Sound Of Confusion

Die Spacemen 3 beweisen Mut und Geschick. So spielen die mit “Sound Of Confusion” eine Gitarren-LP ein, ohne das einer der beiden sogenannten ‘Gitarristen’ das Instrument auch nur leidlich spielen kann und kaschieren das so gekonnt, daß es wahr-scheinlich nicht mal jeóem suffällt.

Pfiffig wie sie sind, haben sie ihr bestes Stück, gleich an den Anfang gesetzt. “Losing Touch With My Mind” ist auch gleichzejtig das virtuoseste, schlieslich hat es ien 3-Ton-Riff.

Die anderen Songs laufen nach dem Gleichen Schema ab: Gesang und Bass bemühen sich etwas Melodie zu vermitteln und die Gitarren dreschen/larmen/kreischen unverändert drauflos. Sie zeigen sich von em einmal gefundenen Ton so begeistert, daß sie ihn ganz ohne Variation 5 Minuten durchhalten, so geschehen bei “Hey Man”.

Die 4 Coverversionen, “Rollercoaster” von den 13th Floor Elevators, “Little Doll” und “TV Eye” (das hier “O.D. Catastrophe” heißt) der Stooges ereilt das gleiche Schicksal – sie warden auf Minimal-Gitarrenlarm zuruckbeschnitten.

Da alle Songs auch in der Geschwindigkeit kaum variieren, die Briten bevorzugen das mittjere Tempo, hört sich zuviel zu gleich an.

Trotzdem hat dieser einfache Beat etwas, 39 Clock-ache hypnotische/halluzinogene Working entateht bei Dauerbeschuß. Ein lauter Livegig, komplett mit Acid-Lightshow und genugend magischen Krmutern zur Hand könnte eine Offenbarung sein. Und das Cover ist eins der besten der letzien Zeit.

The Spacemen 3 show courage and skill. So they play a guitar LP with “Sound Of Confusion” without one of the two so-called ‘guitarists’ being able to play the instrument even reasonably well and hide it so skilfully that it probably won’t even suffice.

Smart as they are, they put their best piece right at the beginning. “Losing Touch With My Mind” is also the most virtuoso at the same time, after all, it has a 3-tone riff.

The other songs run according to the same pattern: vocals and bass try to convey some melody and the guitars continue to thrash / sound / screech unchanged. They are so enthusiastic about a tone they have found once that they hold it out for 5 minutes without any variation, as happened with “Hey Man”.

The 4 cover versions, “Rollercoaster” by the 13th Floor Elevators, “Little Doll” and “TV Eye” (which is called “O.D. Catastrophe”) of the Stooges suffer the same fate – they are cut back to minimal guitar noise.

Since all songs hardly vary in speed, the British prefer the medium tempo, it sounds too much too the same.

Nonetheless, there is something about this simple beat, 39 minute hypnotic/hallucinogenic working happens with constant fire. A loud live gig, complete with an acid light show and enough magical herbs to hand, could be a revelation. And the cover is one of the best in recent times.

Sospetto vagamente che tutto quell che sappia di feedback oggi sia ‘condizionato’ dalla critica ad essere influenzato da Jesus & Mary Chain. Per fortuna che nessuno mette spots della Loreal nei propri album perché carebbe piacevole assistere ad analoghi equilibrismi perfettamente vacui con gli sputnik di “Emorroider” che per la verità sono pessimi. Questi Spacemen 3 sono fra le poche note positive di alcuni mesi in cui le uscite ‘psichedeliche’ vivono in tristeza ispirativa come ogni altro genere; che fra l’altro debbono essere prese in pacchetti sigillate ed edulcorate di poco significato e rapido consume. Padroni di coatti retaggi Stooges, questi ‘uomini spaziali’ ripescano una sadica e poco texana versione di “Rollercoaster” dal primo-Floor Elevators. Grandangolo sull’estenuante è una aberrazione cromatica tra le lenti azzurrate. “Losing Touch With My Mind” è l’iniziale collimatura a tempti brevi (1/30?) che permette di sondare un orgiastico magma sonorizzato.

Non è chiaro dove gli Spacemen 3 vogliano arrivare, ma sicuramente hanno capacità sufficientemente deviant (dalla norma) per colpire l’attenzione. Del resto è ancora assente all’appello quell Rivoluzionario Gruppo che facia saltar per aria questi due-tre anni come nitro-glicerina, partendo da ‘talenti’ spesso (guardiamoci bene) virtuali come i neutrino dirottati sotto al Monte Bianco da Zichichi.

(Note: Google Translate seems to have done a poorer job than usual on this one. You can just about get the meaning, but it would be nice to have a better translation. Any help from Italian-speaking readers would be very welcome.)

I vaguely suspect that everything I know of feedback today is ‘conditioned’ by critics to be influenced by Jesus & Mary Chain. Luckily no one puts Loreal spots on their albums because it would be nice to see similar perfectly empty acrobatics with the sputniks of “Emorroider” which are actually bad. These Spacemen 3 are among the few positive notes of a few months in which the ‘psychedelic’ releases live in inspirational sadness like any other genre; which, among other things, must be taken in sealed and sweetened packages of little significance and rapid consumption. Masters of forced Stooges legacies, these ‘space men’ have fished out a sadistic and un-Texan version of “Rollercoaster” from the first-Floor Elevators. Wide angle on the grueling is a chromatic aberration between the blued lenses. “Losing Touch With My Mind” is the initial collimation at short times (1/30?) That allows you to probe an orgiastic sonorized magma.

It is not clear where the Spacemen 3 want to arrive, but they certainly have sufficiently deviant capabilities (from the norm) to strike attention. After all, that Revolutionary Group that blows up these two or three years as nitro-glycerin, starting from often (let’s be careful) virtual ‘talents’ like the neutrinos hijacked under Mont Blanc by Zichichi is still absent from the appeal.

Suono violento, in alcuni momenti ossessivo, ma mai tedioso e monotono, per un ottimo album, anzi oserei dire “grande”, registrato oltre manica, a Birmingham, da un Gruppo del quale, al momento, ho ben poche notizie: gli Spacemen 3.

Non so chi sia e da dove provenga il batterista N. Brooker, chi si celi sotto gli pseudonimi di Jason (chitarrista e voce) e Bassman (chiaramente al basso), e neppure posso affermare con matematica cartezza che il leader Peter Gunn (altra chitarra) sia il bravissimo ex Inmates (dovrebbe?!?!… potrebbe?!?!…, ma personalmente nella foto di Gruppo non l’ho riconosciuto), posso però assicurarvi che “Sound Of Confusion” è un album lucido, istintivo e travolgente che regge benissimo il raffronto con la legendaria trilogia marchiata Stooges.

Ebbene si, signori miei, il suono e proprio quello, potente, corrosive ed allucinato all’esasperazione, però con un briciolo di psychedelia in più, ed i sette lunghi brani che compongono il vinile non lasciano ombre di dubbi, Mr. James Jewel Osterberg è “spiritual guidance” dell’intero lavoro.

I brani migliori, anzi meglio dire i più immediate, sono: “Losing Touch With My Mind” del binomio Kember/Pierce, coautori di un 4/7 dell’opera, in apertura di side one, granitica song contornata di psychedelia acida; la successive “Hey Man” che rieccheggia sia nel sound che nel lessico dei ritornello le legendaria “Amen” cavallo di battaglia di Otis Redding e Solomon Burke, con in più il torcibudella di due chitarra stravolte in distorsione; “Mary Anne” del grande Glenn Campbell, già nei mid sixties con i mitici Misunderstood; e la cover-version de “Little Doll”, by Iggy Pop, che non teme confronti con l’originale in chiusura del primo album Stooges.

Violent sound, obsessive in some moments, but never tedious and monotonous, for an excellent album, indeed I would dare to say “great”, recorded across the Channel, in Birmingham, by a Group of which, at the moment, I have very little news: Spacemen 3 .

I don’t know who drummer N. Brooker is and where he comes from, who is hiding under the pseudonyms of Jason (guitarist and voice) and Bassman (obviously on bass), and I can’t even say with mathematical accuracy that the leader Peter Gunn (other guitar ) is the very good ex Inmates (should?!?! … could?!?! …, but personally in the Group photo I didn’t recognize him), but I can assure you that “Sound Of Confusion” is a shiny album , instinctive and overwhelming that stands up very well in comparison with the legendary Stooges trilogy.

Yes, my gentlemen, the sound is just that, powerful, corrosive and hallucinated to exasperation, but with a bit more psychedelia, and the seven long tracks that make up the vinyl leave no shadow of doubt, Mr. James Jewel Osterberg it is the “spiritual guidance” of the whole work.

The best songs, or rather the most immediate ones, are: “Losing Touch With My Mind” by the pair Kember / Pierce, co-authors of a 4/7 of the opera, opening side one, a granite song surrounded by acid psychedelia; the subsequent “Hey Man” which echoes both in the sound and in the lexicon of the chorus the legendary “Amen” workhorse of Otis Redding and Solomon Burke, with the addition of the twisted guts of two distorted guitars; “Mary Anne” by the great Glenn Campbell, already in the mid sixties with the legendary Misunderstood; and the cover-version of “Little Doll”, by Iggy Pop, which is unmatched with the original at the end of the first Stooges album.

Es gibt Vieles, was an dieser Platte bewundernswert ist, ja schön genannt zu warden verdient: Die Hart-näckigkeit, mit der der von den beiden Gitarristen Jason und Peter Gunn verbreitete Wall Of Sound zudeckt, was als wohlbekannte ästhetische Auflösung versöhnen könnte, mit zuviel Feedback, der Verzicht auf blöde sogenennte “Feinheiten”, mit denen nur zuviele junge Bands, die sich an Tiermusik probieren, scheitern (The Leather Nun sind Joni Mitchell gegen Spacemen 3), dann aber die lakonisch und selbstverständlich vorgetragene Feinheit, fast kein konventionelles Schlagzeug zu verwenden und sich stattdessen auf lange Strecken allein auf ein lapidar geschlagenes Tambourin zu verlassen. Die Version von “T.V. Eye”, die nicht als solche kenntlich gemacht ist und sich hier “O.D. Catastrophe” nennt und irgendwie echt besser kommt, als sich immer wieder alte Stooges-Stücke anzuhören. Und überhaupt: verhält sich zu “Interstellar Overdrive” uns “Fun House” wie Sex Pistols zu Rolling Stones. EKG des Westens.

There is a lot that is admirable about this record, that deserves to be called beautiful: The stubbornness with which the Wall Of Sound, spread by the two guitarists Jason and Peter Gunn, covers what could reconcile as a well-known aesthetic resolution with too much Feedback, the renunciation of stupid so-called “subtleties” with which only too many young bands who try their hand at animal music fail (The Leather Nun are Joni Mitchell against Spacemen 3), but then the laconic and naturally performed delicacy, almost no conventional drums and rely instead on a tambourine that has been struck succinctly for long stretches. The version of “T.V. Eye ”, which is not marked as such and is here“ O.D. Catastrophe ”and somehow comes out really better than listening to old Stooges pieces over and over again. And anyway: is to “Interstellar Overdrive” and “Fun House” like Sex Pistols to Rolling Stones. EKG of the West.