Spacemen 3 - 1991 - Recurring

Quality: 3.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4 out of 5

Recurring is really a Spacemen 3 album in name only. Once the 90's had rolled around, Sonic Boom and Jason Pierce's relationship had become so acrimonious that the two wouldn't even enter the studio together. In fact, I don't think they both appear on any of the album's tracks. Thus, we get sort of a weird double EP with Boom's tracks on side one and Pierce's tracks on side two. Even the backing is different as Boom uses some friends and a few folk that would follow him on to his next project, Spectrum. Pierce's backing is in fact the first line-up of Spiritualized. I guess Spacemen 3 simply had a contract to finish. Let's look at this as two separate collections.

I thought Sonic Boom supplied the better tracks on Playing With Fire (although only by a hair or two), but he sounds positively wasted here. Tracks like the opening "Big City," "I Love You," and "Why Couldn't I See" include some lame automated-sounding backing and a half baked 'Madchester' influence. Unfortunately, that influence comes through like a second-rate Inspirial Carpets. To add insult to injury, his vocals are a big cut below previous performances and he comes across as drug-addled bored rather than surreal and altered. With some different arranging and performances, these would've been a lot better. Maybe that's where Boom needed Pierce. I can't really say that for "Just To See You Smile," which appears in a vocal and instrumental version. Actually, it's a fine song with great production, but it was also a fine song with great production on Playing With Fire, where it was called "Honey" and sounded EXACTLY THE SAME.

Fortunately for this album, Pierce came in with his game face on. His tracks with the soon-to-be Spiritualized take the gospel vibe of Pierce's Playing With Fire tracks and amp up the production and dreaminess. With Boom out of the picture, Pierce goes for an airy, atmospheric drone rather than Spacemen 3's previous pulsing drone (not that there's anything wrong with a pulsing drone). Blessed with some great organic performances, this side of the album seriously contrasts with side a's badly programmed beats. The tracks on this side are uniformly great and serve as the not-so-missing link between Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized.

If you're new to this album, it would probably be in your best interest to skip to track 8 in case you have trouble stomaching Boom's songs. Or you might try the Mudhoney cover of "When Tomorrow Hits" on track 7 which harkens back to the Sound Of Confusion-era style. Mr. Boom manages to come through ok on that one.

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Spacemen 3 - 1991 - Recurring

Spacemen 3 - 1989 - Playing With Fire

Quality: 5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.25 out of 5


Spacemen 3 finally live up to the space rock potential of their name on their third album, Playing With Fire. Excepting some programmed sounding drums, the band basically drops all conventional rhythmic structure, building songs of of pulsing, delayed, and droning guitars and synths. Most of the album creates a dreamy pad for the songs to float on, although we do get the buzzsaw drones of "Revolution" and "Suicide" to break things up.

At this point, the band was no longer projecting a united creative front, and it's clear that Sonic Boom and Jason Pierce were veering off in very different directions of psychedelia. Pierce's tracks like "Come Down Softly To My Soul" and "Lord Can Your Hear Me" are very dreamy, but seeped in old school R&B and surprisingly gospel. It's no coincidence that his later band would be dubbed Spiritualized, and the roots of that band are more than apparent here. Pierce's lyrics are surprisingly direct. Sonic Boom goes for a much colder sound, working with cycling drones and dispassionate, surreal vocals. Fortunately, on Playing With Fire these approaches compliment each other well and make the album all the better for it.

Everything on the proper album is quite good. As much as I enjoy Pierce's gospel-psych (which he would majestically perfect in his later band), it's Boom's strange droning that really does it for me here. "How Does It Feel" in particular takes the sound world of the earlier "Ecstasy Symphony" and gives it a little more definition and shape. The lyrics are somewhat cliched, but Boom's distant, unattached vocal gives it a few more layers. It's easily one of my favorite Spacemen 3 tracks. "Revolution" and "Suicide" adds distortion to the drones and basically tries to pummel your brain into a trance state. Once again, "Revolution" includes some strange lyrics, with Boom desperately pleading that revolution "takes only five seconds." It doesn't make any sense, but he sounds damn serious about it.

The opening track "Honey," is the only one that even tries to combine Pierce's and Boom's visions. With the vocals practically backshifting through time and an echoplexed sound, Boom's contribution is apparent. But unlike his other tracks on the album, Pierce's undercurrent of soul is also present. I guess they were playing nice that day (as they functioned mostly as bitter rivals by this point), and it resulted in one of the album's best tracks.

This disc is probably not the best introduction to this band, the Perfect Prescription is still a better place to start. Once you've attuned yourself to the sonic sphere of Spacemen 3, you may find that Playing With Fire is the band at their very peak. The kind of recent reissue includes a plethora of live tracks, demos, and a couple of random tracks. There's a Pierce-led version of "May The Circle Be" unbroken that is fun.

As a little note, the 4.25 Trip-O-Meter rating is basically averaging about 3.5 for Pierce's tracks along with the full 5 for Sonic Boom's tracks. The quality is obviously very high throughout.

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Spacemen 3 - 1989 - Playing With Fire

Spacemen 3 - 1987 - Forged Prescriptions

Quality: 4.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.75 out of 5

Forged Prescription is sort of an outtakes collection, with the core of the set focusing on alternate versions and mixes of the Perfect Prescription album. Typically outtakes suggest lesser or unfinished versions of songs. Here, however, we find the tracks adorned with additional production and coming across as arguable trippier. Supposedly the band did not issue these versions in the first place because they couldn't reproduce these versions live. Considering the fact that these guys haven't played a concert for more than 15 years, I now consider this version of the album to be almost definitive (in fact, I'll be skipping the Perfect Prescription for now as my disc is at my parents' house- unless someone wants to help me out with some mp3s).

Within the space of a year, Jason Pierce and Sonic Boom seemed to have sharpened their vision considerably, and this album is the Spacemen 3 sound in full blossom. Whereas Sound Of Confusion had a very dark edge to it, Forged Prescriptions is much more friendly and accessible album. These guys still come across as junkies as titles like "Come Down Easy," "Feel So Good," and "Call The Doctor" do little to refute, but the sound is far more textured and bright. It's sort of the reverse of the Velvet Underground's "Heroin." That song had a harrowing musical edge combined with lyrics about the ecstasy of drugs. Here, the lyrics are quite self abusing while the songs themselves float above the surface of the waters. Maybe Nancy Reagan's "just say no" crusade had at least a subliminal effect on Pierce and Sonic Boom.

The original album did have a superior sequencing documenting a blissful narcotic trip taking a eventual severe shift down (the album ends with "Call The Doctor," but it wouldn't be too difficult to resequence the tracks. I'd also replace the still good demo of "Come Down Easy" with the slicker produced version hanging out on disc two.

At this point, Boom and Pierce were still working together pretty well, giving the album a great unity. After the pounding fury of "Thing's Never Be The Same," starting off the album here in a far more swirling and intense mix, the album becomes quite a bit more chilled out, juxtaposing cloudy atmospheres with some wasted white boy blues.

The strange centerpiece of the album in my mind is the peak trip duo of "Transparent Radiation" and "Ecstasy Symphony" (unfortunately separated here; make sure to stick them back together). "Transparent Radiation" is a Red Crayola cover, although I consider Spacemen 3's take definitive. The band distills the Red Crayola's phased chaos for a truly interstellar atmosphere. "Ecstasy Symphony" takes it one step further, bringing the pulsing sound into an extended instrumental exploration of psychedelic bliss.

Among the extra tracks here are some also nice covers of Sun Ra's "Starship," and Rock Erickson's "We Sell Soul," which was originally played by Erickson's first band, The Spades. They aren't quite as inspired as "Transparent Radiation," but they are still quite successful. WE also get a few 'virtual' covers. "Ode To Street Hassle" is an original song, but as is apparent from the title, they are clearly attempting to channel. They also go for Reed on the Velvet Underground referencing "Velvet Jam," and "Soul 1," which always makes me think of the Velvet's "Booker T" jam. These last two tracks are more of instrumental noodlings, not in league with the A-list material, but still enjoyable.

My only real complaint here is the submersion of The Perfect Prescription album opener, "take Me To The Other Side." I guess they didn't have an alternate for this stellar track- it only appears in demo version on disc 2.

Although not a 'proper' album, Forged Prescriptions is Spacemen 3 at their best. They'd continue to make some great music after this period, but the personal and working relationship between Pierce and Sonic Boom would severely fracture after this. Here we get a unified Spacemen 3 at the top of their game.

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Spacemen 3 - 1987 - Forged Prescriptions

Spacemen 3 - 1986 - Sound Of Confusion

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.5 out of 5

The 80's as many of you know harbored a psychedelic/garage revival. Solid bands like the Chesterfield Kings but out some very nice, although dated sounding albums reliving the raunched-out dreams of garage deviants. Spacemen 3, however, existed in a separate sphere. On their debut, Sound Of Confusion, the band clearly exists in a garage band line-up with bass, drum, a couple guitars, and sneering vocals, and they had the playing chops of your average garage band (which is to say not much). Conceptually though, Spacemen 3 were something else entirely and even here don't sound dated. On top of the garage compositions present on the album (originals and some choice covers), the band has adopted a Velvet Underground stomp and the industrial drone of bands like Suicide and Throbbing Gristle to basically create a new form of psychedelia. This is definitely evocative of the "bad trip" and a creepy narcotic buzzing. And it's all the better for it.

At this point in time, band leaders Jason Pierce and Sonic Boom were working very much in tandem and it's difficult to make out whose contributions are what. Their songs are relatively simple, but wonderfully direct. "Losing Touch With My Mind" is a great stomping opener which is as good an introduction to the group at this point as anything. Also standing out as a highlight is "O.D. Catastrophe," which lives up to it's name and is an early attempt at the band's epic drone.

Spacemen 3 also try their hand at a few cover tracks, stamping their own identity on the songs as a good cover version should do. They alter the 13th Floor Elevator's "Rollercoaster," eschewing Rocky Erickson's wildman wail and the pulsing electric jug for a narcotic rush. It's difficult to talk about this band without making drug references, as the band itself basically begs for them. They sound pretty seedy and dangerous most of the time. Girls, don't take these fellows home to mom; they'd probably have an overdose fit and then steal your jewelry to sell for more scag. Personally, I love their music, but I'd be scared to be in the same room as them (unless it's a concert hall) judging by the sound here.

They also do a fine version of the Stooges "Little Doll." It still sounds more like Spacemen 3 than the Stooges, but the desperate proto-punk sound of the Stooges is a little closer to what these guys do. I guess that the difference is that Spacemen 3 drain the song of it's swing and syncopation, focusing the song's rhythm like a needle into the vein (dammit! there I go again). There's also a cover of Juicy Lucy's "Just One Time" renamed "Mary Anne," but I have to admit that I'm not familiar with the original. The version here is pretty groovy on its own.

Stressing their arrangements as much as anything else, Spacemen 3 would often rework their songs in very different ways. Here we get an early version of "Walking With Jesus" from the same-titled EP as a bonus track. Later it would become a floating, acoustically interstellar track, but here we get it in a primitive sounding pummeling. It's not better or worse, just different, and very interesting. There's also the 17 long minute of "Rollercoaster" which adds some more sound effects, cuts out the drumming, and of course gives the listener far more time to succumb to the tracks distorted drone, if that's what you want to do. It's the best dose of Spacemen 3's trademark hypnotism present on the disc.

Spacemen 3 would perfect their very own form of psychedelia on their next two albums. The tracks here are a little more informed by the past, but as a good debut should, it provides a great entry point for the band. I think Sound Of Confusion is often underrated in Spacemen 3's catalog, but I feel it's just as essential as one of their great albums.

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Spacemen 3 - 1986 - Sound Of Confusion

Spacemen 3 - 1986 - Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To

Quality: 3.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4 out of 5

These tracks make up Spacemen 3's first stab at recording Sound Of Confusion. The title pretty much sums up the band's credo, although I feel that their music works perfectly fine as a drug without the listener having to ingest anything. It does make for a damn fine album title though.

Supposedly the band prefers these demo-quality tracks to the actual album. Personally, I think the drop in recording quality loses more than we might gain from any increase in the playing confidence; they did a damn good job on the proper album in that department anyway. I'll leave it to you which one is better.

Even if you don't consider this essential, the band does try out a few songs that they wouldn't return to for the proper album or tracks that they would later alter quite a bit (although "Come Down Easy" appears in a low-fi version of pretty much the same arrangement). It's worth a listen for the dedicated Spacemen fan.

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Spacemen 3 - 1986 - Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To