Resonance 5: Spiritualized (3)

<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" LINK="#073A63" ALINK="#A38B4D" VLINK="#2B472C"> <CENTER> <A HREF SRC="../resIndex.map"><IMG SRC="../resIndex.gif" WIDTH="470" HEIGHT="48" BORDER="0" ISMAP></A> <TABLE WIDTH=470 BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0><TR> <TD ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=100><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="../index.html">[Contents]</A></FONT></TD> <TD ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=75><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="../banco/index.html">[Banco de Gaia]</A></FONT></TD> <TD ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=75><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="../liquide/index.html">[Air Liquide]</A></FONT></TD> <TD ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=75><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="../spirit/index.html">[Spiritualized]</A></FONT></TD> <TD ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=75><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="../reviews/index.html">[Reviews]</A></FONT></TD> <TD ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=70><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="../info.html">[Info]</A></FONT></TD> </TR></TABLE> </CENTER> <HR> <CENTER> <P><IMG SRC="sing.jpeg" WIDTH="461" HEIGHT="75" BORDER="2"> <TT>Spiritualized at Moe in Seattle</TT></P> </CENTER> <FONT SIZE=4><P><TABLE BORDER=0 CELLPADDING=0 CELLSPACING=0 WIDTH=60 ALIGN=LEFT><TR><TD ALIGN=LEFT><A HREF="intro.html" TARGET="_top"><IMG SRC="arrowL.gif" WIDTH="10" HEIGHT="10" BORDER="0"></A></TD></TR></TABLE><B>Rising from the ashes of 80's trance-rockers Spaceman 3, Spiritualized's music is a shimmering kaleidoscope of sound, alchemized into warm waves of transcendent emotion that is both timeless and beautiful. As frontman Jason Pierce explains, "it's music that's both honest to who we are and what we do."</B></P> <P>Pierce, aka 'J Spaceman,' along with Pete 'Sonic Boom' Kember, spent much of the last decade with Spaceman 3 "taking drugs to make music to take drugs to," the band's unofficial motto. Dependent on minimal drones and sonic experimentation, while liberally 'borrowing' riffs from many of their influences (the Stooges, Suicide and MC5 among others), they were a direct composite of their record collections. This approach, while radical at the time, is now heavily copied by many so-called alternative bands, and points to the Spacemen as an important, highly-influential band themselves. Ironically, it all ended acrimoniously over what Pierce refers to "as a dispute over a songwriting agreement," on which both were to share equal writing credit on all compositions. According to Pierce, Kember reneged on the deal, thus ending the band and the close friendship between the two. While Kember would go on to form Spectrum and perform with the E(xperimental) A(udio) R(esearch) collective, Pierce formed Spiritualized.</P> <P>Comprised of guitarist/songwriter Pierce, keyboardist Kate Radley and bassist Sean Cook, this band's musical output is much harder to pigeonhole than your typical guitar/drums/bass combo. "With Spiritualized it's more like I'm trying to create music that fills in the gaps between all of my influences," says Pierce.<TABLE WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 CELLPADDING=10 ALIGN=RIGHT VALIGN=TOP> <TR><TD><HR><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#354F3C>With Spiritualized it's more like I'm trying to create music that fills in the gaps between all of my influences.</FONT></B><HR></TD></TR></TABLE> "I think the points of reference are there, but we're not taking other people's things and making them our own--we're trying to make our own music." Conscious or not, elements of everything from gospel and soul, to blues, ambient, and minimalist composers Lamonte Young and Michael Nyman can be heard within their sound. Yet Pierce is the first to discount the notion that this is planned. "No, definitely not!" he says. "We don't go into the studio saying, 'let's make something Phil Spector sounding.' And besides, anything that does sound too obvious we throw out anyway."</P> <P>If there is a connection to be made between Pierce's work with Spiritualized and Spaceman 3, it's his love of repetition, and lots of it. The sound Spiritualized makes is constructed by simple motifs played continuously, then layered and woven into something much more complex and intricate than a series of mere drones. "In Spaceman 3 we were all playing the same minimal riff, but with Spiritualized we play five different riffs--it's further forward, higher. We just didn't want to tread water and remain where we were, which would have been easy to do, because people would have bought into it. There's always people out there that don't accept progress," reckons Pierce.</P> <P>This is, unfortunately, all so true in describing a fickle record-buying public that seems to follow the latest media trend, more than their own ears, when buying new music. In the case of Spiritualized, surviving in a category-obsessed industry that depends on a band fitting comfortably into a particular radio format seems quite daunting--yet Pierce remains unfazed. "If (radio airplay/chart-action) are the basis of success, then someone else can have them. We are successful because we do what we want to do. <TABLE WIDTH=150 BORDER=0 CELLPADDING=10 ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=TOP> <TR><TD><HR><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#354F3C>If radio airplay is the basis of success, then someone else can have them. We are successful because we do what we want to do.</FONT></B><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>Plus I think we have a musical audience--people who get off on the music and actually listen to it. We're not out plugging a lifestyle, or saying here's our agenda.... It's the music that's important, not being seen at the right place, or buying the right records. Fuck that... you should buy whatever turns you on!"</P> <P>Two such "turn ons" can be found in Spiritualized's recorded output: 1992's <I>Lazer Guided Melodies</I>; and last year's beautiful <I>Pure Phase</I>. With its gospel-tinged songs of redemption, <I>Lazer...</I> is both narcotically dream-like and pure, with a halting sense of quiet desperation. <I>Pure Phase</I> is thematically similar, yet the music exudes a growing confidence both in the band's playing and songwriting. The mix on this album is also radically different; with a far denser cornucopia of sounds to bombard the senses, it's head music of the highest order.</P> <P>"We had a very definite idea of how the first album should sound," says Pierce. "It was a bit more structured and direct, and it documents where we were at a very specific time; both my music and I have grown a great deal since then. With <I>Pure Phase</I> we tried to get musicians in not only to contribute, but to understand and have a kind of soul for the music as well. By doing this the whole process becomes a lot freer; but I don't think this will become apparent until we release the next album."</P> <P>Until that time comes we must content ourselves with <I>Pure Phase</I>, a unique creation that is both comforting and unsettling over its 60-plus minutes of aural therapy. Non-rock elements such as horns and the strings of the Balenescu Quartet sound like nothing you've ever heard before or are likely to again from Spiritualized. "We could make another ten albums like this, but what's the point?" says Pierce, "there's no achievement in that."</P> <P>Some have referred to Mr. Pierce as an overly critical perfectionist, a more prolific Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine), if you will. Does he consider himself too critical of his musical output? "If you don't get it right you can be critical," says Pierce emphatically. "But we got it (<I>Pure Phase</I>) right. We said what we wanted and recorded the songs exactly the way we wanted. I don't think of our albums as a collection of good takes--like how "Medication" sounded a year ago. We want people to lose themselves in the music, and hear things they didn't hear on first listen."</P> <P>This is something that can't be helped upon listening to Spiritualized, as layers of hypnotic sound gracefully unfold, revealing themselves upon repeated, attentive listenings. With <I>Pure Phase</I>, this can be attributed to the fact that there are two mixes--one in each stereo channel--layered over the other, creating one long, mesmerizing loop. "We don't really adhere to conventional production," states Pierce. "I think most of our mixing is very quiet mixing--everything's in there, but no more important than anything else." Consequently, the drums, dominant in what Pierce calls "MTV music," are barely audible as things float gracefully along. "There's a flaw in a lot of people's music because they still adhere to traditional production techniques. It's that thing where you can create stuff that's superficially passive, because it sounds like something that is classic--like rehashing old sound with old ideas. There's too many people who want to make familiar music, but we don't."</P> <P>Electronic music is one such genre that has seemingly taken up the challenge of finding new ways of producing sound. With sampling and remixing constituting an accepted borrowing or deconstructing of others, paralleling what Pierce has engaged in since his days with Spaceman 3, does he feel any affiliation towards a growing musical scene his own band has been lumped into?</P> <P>"It's <TABLE WIDTH=250 BORDER=0 CELLPADDING=10 ALIGN=RIGHT VALIGN=TOP> <TR><TD><HR><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#354F3C>I don't hold with people in England who bought into dance music and then that was it, nothing else was good anymore. I don't know how many people actually listen to what they buy, as much as saying 'this is cool,' or 'this is the lifestyle I want to lead'. We're really just a rock n' roll band.</FONT></B><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>like every other scene isn't it, and we don't really buy into scenes or genres. There's five to ten percent stuff that's innovative, and there's a lot of inconsequential wallpaper out there as well. I don't hold with people in England who bought into dance music and then that was it, nothing else was good anymore. I don't know how many people actually listen to what they buy, as much as saying 'this is cool,' or 'this is the lifestyle I want to lead'. We're really just a rock n' roll band."</P> <P>Pierce does, however, listen to electronic music--Mixmaster Morris, drum & bass, Kraftwerk. He's even done remix work for LFO (the "Tied Up" single), and Global Communication (the "Maiden Voyage" EP). "It's quite a good way of working on ideas you wouldn't normally do for yourself," he says. "Part of the mix we did for Global Communication ended up on the single for "Let it Flow," and we would've never arrived at it if we hadn't done the remix." Despite his participation in remixing, Pierce is very reluctant to hand over any of his own music to a remixer. "I don't like the idea of putting out an album of music that's extremely important to me, then having someone come in and change it to how it 'should be'."</P> <P>Stubborn, single-minded, and clear in their vision, Spiritualized defy expectations and attempts to be defined. <TABLE WIDTH=100 BORDER=0 CELLPADDING=10 ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=TOP> <TR><TD><HR><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#354F3C>We set up the band to be a live band, and everything else comes second to that.</FONT></B><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>What they are proving to be is a band that not only makes challenging, intricate records, but also seems to live for the live performance.</P> <P>"We set up the band to be a live band, and everything else comes second to that," states Pierce. And this is something he means with a vengeance. No two Spiritualized shows are alike, and their performances have shaped and molded their music into a surprisingly powerful entity. "I'm trying to attain whatever 'it' is that you get from listening to, and playing great music on stage every night--but I don't want to hear the same thing every single night. When we play, we're not just out to replicate the album; there's no point in that. Once you start running sequencers and samplers, where you stop? We might as well stick the CD on and stand around for an hour!"</P> <P>Whatever lies at the heart of Spiritualized, it's evident that Jason Pierce is genuine in his love for music, and its ability to communicate with listeners on a basic, human level. Whether this in itself is spiritual in nature, or something less tangible, the band's heavenly sound easily transcends the mundane, rising to reach as high as the music can take them. <IMG SRC="closeDot.gif" WIDTH="10" HEIGHT="10" VALIGN=MIDDLE BORDER="0"></P> <HR> <BR> <CENTER><B>Related Links</B></CENTER> <P><A HREF="http://www.spiritualized.com/">Spritualized Electric Online<BR> http://www.spiritualized.com/</A></P> <P><A HREF="http://www.pacificnet.net/%7Exibalba/sp3/spiritualized/spiritualized.html">Chris Barrie's Unofficial Spiritualized Page<BR> http://www.pacificnet.net/~xibalba/sp3/spiritualized/spiritualized.html</A></P> <P><A HREF="http://www.channel.co.uk/dedicated/">Dedicated Home Page<BR> http://www.channel.co.uk/dedicated/</A></P> </FONT> </BODY>