Spectrum
War Sucks EP

THE REVIEW

“So much in so little”

I love bands that unravel 20-minute tracks made of any hypnotic-inducing substance, but also those who manage to express a world in two or three minutes. And if someone is capable of combining the two things, playing like one of the quintessential mesmerizing bands (Spacemen 3 for the record) and conveying the same sensations in a third of the time, well, one can't help but rejoice!

If the gentleman in question happens to be that miraculous SERT graduate known as Pete Kember alias Sonic Boom, the other half (the one who didn't turn to white gospel, thinking it was something cool) of the aforementioned Spacemen 3, the result is almost predictable. The best stupefied psychedelia around, without a doubt.

Of the 4 tracks, only two are originals: “Razzle-Dazzle Mind” is the usual Hawkwind steel prop that fits perfectly between the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus; “Over & Over” is a small condensation of the most "methadonic" moments of “Perfect Prescription”. Equally stupefied is the cover of Laurie Anderson, “Walking & Falling”, a true mantra traversed by Boom's unsettling recitation.

But the highlight, as you might have guessed, is the song that gives the title to the EP. “War Sucks” can be seen as the wildest dream of every heterodox psychedelia enthusiast: remake a song (hard to define it such in its original form) by the pioneers of the Texan psychedelic scene of the '60s like the Red Crayola, by one of the bands of the '80s that helped bring attention back to the scene itself.

Oh yes, because if “Transparent Radiation” had already been honored over 20 years ago, the rendition of “War Sucks” by Kember alone is exactly what we would have expected from Spacemen 3: sick, with a very Velvet guitar, an Addams family style organ, and an underlying drone-wail that feels very psychiatric hospital.

What can I say, the perfect Christmas gift!