Spiritualized reissuing first four albums on vinyl

Spiritualized are reissuing their first four albums via Fat Possum in what’s being called The Spaceman Reissue Program. All four reissues — 1992’s Lazer Guided Melodies, 1995’s Pure Phase, 1997’s Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, and 2001’s Let It Come Down — will all feature half speed lacquer cut masters from original sources by Alchemy Mastering, and pressed on double180g vinyl, all overseen by the group’s Jason Pierce. They’ll be available on CD as well.

The first of these will be Lazer Guided Melodies, which was released not long after Jason Pierce’s previous band, Spacemen 3, called it quits, and features such classics as “Run,” “I Want You,” “Shine a Light” and “200 Bars.” It’ll be out April 23 on standard black vinyl and a limited edition white vinyl edition. Pre-order yours.

“The last Spacemen 3 record was under-realized to me,” Pierce says, reflecting on Lazer Guided Melodies. “When I listen back to that stuff it sounds like somebody finding their way. There was a lot of ideas but no way to put them into a space that would make them all work. So, there was a huge freedom forging over the last Spacemen 3 record and when Spiritualized started it was like, ‘OK it’s all yours. Go.'”

He adds, “We recorded the tracks in the studio near my flat which was a place where they predominantly recorded advertising jingles and it’s where we made all the Spacemen 3 records, but then the recordings were taken to Battery Studios in London, to explore a more professional way of making music… Once I approached that way of doing things I opened up a whole world and I was astounded that somebody could take those tracks and turn it into the record it became.”

You can listen to Lazer Guided Melodies below.