Playing with Fire

VINYL FORMAT. Exploring both the depths of serene, agog beauty and sheer tape-shredding chaos, this reissue of Spacemen 3's Playing with Fire proves to be the equal (or better) of psychedelia's '60s/'70s forebears. Sonic Boom (aka Pete Kember) himself is quoted in one reissue's liner notes as feeling the album "was the refining point of a lot of my theories on minimalism being maximalism" - as apt a description as any. One of his songs, "How Does It Feel?", sums it up by using a series of notes echoing off into the distance, again and again. Flange is everywhere, as is echo, full dynamic stereo mixes and more, a feast of sound. When aiming toward a gentler, hushed sound, most notably on Jason Pierce's compositions, the incorporation of gospel power filtered through the band's own perspective results in wonders, as heard on "Come Down Softly to My Soul" and the album closing "Lord Can You Hear Me?" As for the louder end of things, besides the awesome "Revolution" itself, a slow burn blast that just keeps getting more and more obsessive and frenetic as it goes, the other complete freakout is "Suicide." An instrumental tribute to the New York synth pioneers, Spacemen 3 keep the minimalism and up the feedback with astonishing results.