Each week photographer Russ Escritt sends me his favourite picture of the week, or perhaps one from his extensive archive. Here are Han Bennink and William Parker from the Springheel Jack with Matthew Shipp Trio and J Spaceman gig at the Custard Factory on 26 January 2003. Not as chilly as this January but scarves still needed, you will note.

Russ has been shooting (in the nicest possible way) local and visiting jazz musicians for a good few years now. In fact, he has recently compiled a book of the ones he likes best. Here is the cover:

You can order a copy here, or if you want to check out more of Russ Escrit’s superb pictures, go here.

J. Spaceman, alter-ego do anteriormente mencionado Jason Pierce, trás-nos esta colaboração com o pianista de jazz contemporaneo Matthew Shipp. Um album daqueles em que se aprecia imaginar tomar a posição de um dos músicos.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ylklz0gdhuy

This album was hailed as a disappointment among long-time Spiritualized fans. Jason cut most of the band members and proceeded to produce nearly the entirety of the album on his own. It seemed instead of being overly concerned with creating a certain sound, Jason used Let It Come Down as a personal outlet for his battles with religion and addiction. And after listening to the album, that becomes very evident.  
“Do It All Over Again” has a faint pop structure—which is a great leap from their previous work—but you will still find this one stuck in your head. My favorite track is “Don’t Just Do Something”. The arrangements on this song are fantastic. “If I am good I could add years to my life/I would rather add some life to my years”—Out of Sight. This is another fantastic song with lush orchestration and a climatic ending. There is at least one thing that Jason has always been consistent with that keeps this album afloat—he completely genuine.
This album is more user-friendly than the rest of their catalogue—the trouble comes if it is your introduction to Spiritualized. You will be experiencing an entirely different sound than what they are capable of.

Regardless, Let It Come Down deserves your attention.

Terminal 5 7.27.08 show, courtesy of Jason Bergman

“You need to be a quite a snob when you’re makin’ your own music.” Yes, Spaceman, you do.  Not to be redundant, but I  just can’t stop thinking/dreaming of/recollecting my amazing evening with Spiritualized the other night at Terminal 5: an hour and a half of continuous rock slowed down occasionally by melodious, heart-stirring shoegaze!  There were moments when the Spaceman–who literally almost died after a bout of lethal pneumonia two years ago–screamed as though the electricity from his guitar was resurrecting him.

And the beautiful thing about “new media” is that we can all get a taste of the experience via NPR: Bob Boilan did a very serious interview with Jason Pierce backstage at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC and then recorded the whole show for live streaming audio. (“Yeah the lights are dimming”–oh man, Bob, you’re so awesomely uncool).

The setlist is almost identical to what I heard two nights later. Let yourself be wowed by that amazing transition from opening song “You Lie You Cheat” (from new album Songs in A&E) to every sensitive stoner’s favorite Spaceman ballad, “Shine a Light.”

Also, check out Spaceman’s radio show.

SPRING HEEL JACK
“Songs & Themes”
Thirsty Ear 2008
>>>>5<

Amazon podpowiada mi, że tę płytę kupiłem 24 lutego. Cztery miesiące to w sumie niezły czas, gdy się wciąż chce obcować z albumem i wciąż na nowo go słuchać, sami pewnie przyznacie. Ten na początku wydawał mi się pewnym rozczarowaniem. Frenetycznych improwizacji znanych z “Masses” i “Amassed” jakby brak. Nie ma też klasycznego charakteru “The Sweetness of the Water”, na której mieliśmy już stuprocentowy zespół jazzowy. Czyli powinno być niebezpiecznie, bo to bardzo dobre płyty były.
Co się zmieniło? SHJ jest formacją bardziej demokratyczną, panowie John Coxon i Ashley Wales to dziś tylko współautorzy płyty, którzy mają równorzędnych partnerów (albo – jeśli ktoś na to patrzy z perspektywy fana jazzu – sami są równorzędnymi partnerami…) w osobach obytego na muzycznej scenie Roya Campbella jr., kapitalnego trębacza, dalej doświadczonego (72 lata!) duńskiego saksofonisty Johna Martina Tchicai, wreszcie świetnie wzbogacającego brzmienie płyty wibrafonisty Orphy Robinsona. A to jeszcze nie pełny skład – jest basista John Edwards, po raz kolejny pracujący w Spring Heel Jack, jest wreszcie J Spaceman, znany lepiej jako Jason Pierce. Nie bez kozery te wszystkie nazwiska widnieją na ascetycznej (i brzydkiej, trzeba to przyznać) okładce obok nazwy grupy i tytułu albumu. To jest efekt zbiorowego działania, ale nie wyimprowizowany na poczekaniu, tylko przemyślany kompozycyjnie, ulepiony z niezwykłej klasy melodii (“Dereks”!), nie uciekający przesadnie na elektroniczne podwórko, mimo że przecież Spring Heel Jack to kiedyś był drum’n'bass… Dziś to dużo, dużo więcej niż bębny i bas.
Rośnie i rośnie ta płyta, już teraz bezwzględnie jedna z moich ulubionych w ostatnich miesiącach – aż się boję, co z tego wyniknie do końca roku.

Great interview with J. Spaceman can be read here.

Check out Spiritualized on Myspace.

Buy the new album “Songs in A&E” here.

Jason Pierce (often reffered to as J. Spaceman) is the mastermind behind Spacemen 3 of the 80’s and Spiritualized from the 90’s to present day. Spacemen 3 took the post-punk psychadelia deep into a world unto it’s own. Moving beyond Spacemen 3 in the late 80’s, Jason Pierce took his psychadelic roots and put them into a mix of shoegaze, gospel, and pop regalia. With Spiritualized’s latest release, Songs In A&E, comes a whole new generation of music, influences, press, and fans. Here’s a new fantastic interview that displays his changes over the years as we see him grow from album to album. Spiritualized is currently on tour so don’t miss an unforgettable show.

…the old records are what they are, and they’re all little time capsules. They all take you somewhere. I think good records — if I’m allowed to say they’re good records — they distort your sense of time, you can lose yourself in records.”

Spacemen 3 – Revolution

Spiritualized – Run

Deux remixes en ce moment, me fascinent : celui de Shackleton, très dense et vertigineux, pour Villalobos – une merveille. L’autre est fait par rustie, pour Pivot, nouvelle signature rock de Warp, mais qui joue comme s’il s’agissait d’un Autechre noisy. Le maxi de Martyn est assez beau aussi. Mais, cette semaine, je suis conquis par des disques plus vieux, des rééditions : le Tamper de Jim O’Rourke, longtemps épuisé, qui ressort sous une pochette minimaliste. Le contenu est drone, viscéral, très prenant. Le Dance Hall Showcase II de Sugar Minott  : une vraie merveille, qui mixe versions chantées et dub. Chaque disque de Minott est une merveille et celui-ci, qui date de 1982 est un des plus attirants, immédiatement séduisant, richement arrangé. Il y a aussi le CD qui réédite les versions du morceau Vantage isle de Deepchord, parfait pour se laisser entraîner sur une pente vaguement groggy. je ne dévoile pas encore tout le reste, mais la compilation Living is Hard, entendue par hasard dans un magasin à Berlin (Hardwax – pas spécialement le lieu où je pensais tomber sur ça) est sublime, emplie d’une étrange mélancolie, d’un sentiment ineffaçable de douleur contrite, de chant sans lendemain.

“You were born on a black day, shot through with starlight…”

After a couple of spotty albums that nevertheless contained some very inspired material, Spiritualized releases their best album since Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, its landmark 1997 release: Songs In A&E (which stands for Accident and Emergency, for you non-UK readers) features a set of music largely inspired by frontman J. Spaceman’s (aka Jason Pierce) near-fatal bout with double pneumonia in 2005. Some of them are stark ruminations on mortality, as with “Death Take Your Fiddle,” a slow burning number complete with respirator sounds, while others are romantic tunes, often done on epic scales, such as the current single, “Soul On Fire” and the most excellent “Baby I’m A Fool,” which builds into a psychedelic folk rock jam. Towards the end, there’s also a spooky and powerful tune called “Borrowed Your Gun,” which may be about inherited familial anger or else family violence, physical or emotional, real or imagined. “Good Night Goodnight” ends the album on a lovely mixture of melancholy and hope. The music features Spiritualized’s usual mix of rock, soul, shoegaze and space rock, along with rousing choral arrangements. J. Spaceman’s often poetic lyrics touches on the album’s weighty themes without feeling cliched or sappily sentimental. Songs In A&E is an important work from one of this generation’s most unique and innovative bands.

http://www.myspace.com/spiritualized

J. Spaceman and company return for the first Spiritualized album in five years and the group’s overall sixth album. The album needs more rocking of the spaces and less of the whiny, suicidal vocals (though, to be fair, J. Spaceman did almost die of pneumonia in 2005 so I guess he has a right to be kind of a downer, but I don’t like it). I am really disappointed by this effort.

www.myspace.com/spiritualized
www.spiritualized.com

Thank God. Finally Harmony Korine’s new movie Mr. Lonely has a substantial limited release date of April 30th (or is it May 2nd?). What else is that the soundtrack featuring Spaceman and the Sun City Girls, now has a tracklist and release details on Drag City.

Drag City writes:

“Gummo fans, wake up! The whores have all gone and the house is on fire! And meanwhile, it’s been years since your hero, Harmony Korine, has made a new movie for you to help you live your life. That’s all going to change this spring when Mister Lonely comes out — the first Korine opus since Julien Donkey-Boy way back in 1999. The picture’s something of a change of pace, but as always, there’s eye-candy galore (or is it eye-gore aplenty?) and lots of wild performances by actors both known and unknown. Added to the fun this time is a soundtrack from J. Spaceman and Sun City Girls, who, independently of each other, scored the sounds inside the director’s head for Mister Lonely. It a wonderfully spaced-out score, colorful and tuneful without ever really approaching the standards we call ’song.’ Prepare yourself for an earburst and get ready to choose formats when the LP and CD versions of Mister Lonely hit in late April.”

here’s the track list:

Mister Lonely OST:

01 “Michael’s Opening” (dialogue)
02 Jason Spaceman: “Blues 1″
03 Jason Spaceman: “Blues 2 (Intro)”
04 Sun City Girls: “3D Girls”
05 Jason Spaceman: “Panama 1″
06 Sun City Girls: “Spook”
07 Jason Spaceman: “Garden Walk”
08 Sun City Girls: “Steppe Spiritual”
09 Jason Spaceman: “Pope in the Bath”
10 “Nun’s Prayer” (dialogue)
11 Sun City Girls: “Mr. Lonely Viola”
12 Sun City Girls: “Beryl Scepter”
13 “Red Riding Hood’s Hangman” (dialogue)
14 Jason Spaceman: “Stooges Harmonica”
15 “Father Umbrillo’s Broken Nation”
16 Jason Spaceman: “Musicbox Underwater”
17 Sun City Girls: “Circus Theme”
18 Sun City Girls: “Vine Street Piano”
19 Jason Spaceman: “Paris Beach”
20 Sun City Girls: “Farewell”

I’m pumped to see Mr. Lonely.  And to celebrate, how about this little jewel of Korine talking about America’s #1 hero.

As we turn the corner from the Upper Riverside Drive onto 160th Street in Washington Heights, the intricate but repetitive brickwork of the apartment palace lulls us into a dream in which we hear the droning, distorted guitars of Spacemen 3. This was the “Heroin” of our youth, the soundtrack of delirious, pretentious ambivalence for everything society has to offer. Can you hear it now, whispering in your ear? If not, here’s a translation: “Fuck the 1960s! Welcome to a real revolution!”