Audio: Spiritualized’s J. Spaceman & Oneida’s Kid Millions Make Experimental Sounds

This recording is from a set at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge last September.

Listen to an improvisation between Spiritualized’s J. Spaceman & Oneida’s Kid Millions.

A recording of the show, Live at Le Poisson Rouge, will be released on Record Store Day (April 19, 2014) but right now you can hear the first track, “Misha.”

Here’s the PR info on the album:

On September 11, 2013, J. Spaceman (Jason Pierce of Spiritualized and Spacemen 3) and Kid Millions (Oneida, Man Forever, People of the North) took a night off of their US tour with Spiritualized to perform an improvised set at (Le) Poisson Rouge, in Greenwich Village. Northern Spy was there to document the show. The resulting 12″ LP with an accompanying 7″ will be limited to 3000 copies and released for Record Store Day 2014 (April 19).

Throughout their respective careers, both Spaceman and Millions have navigated the various sub-genres that fall within the rock and experimental labels, and, on this album, we find the two artists exploring elements of their counterparts’ prior work in a fresh and unique way. Spaceman uses Millions’ free style of drumming as a cue to eschew the pop melodies and structures he worked with on his last release, 2012′s, Sweet Heart, Sweet Light.

The record’s first side – titled “Misha” – features 24-minutes of Spaceman’s minimal guitar and piano parts along with Millions’ eclectic, yet subtle drumming. The pairing of these elements yields a dreamy and celestial atmosphere that could compare with anything from Spaceman’s famously mind-altering catalog.

Side two of the 12″ – titled “Han” – focuses more on the chaotic nature of the two musicians’ past. Spaceman makes use of his distortion, tremolo and wah-wah pedals, while Millions goes into full freakout mode on the drums, never allowing the audience to fully lock into a groove. The duo steadily builds and eases tension, keeping the listener fully engaged over the track’s 21-and-a-half minute runtime.

As mentioned before, accompanying the LP will be a 7″ featuring two cuts – “New York” and “London” – that showcase Spaceman’s more rock inspired noise stylings and Millions’ absolute disregard for consistency and predictability.

With this record, it is clear just how complementary this pairing is. In just under an hour, Spaceman and Millions explore the ethereal and tumultuous sides of music, showing the transfixing nature that both stylings possess. This is Spaceman’s first performance alone with Millions, and his first improvised duo release with a drummer. Lets hope this is just a small preview of what is to come from a Spaceman/Millions pairing.

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

About Michael Goldberg

Michael Goldberg is a distinguished pioneer in the online music space; Newsweek magazine called him an ‘Internet visionary.’ In 1994 he founded Addicted To Noise (ATN), the highly influential music web site. He was a senior vice-president and editor in chief at SonicNet from March 1997 through May 2000. In 1997, Addicted To Noise won Webby awards for best music site in 1998 and 1999, and also won Yahoo Internet Life! awards for three years running as best music site in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Prior to starting Addicted To Noise, Goldberg was an editor and senior writer at Rolling Stone magazine for 10 years. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Esquire, Vibe, Details, Downbeat, NME and numerous other publications. Michael has had three novels published that comprise the "Freak Scene Dream trilogy": "True Love Scars," "The Flowers Lied" and "Untitled" which can be ordered here. His new book, "Wicked Game: The True Story of Guitarist James Calvin Wilsey," can be pre-ordered from HoZac Books. In November Backbeat Books will publish "Addicted To Noise: The Music Writings of Michael Goldberg," which can be be pre-ordered here.

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