Tag: 45 rpm

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Spiritualized “Laser guided melodies”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Spiritualized
Album Title: Lazer guided melodies
Year released: 1992
Year reissued: 2011
Details: 2 x 180 gram, 45 rpm

The skinny: So this six-ish week journey through my collection of Spiritualized records ends where it started for the group. “Lazer guided melodies” is the 1992 debut album that appeared two years after Jason Pierce dissolved his first band, Spaceman 3, and re-formed the same members, minus Peter Kember, with a new name. It was a natural progression forward and laid the bedrock for what was to come, the special production just a glimpse at Pierce’s ear for perfection. From what I can tell, this 2011 reissue is a faithful reproduction of the original packaging and 45 rpm mastering, albeit pressed to two 180 gram discs. Each side is a colour-coded, three song, cross-faded suite. And each side is an exercise in psychedelic noise beauty. This is just yet another record in this set that I purchased early on in my collecting and has seen many a late night on my turntable.

Standout track: “Run”

 

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Lush “Blind spot EP”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Lush
Album Title: Blind spot EP
Year released: 2016
Details: 10″ vinyl EP, 45 rpm

The skinny: For fun, you can consider this here the bonus ‘hidden track’ to my series detailing Lush’s five-disc vinyl box set, “Origami”. Last week, while finishing it off, I mentioned that “Topolino” was their final full-length release. But it wasn’t their final final release. In 2015, just about two decades after their dissolution, the remaining, living members of Lush re-formed, played a handful of shows that went so well that they turned it into a full fledged tour, complete with stops on the festival circuit all over. Somewhere in the midst of all this, they found time to record new material, an EP called “Blind spot”, which name-checked and somehow blended the band’s varying sounds from the distinct eras in their way too short original career. I wasn’t able to make it to the show they did in Toronto, which is too bad because shortly thereafter, they announced their second breakup. Luckily, I managed to score one of these highly sought after 10” EPs at one my local shops because it’s a lovely post script to the music of one of my favourite 90s bands.

Standout track: “Out of control”

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: Ride “This is not a safe place”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Ride
Album Title: This is not a safe place
Year released: 2019
Details: 2 x 12″ LP, 45 rpm, embossed lettering on cover

The skinny: “This new [album] finds Mark Gardener, Andy Bell, Loz Colbert, and Steve Queralt revelling in being back in a fully realized band. Yeah, there is more confidence and energy and a sense that they want to explore and experiment more with their sound. After five years back as a whole, this sounds like it’s the first time that Ride knows exactly who they want to be and it’s bursting out from all speakers.” These are some of the words I wrote about “This is not a safe place” when I presented it as my fourth favourite album from 2019. I also wrote about how I went out to one of my locals on the day it was released to purchase this fine copy, pressed to two slabs at 45 rpm. It sounds lovely and even more so with repeat spins. And yeah, that title is quite prescient with the times we are now living in, isn’t it?

Standout track: “Clouds of Saint Marie”