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Spacelord

by Radioactive Sparrow

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M. Raskin
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1.
Bet You Got A Hernia 03:54
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2.
Pussy Cat 02:18
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3.
See The People 05:51
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4.
I... 07:12
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5.
The End of a Dream 02:12
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6.
Have A Good Time Tonight 09:55
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7.
Coming (1.2.3.4.5.) 09:57
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8.
Space Is A Very Long Way Away 07:11
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9.
I'm On Holiday 03:51
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10.
Bet You Could Do With A Hernia 05:40
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about

Radioactive Sparrow invite you to glory in the (literally) unsung magic of Heaving Stews, the true genius colonel of the group Dan Cooper so memorably dubbed ‘the most legendary band you’ve probably never heard of.’ Spacelord inadvertently became the ultimate showcase for the arch anti-professionalist un-musician Stews, the openness of its unintended chaos providing the kind of space that the band’s regular studio set-up had, in hindsight, unwittingly, probably, stifled unwittingly.

By the time they came to record their 60th album, Radioactive Sparrow had been trying various different settings beyond the confines of the Ewenny shed that had been the site of so many past triumphs: booking rehearsal spaces, recording in a cold garage and even in the back of Bill’s Citroën Visa van. Now it was time to try Ewenny village hall for the first of two albums they would record there (the second being Until Tonight a few months later). Having spent years in a tiny shed, the band weren’t remotely prepared for the booming reverb of the village hall; to add to the already tricky acoustic, they also took along the Roland Space Echo that Chris Hartford had donated a few years previous. The general sound and form of the music they recorded across the afternoon was much harder to grasp in the moment, and the session became their first real experience of how such a depreciation in controllability pushes one’s facilities beyond their capacity to unleash new fires and fluids. On top of all that, the tape Bill brought to record onto was some very ropey old shit he’d found and had no idea where it had come from or what they were recording over… it basically disintegrated while they were recording meaning that what Tony was left to work with in post-production and editing was a 75% imprint of the performances captured. Long stretches of the tape were rendered in massively fluttered magnetic tonguings that suggested the presence of the Space Lord who graces the cover of the album (as drawn by Tony as his imagined impression of the agent that had interfered with the band’s creative endeavors).

Heaving Stews takes up the lead vocal on no fewer than five tracks here, his expansive and painterly gestures given free rein in a swirling sea of disjuncture. At the end of the tape, Tony interviews the band, asking them to reflect on what at the time had felt like a difficult day. Heaving reveals that he tried a new technique ‘from the gut’ and that his over-exertions had done him some apparent harm – hence the titles of the opening and closing songs. Point of interest: some of the child’s glockenspiel inserts between tracks technically represent the first appearance of Luno EdLandez (later to grace several millennial Sparrow albums and shows) aged just 18 months.

credits

released April 1, 1994

Personnel
Heaving Stews
Tony Gage
Bill Bargefoot

Recorded at Ewenny Village Hall on a February Saturday in 1994
Post-production (artwork & editing) by Tony Gage

license

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Radioactive Sparrow Bridgend, UK

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