Spectrum - Forever Alien (1997, Space Age)

Last week somebody posted a comment stating the Ghost album that was featured on nnmt was their favorite album back in 1997. This got me thinking about what my favorite album was in 1997. I narrowed the choices down to music that was current at the time and Spectrum's Forever Alien won the decision, with the most likely runner-up being Chokebore's A Taste for Bitters.

Armed with an arsenal of vintage synths that included a Serge modular, an Oxford OSCar, and an EMS VCS3 (duh!) among others, Pete 'Sonic Boom' Kember drove the more song-oriented of his two post-Spacemen 3 projects down a slightly different path than those explored on the three previous Spectrum albums. While the simple melodies and rhythms that comprise nearly all of Kember's work as Spectrum are certainly present on this release, lending an air of familiarity to fans, it's the depth of the production distances this record from the group's previous releases. Layers upon layers of analog noises ensure new discoveries with each subsequent listening and give new meaning to the term 'druggy' as it applies to music.