Hard to believe that Jason Pierce has been around for
over twenty years. A founding member of the seminal
psychedelic rock outfit Spaceman 3 with Sonic Boom in
1982, Pierce stayed with the band until the end, nearly
ten years later. By then, he had already started working
on his next project, Spiritualized, releasing his first
single, Anyway That You Want Me, in 1990, famously
outraging Sonic Boom by using the Spaceman 3 logo on
the single’s cover. Building on the infamous Spaceman
3 motto which claimed “taking drugs to make music
to take drugs to”, Pierce and his new band were
working on a more spiritual dimension, adding some elements
of gospel to the Velvet Underground and LaMonte Young
influences.
Releasing records with increasing parsimony, Spiritualized
finally met with widespread success with their third
album, Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In
Space, in 1997, bringing the band out of their
status of highly respected underground combo. After
a few years of touring and general creative standstill,
Pierce fired the three other members of the band, who
then went on to form the Spiritualized-ersatz Lupine
Howl, Pierce returned with the haunting Let
It Come Down at the end of 2001. Complete
Works Vol. 1, the first of two albums retracing
the story of Pierce’s project to be released this
year, focuses on the first five years of Spiritualized.
Kicking off with the Troggs cover Anyway That You
Want Me, the album collects twenty-four rare singles,
B-sides and promo tracks released between 1990 and the
band’s second album, Pure Phase, in 1995.
Featuring tracks taken from the seminal Feel So
Sad, Medication and Electric Mainline
EPs, Complete Works Vol. 1 showcases essential
versions of some of the band’s best compositions
(Feel So Sad (Rhapsodies), Medication,
Angel Sigh or Good Dope / Good Fun,
released in 1993 as part of the Spiritualized / Mercury
Rev split single in support of Greenpeace, to name but
a few), and provides a step-by-step journey through
the evolution of the Spiritualized sound. Interestingly,
the three first singles from the band were covers. Following
the Troggs’s Anyway That You Want Me,
Smile saw Pierce excavating the pre-Velvet
Underground Cale / Reed collaboration Why Don’t
You Smile Now, while Run was J.J. Cale’s
They Call Me The Breeze with the chorus of
VU’s Run Run Run. It is however with
his own compositions that Jason Pierce really demonstrates
his mastery at crafting beautifully intricate melodies
and orchestrations. From the dark sweeping narcotic
whirlwinds of Feel So Sad to the hypnotic eight-and-a-half
minutes of Electric Mainline Pt.2, Pierce’s
increasingly orchestral approach to rock structures
transcends his chemical melodies, giving them the dimension
and scope they need to develop and flourish fully. Despite
having all been recorded at the beginning of the 1990s,
Pierce’s compositions and reinterpretations have
all perfectly stood the test of time and sound as fresh
and new today as they did when they were first released.
Without any doubt one of the most essential and influential
bands of the nineties, Spiritualized have provided the
music scene with a stunning alternative to the various
movements setting the rock intelligentsia ablaze, with
Jason Pierce keeping the focus on the band’s unique
sound. Collected Works Vol. 1 is as essential
an introduction to the band as it is a magnificent collection
or rare moments for fans.
4.8/5 |
