Wednesday, November 19, 1997
Brit band garners raves for dodging the norm
MUSIC:
From packaging to sounds, group finds own recipe for successBy
Ai Goldsmith
Daily Bruin Contributor
The album resembles a pill box. Lettered in blue,
pharmaceutical, Helvetica font, the CD sleeve warns users: "For
aural administration only. Use only as directed by a physician."
The pharmaceutical theme does not stop at the cover; CDs are
individually wrapped in mylar foil, made to resemble pills.
This is how the British band Spiritualized packaged its
recently-released album, "ladies and gentlemen we are floating in
space." From presentation to its music, Spiritualized is about
originality. Since the band produces a vast repertoire of different
textures and sounds, finding an analogy for its sound proves to be
difficult, although Spiritualized’s unique style has been described
often as psychedelic and floaty.
"Ladies and gentlemen" has already garnered a lot of positive
reviews and support from the media on both sides of the Atlantic,
with special mentions of Spiritualized’s promotional creativity.
Lead vocalist Jason Pierce explains the reason behind the unusual
packaging.
"It was good, fun to do. And also, we started doing it with the
last release, so we didn’t want our CDs to come in standard boxes.
And even if it cost us money … it was our way of saying that
there’s nothing standard about what we do," Pierce says.
There’s also nothing standard or formulaic about the latest
album. It boasts unique and unexpected combinations of tone colors,
such as bass guitar with string quartet, and flute and saxophone
over droning basses. To create innovative, original music, many
musicians were called to participate and add their special touch.
The long list of performers in the album includes Spiritualized’s
regular band members, as well as the London Community Gospel Choir,
the Balanescu quartet and Dr. John, a pianist from New Orleans, to
name a few.
"I think a lot of music nowadays is like … just using blue
prints, just using recipes that’ve already been tried and tested.
I’m not interested in making music like that. And that kind of way
of producing music doesn’t excite me," Pierce says.
"The stuff that sounds familiar to me are removed, so we kind of
arrive at the end product by editing," Pierce adds. "I’d rather
have people go out and buy Miles Davis’ album rather than hear our
take on Miles Davis done in 1997."
Although hours upon hours of editing seem tedious, judging by
the positive reviews, the hard work has paid off. Pierce’s goal is
simply to create an album filled with innovative and soulful music.
As a result, the album represents a sort of aural narcotic designed
to "take the pain away," as the lead track indicates.
Spiritualized’s latest album has captured the attention and the
imagination of listeners in both England and the United States,
evident in the reaction of fans at their shows. "They laugh, they
cheer, and they whistle," Pierce laughs. "They love us."
In spite of the band’s rising popularity in Britain, Pierce is
still very down-to-earth.
"For many people, when they talk about success, they talk about
commercial success, which basically only reflects how efficient
your record company is," Pierce explains. "It doesn’t tell you the
quality of music or how soulful the music is, or whatever. I think
we are successful because we make the kind of music we want to
make. I like the idea of taking music to new levels every night. We
kind of come up with new stuff every night and it’s exciting."
And indeed, Pierce and his band live up to his ideals. The band
plays aliatoric, improvisational music through which the songs flow
together. Immersed in blue-green light and glittered by the disco
ball, the band seems to sweep the audience away into space. Does
this reflect the album’s title as well? Pierce philosophically
explains the whole "space" motif.
"It’s just a fact, the big picture. We’re floating in space,"
Pierce says. "It’s actually from a book called ‘Sophie’s World,’
which is written by Norwegian author (Jostein Gaarder). Basically,
the big context within the book is about how so many people wanna
concern themselves with the issue of day-to-day life and don’t look
at the big picture, ’cause they’re so involved in the small details
or whatever. It’s pretty fucking miraculous … while all this is
going on, we are actually floating in space, which is amazing."
Taking the space theme even further, Spiritualized’s promotional
tour takes the band to new heights, performing shows in such lofty
locations as the Sears Tower in Chicago and Toronto’s CN Tower, the
tallest tower in North America.
"That’s definitely happening," Pierce says. "The other ones are
proving more difficult to get together  the twin towers of
New York, the Space Needle in Seattle  but the main one we
wanted to do was the CN Tower, which we managed to do."
Although he’s floating in space, Pierce is far from being a
space cadet. His feet are on the ground, and he knows exactly where
he wants to go. Pierce states that his goal for himself and the
band is "to carry on what we are doing … to carry on pushing
musical boundaries and that kind of things."
"I’m quite ambitious," Pierce proclaims. "I’m not content to
just make the kind of noise that we know we can make. … I want to
kind of astound myself."
Arista
Spiritualized leaves listeners "floating in space" with its
unique brand of aural narcotics.