Lazer Guided Melodies - SpiritualizedI’ve seen Spiritualized a fair few times, twice in Milton Keynes incidentally, and they’re the single loudest band I’ve ever heard. When we saw them at The Pitz it was actually painful. I have tinnitus, which comes and goes in severity, and I genuinely believe that watching them that evening damaged my hearing beyond repair. Wasn’t so stupid after that, and wore earplugs to combat the aural assault.
The expression ‘everything including the kitchen sink’ was probably coined to describe them. It’s layered sounds which eventually come together (pun intended for those in the know) to form the most wonderful sound.
Spiritualized is basically ex-Spacemen 3 member Jason Pierce, who employs various musicians as and when required. However on this they were a band. Having recently left the aforementioned Spacemen 3, Pierce took fellow Spacemen Will Carruthers and Mark Refoy, along with Pierce’s then girlfriend Kate Radley and formed Spiritualized. It’s a brilliant record, and contains Pierce’s best work. Their most famous release is obviously
Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, but however much I love them, their debut is the one I constantly return to.
Recorded in budget studios in Rugby and Northampton, it’s a tribute to Pierce’s vision that they managed to get such a full sound in such limited surroundings.
They’re still a going concern to this day. Occasionally putting an album out every four or five years, which out of duty I’ll buy, but they’ve never bettered this.
Best track,
If I Were With Her Nowhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi016ZvkMFM