Spacemen 3 - Playing With Fire Every once in a while a record comes along that somehow manages to define an era. In the late 80's there can be no doubt that one such record was released - and that record was "Playing With Fire" by Spacemen 3. Fuelled by narcotic indulgence and an overwhelming sense of darkness it was rightly hailed as a classic at the time and is still considered to be one of the greatest albums of the time by many today. Its mesmerising beauty and sublime originality are still recognised as a genuine triumph to this day. When "Playing With Fire" was released in February 1989, the creative abilities of Sonic Boom (aka Pete Kember) and Jason Pierce were at their peak - all but gone were their earlier homage's to The Stooges and MC5, replaced by a graceful, blissed-out beauty which had writers everywhere clamouring for their dictionaries. Only on the insurrectionist's clarion call of "Revolution" and the Vega/Rev tribute "Suicide" did they allow the guitar assaults to cut loose, instead they used gentle waves of sound to produce the same effect; powerful, emotive and yet somehow also genuinely disturbing. By this time, Spacemen 3's use of drugs had become notorious (a major factor in their eventual demise) and they seemed to be trying to achieve that same (almost religious) high within their music, strangely foreseeing the dance explosion which was to happen shortly after. Now, Space Age Recordings are making this legendary record available again, complete with live versions of "Suicide" and "Repeater" and recordings of "Che" and "May The Circle Be Unbroken". Not only that but they've also included a second CD full of studio out-takes and demos, including the Spacemen 3 version of "Any Way That You Want Me" - the song which went on to become Spiritualized's debut single. |