fodder. Meanwhile JP was putting together the personnel and songs for the fantastic Spiritualized debut 'Lazer Guided Melodies'. Every song on the LP ran into the next and provoked a trance-like state like a Ferrari Dino revving its engines at the lights.
Standout tracks are hard to find as the LP is best heard as a pulsing throbbing whole, although 'Angels Sigh' is a pretty good indicator of the mood and sound of the album.
It was around then (1993) that I saw Spiritualized headline on a tour with Mercury Rev (circa Yerself Is Steam) at Bradford University.
Whereas the Rev played a set in near darkness save for a back projection of the flickering static from an untuned TV, Spiritualized took to the stage in the brightest of white light and unleashed a heady mixture of synth strings, flute and the heaviest of guitar.
In short the best gig of my life, bar none. I knew none of the songs but it didn't matter - the sheer dynamics and sheets of sound were enough.
For their second LP, 'Pure Phase', the songs stood more on their own terms, Jason was starting to write more diverse pieces. There were moments of symphonic calm interspersed with frenzy.
This LP had a real standout track 'Medication' which mixed Doorsian dynamics with third-album VU downbeat and pychotic raging guitar like the Stooges but the blend was uniquely 'Spiritualized'. Plus the CD case glowed in the dark which was nice.
And then came...'Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space' which is easily one of the best albums of the decade. In keeping with the 'medication' theme on the prior album the CD came in a fake prescribed pharmaceutical package along with some useful instructions. A very rare (and bleeding expensive) package also had all the tracks on 3 inch CD singles within a pill dispenser. Needless to say even the packaging won design awards.
From the mellow opener through the swirl of 'Electricity', the melancholic romance of 'Broken Heart' all the way to the noodly 'Cop Shoot Cop' via the standout sass of 'I think I'm in Love' there is more here than most bands find down the back of their musical sofas in a lifetime.
The band is metronome-tight filled with Gospel and attack and reflection and the power of what can only be called soul music.
On the back of this they played a fantastic set at the Albert Hall which has since come out as a live album which IS the best live album of the nineties.
And now? Jason Pierce has apparently sacked three of his line-up (including the incredible drummer and bass-player) due to some (allegedly?) breadhead contract wrangle and the keyboard player Kate Radley (one of the original line-up) has gone off to (allegedly?) live in happy heroin heaven with washed-up verve berk Richard Ashcroft and hang out with all his Britpop mates.
I live in hope that this great band will somehow continue to create more of this strange and beautiful music.
---
TWF
The Spacemen had a brief minute of indie-schmindie fame with their 'Revolution' single and notorious rumours of extreme droog abuse. They were very White-Light/White-Heat period VU in the simplicity of their approach.
The last album 'Recurring' saw the two musicians drifting apart and they wrote one side each.
On splitting up, Sonic Boom was first off the blocks with his Spectrum album but it was pretty unimaginitive one-dimensional fuzz fodder. Meanwhile JP was putting together the personnel and songs for the fantastic Spiritualized debut 'Lazer Guided Melodies'. Every song on the LP ran into the next and provoked a trance-like state like a Ferrari Dino revving its engines at the lights.
Standout tracks are hard to find as the LP is best heard as a pulsing throbbing whole, although 'Angels Sigh' is a pretty good indicator of the mood and sound of the album.
It was around then (1993) that I saw Spiritualized headline on a tour with Mercury Rev (circa Yerself Is Steam) at Bradford University.
Whereas the Rev played a set in near darkness save for a back projection of the flickering static from an untuned TV, Spiritualized took to the stage in the brightest of white light and unleashed a heady mixture of synth strings, flute and the heaviest of guitar.
In short the best gig of my life, bar none. I knew none of the songs but it didn't matter - the sheer dynamics and sheets of sound were enough.
For their second LP, 'Pure Phase', the songs stood more on their own terms, Jason was starting to write more diverse pieces. There were moments of symphonic calm interspersed with frenzy.
This LP had a real standout track 'Medication' which mixed Doorsian dynamics with third-album VU downbeat and pychotic raging guitar like the Stooges but the blend was uniquely 'Spiritualized'. Plus the CD case glowed in the dark which was nice.
And then came...'Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space' which is easily one of the best albums of the decade. In keeping with the 'medication' theme on the prior album the CD came in a fake prescribed pharmaceutical package along with some useful instructions. A very rare (and bleeding expensive) package also had all the tracks on 3 inch CD singles within a pill dispenser. Needless to say even the packaging won design awards.
From the mellow opener through the swirl of 'Electricity', the melancholic romance of 'Broken Heart' all the way to the noodly 'Cop Shoot Cop' via the standout sass of 'I think I'm in Love' there is more here than most bands find down the back of their musical sofas in a lifetime.
The band is metronome-tight filled with Gospel and attack and reflection and the power of what can only be called soul music.
On the back of this they played a fantastic set at the Albert Hall which has since come out as a live album which IS the best live album of the nineties.
And now? Jason Pierce has apparently sacked three of his line-up (including the incredible drummer and bass-player) due to some (allegedly?) breadhead contract wrangle and the keyboard player Kate Radley (one of the original line-up) has gone off to (allegedly?) live in happy heroin heaven with washed-up verve berk Richard Ashcroft and hang out with all his Britpop mates.
I live in hope that this great band will somehow continue to create more of this strange and beautiful music.
---
TWF
