Label: Rocketgirl Format: CD,2LP
Now that Spacemen 3 have joined the pantheon of those influential enough to have had a wide impact on a broad variety of other bands sufficient to inspire their collection into an album’s worth of covers, perhaps there’ll be a flood of homages to late Eighties groups to follow those of the Seventies. Despite the inherent tendency towards pot-luck assortments in such endeavours, at least given the variety of artists worthwhile in their own right who usually get involved, there are bound to be some gems (provided the band being covered were of interest in the first place….). Therefore A Tribute to Spacemen 3 should have some fine tracks, and fortunately this turns out to be the case.
Following the established pattern of covers albums, there are those who stick closer than others to the source material. As these are Nineties versions, TripHop beats and pieces figure prominently; skyscraping in the case of Bowery Electric’s marvellous “Things’ll Never Be the Same”; sing-song for Flowchart’s “Ode To Street Hassle”; or chiming when Mogwai tackle “Honey”. Arab Strap contribute the most radical reading, via a seemingly phoned-in version of “Revolution” which both neatly undercuts and emphasises the stoned plea of the original for drug legalisation. When Bardo Pond submerge “Call the Doctor” in feedback though, the spirit of heavy psychedelic fuzz which Kember and Pierce always drew on is murkily revived, and there’s further sustained notes and rock percussion in Frontier’s drawled-out “Hey Man”, and phased space-rock (as might be expected) from Asteroid #4. These are perhaps the closest to the original methodology of Spacemen 3, along with Accelera Deck’s efforts to simulate the apparently lazy wash of “I Believe It”, a song which characterised their more reflective moments.
Low, however, are probably the band best suited to covering the spiritual side of Spacemen 3, and their “Lord Can You hear Me?” reveals a song made for their simultaneously uplifting and heart-rending style. Likewise Amp’s brief “So Hot” – though less effectively, and with little added to the original – and Piano Magic’s neatly-sequenced rendition of the sublime “How does It Feel”. These last three are grouped nicely towards the album’s close, lending an essential feel of the comedown to the proceedings, slightly let down by the unsatisfying, even if somehow appropriate, bluesy treatment of “Billy Whizz” by Transient Waves.
– Antron S. Meister –
