I’ve been following Pete Kember’s career intermittently since his Spacemen 3 days, through his on/off solo career as Spectrum/Sonic Boom and his collaborative projects under the Experimental Audio Research moniker. Back in my 20s, Kember’s music (and fellow Spaceman Jason Pearce’s early Spritualized records) felt like a vital ingredient to some psychedelic mis-adventures that, for better or worse, seeded a lifelong solidarity.
A tendency towards druggy nihilism was, perhaps, not an obvious recipe for commercial success, nor music biz longevity, but Kember is still going strong. He now lives in Portugal and has added the work of producer to his creative endeavours. All Things Being Equal was a more than decent solo effort released during lockdown that showed Kember’s Suicide/VU predilections remained reassuringly intact. For his latest album, Reset – a collaboration with Noah Lennox, aka Panda Bear – Kember has built sampled loops from some of his favourite rock ‘n’ roll records over which Lennox adds sometimes beautiful sunshine harmonies. I thought the review on Boomkat offered a spot-on summation: “Each song employs more or less the same formula, balancing the lo-fi tartness of the peak blog era (2007?), the Beach Boys’ brightly-illuminated Cali psychedelia and what could basically be described as US hauntology: the stonewashed sound of a long lost past that forecast a future that’s never been more unattainable.”
Here’s a taster, with an absolutely trip-tastic video to boot.
Kember is also the proud owner of a Dualit toaster, a rare monophonic version (Monolit?) that once belonged to Delia Derbyshire.*
*facts may be subject to change without prior notice.
Thanks for posting. I used to love the combined musical outpouring of the psychedelic twins, Kember and Pierce, with the former’s minimalism working so week with the latter’s gospel tendencies. Separate, the magic carried through into the first Spiritualized singles and 12″s and the Spectrum album (with the transparent flashing homage to Bridget Riley).
This is the track I fell in love to them with, but there are many other classics
I can hear Beach Boys in the high note harmonies of the vocals, and I like the whooshy synths in the background – Member trademark. I’m not sure about the clunking, repetitive rhythm though.
Great choice of track @salwarpe, the way those simple guitar notes create beautiful dissipating ripples … That album and its predecessor The Perfect Prescription were almost perfect, and led to a lifelong interest in digital delay pedals.
The new track I posted isn’t the best thing on the album, but I thought the accompanying video was sensational, and showed that there is still a lot of love and care going on in the background.
The perfect prescription is indeed near perfect. I quite like that new track and will give the rest of the album a listen to. The video, I feel, was the answer to the question ‘what is the Sesame street pinball table up to nowadays?’
….it’s up to 11, that’s where.
Great to have this Sonic heads up! V much looking forward to checking it out. The absolutely sublime The Perfect Prescription album was the soundtrack to a *very* dissolute era in my life as were to lesser extent, the other S3 LPs. I loved everything to do with them for years. I got to know Jason a bit many years later who took me to the Strongroom studios in shoreditch one memorable night in the early 2000s and let me have a strum on a guitar he said he had played on both ‘take me to the other side’ and ‘think I’m in love’. Even more weirdly, Will Carruthers, (whose account of his Spacemen days ‘Playing The Bass With Three Left Hands’ is brilliant) would sometimes walk my dog when I was living in Berlin.
Cool stories. I must check out that Will Carruthers book.
He must get sick of people telling him that the natives are restless.
@slotbadger Just wanted to say thanks for the heads up on the Will Carruthers book. Bought it this week and read it quickly during a nasty bought of the lurgy. A great read, honest and quite moving in parts. The chapter about a visit to Watford Gap services was particularly memorable, and beautifully described. Cheers.
Admittedly, I only had 2 listens, but the second time without the distraction of the visuals was better, if I’m honest. It was clever, but reminded me of the opening titles of Room 101 mixed with University Challenge…I’d like to hear the best in the album.
I’ve recently taken load of a lot of S3/Spiritualized/Spectrum tracks/live shows/demos. When listening, if I hear anything worth passing on, I’ll see if I can find the equivalent YT clip to post here.
Re How Does It Feel, there’s a page of one of the Russell, Saga of A Peaceful Man comics, where Russell gets so stoned, he believes the stones in a cliff wall. at the edge of a beach are the dwelling places of little people, which he digs out until the cliff collapses on his sleeping friend next to him. That was me on Southampton Uni campus, listening to this song – though there was no great landslide in my case. Psychedelic, fractal, time-stopping music.
I’m mainly a Playing With Fire fan, though Recurring has got its moments, Perfect Prescription is sedate and serene, and sometimes nothing hits the spot like Sound of Confusion.
I think this is my favourite track on the new album, which doesn’t sound much like Sonic Boom, but really showcases Noah Lennox’s excellent vocals.
Livin’ in the After
That is quite amazing – a 60s song, complete with swooping strings and harmonies, gently diverted with dustings of warps and burbles from Sonic.
I’ve listened to the whole album on YT now, and it’s a complete pleasure from start to finish. I like the final song which chugs along at a fair old (motorik) pace, but I think this one is the standout track, for invention and creativity, both in song and video
Once again, thanks for bringing it to the blog, Martin.
I remember at the time Spaceman 3 caught some flak for being dilletantish and out of step, but the pair of them have stuck to their art ever since, and their best work has aged well.
Shake it Baby!
I’m sure I’ve mentioned it here before, but Pete “Bassman” Bain’s new group, The Darkside, played at my university end of term ball to an audience of ratarsed undergrads in penguin suits and ballgowns. By the end of the first tune, the only audience left was me (dull) and my mate Gordon (pink and green hair). I became their pro-bono part-time roadie (along with many other acts).
The album All That Noise is a lost S3 classic, when Playing With Fire got all the press attention.
Here’s the opener, Guitar Voodoo:
yep, the new album is my number one of the year so far