J Spaceman and J Coxon - Play The Red Krayola Live 1967

Amidst all the recent Spiritualized reissues, this latest from Jason Pierce and John Coxon seems to have passed under the radar a touch. Well, let that be the case no more. Made during the preparation for a joint performance by the pair as part of the Art and Language event at the Lisson Gallery New York, October 2019, the idea was to recreate in their own way the entirely unprecedented and radical performance by The Red Krayola at the Angry Arts Festival in 1967. In the spirit of improvisation, the performance was entirely unrehearsed, resulting in a kind of dialogical back and forth where each brings to the table their memory and interpretation of the original performance. It's a process that works because of their shared history - you can't do this kind of thing without some complimentary understanding and intuition. They're calling it an 'anti-rehearsal', which is a fairly pithy way of making sense of both this record and improv as a whole, i suppose. There's always been subtle elements of radicalism within the way the pair have collaborated in Spiritualized (most obviously in the free jazz elements of Ladies and Gentlemen), but let it be clear, this belongs in a completely different tradition, much more instinctive than the time-honed records they're more famous for, and in its own way, emotional in its reverence to a performance they clearly hold dear. Head music from the heart. Another killer Treader release.