Spectrum: Forever Alien

When the experimental electronic band Spacemen 3 split up, members Jason Pierce and Pete "Sonic Boom" Kember embarked upon decidedly disparate musical ventures. Pierce's Spiritualized, whose excellent Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space just came out, explores sprawling psychedelic terrain, from haunting instrumentals to wigged-out rock songs. But Kember's post-Spacemen compositions have been spottier: With Experimental Audio Research (E.A.R.), he's made static electronic wallpaper that'd be boring if it weren't barely existent. But his Spectrum material has been more ambitious, and ultimately more satisfying: The new Forever Alien, recorded with lots of old analog synthesizers, is full of tripped-out, hazy music-from-space; filled with layers of electronics and looped samples, it possesses a keen gift for subconscious melody. Some of the blips-and-bloops instrumentals ("The New Atlantis," for one) don't quite gel into songs—and the spoken-word title track is a bunch of self-serious goop—but Kember usually gets his atmospherics to sound sufficiently creepy and compelling. Previously Released Material Alert: Fans who picked up last year's Songs For Owsley EP will find three of its tracks on Forever Alien, which means there are only seven new ones here.