Spacemen 3 - Dreamweapon
(Superior Viaduct)

Spacemen 3 have made a career out of confusion. Whether it was by bewildering their audience with their brand of militant psychedelia or making it almost impossible to collect their music, it's not easy being a Spacemen 3 devotee. Nonetheless, that is exactly what I am. So it's with great pleasure, (and a fair amount of disbelief), that the holy grail of Spacemen 3 relics has finally been re-released via Superior Viaduct, 1990's Dreamweapon. Out of print for over 15 years, Dreamweapon is both a singularity within their discography but also a prime example of the band's ethos and aesthetics.
Spacemen 3 dedicated their existence to connecting the dots between seemingly disparate styles of music. They believed there was a common thread connecting delta blues spirituals, psychedelia, The Stooges, Suicide and American minimalism. That common thread is something they defined as “hypno-monotony”, or the altering of ones’ consciousness through repetition. From Son House to La Monte Young it has been proven that there is maximal power through minimal change. In that sense, Dreamweapon is the ultimate example of this concept. Disc one is the unedited live performance that took place on a group of unsuspecting moviegoers one evening in 1988. What they found in the lobby however, was Spacemen 3 at their most hypnotic and intractable posture yet. 45 minutes of weapons grade narcosis assaulted the audience until all levity was drained from the room. The original release was subtitled “An Evening Of Contemporary Sitar Music”, which is a work of art in and of itself seeing as no one in the band remembered to bring the sitar, (there's clearly at least one downside to glutinous drug consumption) but a fitting title for a band that thrived on deception. This 2xLP edition includes an entire Second disc of outtakes, or rather sketches, for what would most would argue is their definitive artistic achievement, 1988's Playing With Fire. Serious music for serious people, take heed! (Adam)
Check out a track here.