Artist

Spiritualized

Rugby, United Kingdom • Formed 1990

Spiritualized is a music group from Rugby, United Kingdom, active since 1990. Their discography on Gatefold includes 23 records.

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Albums tracked

213

In collections

1990

Since

Biography

Spiritualized are an English rock band formed in 1990 in Rugby, Warwickshire, United Kingdom by Jason Pierce, who often goes by the alias J. Spaceman, after the spectacular demise of the Spacemen 3 outfit. The membership of Spiritualized changes from album to album, with Pierce being the only constant factor. The first Spiritualized release was a space rock-esque cover of Any Way That You Want Me in 1990, a record which heralded the official split of Spacemen 3 following contractual wrangles over the band's name.

The Arc of Spiritualized

The pivots — what forced Spiritualized to reinvent.

The Studio as Laboratory
For Lazer Guided Melodies and Pure Phase, Pierce obsessed over phase-reduction technology and cross-channel mixing to create a completely flat, hypnotic stereo field. He ran the band through endless, exhausting analog takes at Rugby's VHF Studios, aiming for a clean, drone-state clarity that owed more to laboratory science than rock and roll. You hear this in the lockstep repetition of 'Shine a Light,' where the guitars do not solo so much as pulse in sync like a giant, humming transformer.
The Orchestral Excess
The breakdown of Pierce's relationship with keyboardist Kate Radley, who secretly married Richard Ashcroft during the sessions, fueled the desperate, maximalist sprawl of Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space. Pierce brought in the London Community Gospel Choir and legendary producer Dr. John to turn his private heartbreak into a wall-of-sound cathedral. The resulting record is an absolute monument of beautiful, drug-soaked desperation, but it also blew the band's lineup to pieces and left Pierce running a revolving-door enterprise.
The Garage Exorcism
After the bloated, 100-plus musician sprawl of Let It Come Down left him exhausted and broke, Pierce walked into the studio with a new four-piece lineup to cut Amazing Grace in just three weeks. They tracked most of it live with minimal overdubs, looking for the raw, immediate sweat of a basement soul band. It was a violent reaction to his own perfectionism, trading the pristine orchestral arrangements for red-lined tape saturation and first-take mistakes.

Influences

The 13th Floor Elevators — Pierce has repeatedly cited Roky Erickson's outfit as the band that taught him how to turn psychedelic garage noise into a spiritual quest. You hear this influence directly in the howling, treble-charged guitar freakouts of 'The Individual' and 'Take Good Care of It.' It is the sound of a blues band red-lining their gear until it sounds like a flying saucer.
The Velvet Underground — Spiritualized practically bought their entire aesthetic from the VU's self-titled third album and the drone of 'Sister Ray.' Pierce openly copped the deadpan, three-chord gospel-folk delivery of Lou Reed for his own vocals. The skeletal organ drone and steady tambourine beat on 'Lay Back in the Sun' is a direct lift of the Velvets' minimalist gospel style.
The Beach Boys — Pierce was so obsessed with Brian Wilson's Pet Sounds production techniques that he hired the Balanescu Quartet to mimic those dense, pocket-symphony string arrangements. He even lifted the vocal counterpoint melody from 'Can't Help Falling in Love' to run against the title track of Ladies and Gentlemen, a direct nod to Wilson's modular pop writing. You hear it in the way the brass parts climb and fall behind the main vocal line.
Dr. John — The night-tripper hoodoo of Mac Rebennack's 1968 debut Gris-Gris is the exact blueprint for Spiritualized's swampy, drug-addled soul. Pierce respected Dr. John so much he got him to play piano on 'Cop Shoot Cop...' in 1997. The piano rolls and low-slung, menacing brass on that track are pure New Orleans voodoo imported to a London studio.
Albert Ayler — Pierce used Ayler's late-60s free jazz records to teach his brass players how to blow past traditional harmony. During the tracking for 'Cop Shoot Cop' and 'The Comeback,' he instructed the horn players to abandon the sheet music and scream through their instruments. You hear Ayler's chaotic, ecstatic influence in those sudden, screeching sax solos that rip through the middle of their prettiest melodies.