SPACED (1969)

Recorded in 1969, this was a very logical step on the part of the Softs before they would craft perhaps their most mind-blowing track, the 18-minute 'Facelift' on the "Third" album (1970). And man, "Spaced" is awesome. Let me sell this to you.

The record opens with a lengthy and monotonous, yet still interesting, 'Spaced One'. All you will hear is bass humming, a wah-wah organ or bass (whichever case it may be), and the sound of drum pounding that sounds like it was slowed down on tape and wound up sounding like a train hitting the rails, which is pretty cool. All of that is followed with a track any Softs fan, big or small, should be able to recognize as a track that sounds like its twisted sibling clip from 'Facelift'. To keep your interest in it, there is a lot of backwards keyboard work accompanying the groove. Track three sounds like it has a keyboard part from 'Eamonn Andrews'. When you get to the 1:25 time-mark, you will hear something quite out-of-place because it sounds microtonal. Me personally, I'm cool with that because that part sounds to me like an ice-cream truck tune. Who is up for some ice-cream?

Now let's discuss the fourth track, a long sound collage named 'Spaced Four'. I think that everyone who enjoys the music of Klaus Schulze and Faust will find this a very interesting piece of work. It does sound like garbage. You probably know about the concept of demonic possession, right? For the first time I understood what a soundtrack to a demon possessing a garbage bin could sound like. Since you may not be able to understand this interpretation, let's try another one: a demon possessing your Windows Media Player or a CD player or whatever you would be using for playing this. Don't you think that fuzz organ sounds like some kind of a corny violin Mellotron?

The fifth track sounds a bit hilarious. It has some melancholic jazzy parts on an electric piano and a saxophone, as well as the drum parts, dubbed on one after another, that together sound suitable only for salsa dancing. Then it just gets to the point when you can't dance. The next track features even more of the band having fun in the studio. It sounds like they took 'We Did It Again' and just messed it up, playing it in a start-stop kind of way. All of that mess gets a crazy supplement from the drummer. This is a very childish effort that goes on for four minutes. To close the deal, we hear the last one of my favorites on the album, the melancholic and ambient 'Spaced Seven' featuring a backwards combo of a saxophone part and an electric piano part, where the latter sounds surprisingly poignant, thanks to the backwards tape-playing and the excellent choice of chords.

Ratings/comments (if you have to ask):

1. 'Spaced One' - ** ; 2. 'Spaced Two' - **** ; 3. 'Spaced Three' - *** ; 4. 'Spaced Four' - *** ; 5. 'Spaced Five' - *** ; 6. 'Spaced Six' - ** ; 7. 'Spaced Seven' - **** ;

Stamp: "I like it."

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