Discogs
Artist Biography
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Spacemen 3
were psychedelic in the loosest sense of the word; their guitar
explorations were colorfully mind-altering, but not in the sense of the
acid rock of the '60s. Instead, the band developed its own minimalistic
psychedelia, relying on heavily distorted guitars to clash and produce
their own harmonic overtones; frequently, they would lead up to walls of
distortion with overamplified acoustic guitars and synths. Often the
band would jam on one chord or play a series of songs, all in the same
tempo and key. Though this approach was challenging, often bordering on
the avant-garde,
Spacemen 3
nevertheless gained a dedicated cult following. After releasing several
albums in the late '80s, the band fell apart after in 1991.
In 1982,
Sonic Boom (guitar, organ, vocals; born
Pete Kember on November 19, 1965) and
Jason Pierce (guitar, organ, vocals; also born November 19, 1965) formed
Spacemen 3 in Rugby, Warwickshire, England.
Sonic Boom and
Pierce added a rhythm section comprised of
Pete Baines and Rosco, and spent the next four years rehearsing and jamming. In 1986, the group released its debut album,
Sound of Confusion,
on Glass Records. At first the band sounded a bit like a punked-up
garage rock band, but their music quickly evolved into their signature
trance-like neo-psychedelia.
Spacemen 3's second album, 1987's
The Perfect Prescription, was the first to capture the group's distinctive style.
Following 1989's
Playing With Fire,
Baines and Rosco left the group to form their own band,
the Darkside. They were replaced by
Will Carruthers and
Jon Mattock. Despite the addition of new blood to its lineup, the band was beginning to fray because of in-fighting between
Sonic Boom and
Pierce,
as well as the former's increasing drug dependency. The new lineup
struggled through a final album, 1991's Recurring, which featured
Boom's songs on side one and
Pierce's on side two. By the time of the release of Recurring,
Pierce was performing with
Carruthers and
Mattock in a new band called
Spiritualized. Shortly after the release of Recurring,
Spacemen 3 split, and
Spiritualized became
Pierce's full-time band, eventually earning a cult following of its own.
Tracklist
| 1 |
Walkin' With Jesus (Sound Of Confusion) |
5:52
|
| 2 |
Rollercoaster |
13:35
|
| 3 |
Feel So Good |
4:55
|
| 4 |
Transparent Radiation |
4:05
|
| 5 |
Ecstasy Symphony |
9:19
|
| 6 |
Transparent Radiation (Flashback) |
7:29
|
| 7 |
Things'll Never Be The Same |
6:08
|
| 8 |
Starship |
11:26
|
| 9 |
Take Me To The Other Side |
4:37
|
| 10 |
Soul 1 |
5:39
|
| 11 |
That's Just Fine |
6:48 |
