Taking drugs to make music to take drugs to.

No matter how hard you try it’s hard to argue with the influence of Pete Kember (Sonic Boom) and Jason Pierce’s (Spiritualized) Spacemen 3. With a handful of albums the band took The Velvet Underground’s psychedelic drug-rock blueprint and imbued it with a very British sense of inclusive fusion, adding elements of soul, gospel, folk and more to emerge with a feedback-laden narcotic haze.

It feels right then that the band’s catalogue should be granted the deluxe reissue treatment, and Fire Records are due to embark on that mission on May 14 with weighty 180g coloured vinyl versions of the first three records; 1986’s Sound of Confusion, 1987’s The Perfect Prescription and 1988 live album Performance. [via Pitchfork]

Tracklist:

Sound of Confusion:

01 Losing Touch With Your Mind
02 Hey Man
03 Rollercoaster
04 Mary Anne
05 Little Doll
06 2:35
07 O.D. Catastrophe

The Perfect Prescription:

01 Take Me to the Other Side
02 Walkin’ With Jesus
03 Ode to Street Hassle
04 Ecstasy Symphony
05 Transparent Radiation (Flashback)
06 Feels So Good
07 Things’ll Never be the Same
08 Come Down Easy
09 Call the Doctor

Performance:

01 Mary Anne (live)
02 Come Together (live)
03 Things’ll Never Be The Same (live)
04 Take Me To The Other Side (live)
05 Rollercoaster (live)
06 Starship (live)
07 Walkin’ With Jesus (live)