Lazer Guided Melodies

Lazer Guided Melodies
File:Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies.png
Studio album by Spiritualized
Released	30 March 1992
Recorded	November 1990 at VHF Sound Centre, Rugby, May 1991 at Moles Studio, Bath and July 1991 at Far Heath Studio, Northamptonshire ("Angel Sigh")
Genre	Space rock, experimental rock
Length	61:17
Label	Dedicated
Producer	Jason Pierce
Spiritualized chronology
Lazer Guided Melodies (1992) Fucked Up Inside (1993)Fucked Up Inside1993

Professional ratings
Review scores
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AllMusic
Los Angeles Times
NME	9/10
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
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Lazer Guided Melodies is the first album by the British space rock band Spiritualized. The album was recorded by the inaugural line up of the band, consisting of Jason Pierce (vocals, guitars), Mark Refoy (guitars), Will Carruthers (bass), Jonny Mattock (drums) and Kate Radley (keyboards) from 1990 to 1991, and mixed by Pierce in London in January 1992. The album was first released on Dedicated Records in March 1992, on cassette, Compact Disc and Vinyl (2 x LP, with initial copies containing an additional free 7").

Initially released on two 45rpm vinyl LPs, the album's twelve songs are segued together into four colour coded (red, green, blue, black), cross-faded suites. As such, the album was included in Pitchfork Media's 2010 list of "ten unusual CD-era gimmicks".

Lazer Guided Melodies is unique in Jason Pierce's oeuvre as it simultaneously explores motorik, minimalist music, and space rock while subtly using "meticulously detailed, layered instrumentation, the sumptuous deployment of horns and strings" to create cinematic, textured, and deeply narcotic soundscapes.

As critic Simon Reynolds observed in his Melody Maker review The 'Ized Of March:

"Spiritualized's music quivers with Apollonian attributes - airiness, fleetness, radiance, serenity...at times, Spiritualized recall the Kraut version of freeway rock known as motorik, in particular Neu..."Run" is all about the exhilaration of cutting loose, of goalless propulsion..."If I Were With Her Now" is throbbing motorik too...swathed by scintillating guitar chimes like the world whooshing by...along with motion, Spiritualized's other consummate metaphor for release is ascension... "Step Into The Breeze"...a Wiltshire water meadow...pastoral bower of bliss..."Symphony Space" an amorphous flux of orchestral resonances that hover and ache, swim and brim, for a small eternity. The sound of heaven...at times, Spiritualized are making 21st Century gospel."

Track listing

1. "You Know It's True / If I Were with Her Now / I Want You" - 13:12 (Red)
2. "Run / Smiles / Step into the Breeze / Symphony Space" - 14:45 (Green)
3. "Take Your Time / Shine a Light" - 14:09 (Blue)
4. "Angel Sigh / Sway / 200 Bars" - 18:54 (Black)

Personnel

• Jason Pierce - guitar (Fender Telecaster, Eko Rocket, acoustic guitar), dulcimer, autoharp, piano, vocals
• Kate Radley - keyboards (Vox Continental, Farfisa, piano), vocals
• Mark Refoy - guitar (Gretsch Country Gent, Epiphone Casino, Fender Telecaster), acoustic guitar, dulcimer
• Will Carruthers - bass (Gibson Thunderbird)
• Jonny Mattock - drums, percussion, dulcimer
• Simon Clarke - flute
• Roddy Lorimer - trumpet
• Will Gregory - saxophone
• Colin Humphries - cello
• Martin Robinson - cello
• Owen John - violin
• Produced by Jason Pierce
• Mixed by Jason Pierce and Barry Clempson at Gooseberry Studio, London, January 1992 (except "Symphony Space" and "200 Bars", mixed at Comforts Place Studio)
• Engineered by Angus Wallace, Barry Clempson, Declan O'Regan, Mike Long and Paul Adkins
• Mastered by Chris Blair at Abbey Road Studios, January 1992
• Artwork by Gavin Lindsay
• Photography by Pete Gardner
• Sleeve design by Andrew Sutton and Albert Tupelo