Spacemen 3: Forged Prescriptions 2003

 

This two-disc release consists of various alternative mixes, demos, and covers from Spacemen 3's Perfect Prescription recording sessions. According to the Boom, the majority of these mixes were "considered by us to be too hard to replicate live and therefore reduced for the original release." This is admittedly kind of absurd, like saying these tracks were too good to be listened to, but there is some

validity in the sentiment. Whereas the disparity between the old and "new" mixes are perhaps subtle at best and practically indiscernible at worst, there is a difference in mood. If The Perfect Prescription often sounded extraterrestrial, it also just as often sounded like traditional Velvets-inspired indie rock. On Forged Prescriptions, though, the stratifications of guitar are even further attenuated to stunning single tones, the basslines float even more subliminally under the psychedelic mind-spinning noodling, and... well, okay, the drums are pretty much the same.
            

The gateway drug on this collection is the alternative mix to "Things'll Never Be the Same". If the original was a feedback dust-up, quenched in gravelly, occasionally Bob Mould-ish vocals and an abyssal thump, the new mix is so bombarded with combating guitar squeals, earthen drums, and Pierce's sustained tones it will excoriate your entire body. From the classic intro onwards, the guitars

are played backwards, forwards, sidewards, epiphanywards. The original was phenomenal strutting feedback stagnating in the void. This is a twirling tea kettle launched into orbit, feedback that goes somewhere, at a pressure that gives you the bends. By "Call the Doctor", the guitars are spewing their trajectories of cosmic refulgence farther than the ears can grasp. At one point, I accompanied this euphony with the "Rolling Fire" setting on Windows Media Player and my computer restarted itself. Truth.
         

The new "Walking with Jesus" is perhaps the most startling mix, taking the original into an even more incorporeal and immaculate sphere. The Perfect Prescription version used too many 80s-indie-rock guitars for my liking, and vaguely sardonic; this one is an anesthetic plunge into purgatory, equipped

with a choir instead of rock 'n' roll, and it's positively cultish-- the anthem of a Polyphonic Spree crossed with Heaven's Gate. "Come Down Easy (Demo Version)" is a filthy atomic 100-bar blues, oscillating echoes of birdman Pierce, our acidhead savior. You will bow down to him for his beatific benevolence and serenity. Except in this religion, the communion wafers are shrooms, the crucifix is the solar system, and the holy book is my hallucinations about Toad Demons: "It's 1987/ All I wanna do is get stoned."
             

But the second disc is the one that truly breathes new life into Perfect Prescription. The extended version of the Red Krayola cover "Transparent Radiation" replaces the angry muddle of the album

version with light and clarity. The demo version of "Walking with Jesus" is when the Son of God bought a shotgun, rockin' twine and fuzz battered by shivering engines. The demo version of the heralded "Starship" and the previously unreleased cover of the MC5's "I Want You Right Now" are bone-implodingly dense, perfect tributes to 60s psych-metal, plasma ghosts emerging from Sabbath's grave. As for those neophytes who ask if this album's any good if you're not on drugs, a better question might be whether drugs are any good without this album.
                             

Spacemen 3 – Forged Prescriptions
Label: Space Age Recordings – ORBIT 006CD
Format: 2 x CD, Compilation
Country: UK
Released: 2003
Genre: Rock
Style: Space Rock, Indie Rock

CD 1.

                 

01. Things'll Never Be The Same    5:54
02. Walking With Jesus    5:12
03. Come Down Easy (Demo Version)    6:01
04. Transparent Radiation (Single Version)    4:11
05. Ode To Street Hassle    4:45
06. Call The Doctor    4:11
07. Ecstacy Symphony    9:06
08. Feel So Good    5:27
09. Soul 1    5:43

CD 2.

                 

01. Transparent Radiation    7:52
02. Come Down Easy    6:42
03. Walking With Jesus (Demo Version)    3:57
04. Things'll Never Be The Same (Demo Version)    5:54
05. We Sell Soul    5:55
06. Starship (Demo Version)    5:01
07. Take Me To The Other Side (Demo Version)    3:49
08. Velvet Jam    4:45
09. I Want You Right Now    6:10

MEMBERS

          

Bass [Bass Vibrations] – Pete Bassman
Electric Guitar [Fender Telecaster], Electric Organ [Farfisa], Slide Guitar, Vocals – Jason
Engineer – Graham Walker
Percussion – Rosco
Producer – Jason, Sonic Boom
Violin – Owen John
Vocals, Electric Guitar [Fender Jaguar], Performer [Feedback, Vox Conqueror], Electric Organ [Farfisa], Effects [F.x.] – Sonic Boom

MP3 @ 320 Size: 231 MB
Flac  Size: 615 MB