THE PERFECT PRESCRIPTION

Spacemen 3 arguably took the spirit of Hawkwind to even more narcotic extremes in the 1980s, being as they were a space rock band who, unlike their more coy predecessors in previous decades, made no bones about their extensive appreciation for and endorsement of narcotics. But don't make the mistake of thinking they were too intoxicated to produce interesting material; few neo-psychedelic units would have contemplated producing a song like Ode to Street Hassle, an esoteric rant juxtaposed with a bass groove reminiscent of the classic Lou Reed Song, for instance. Although it sounds like anaesthetised chaos on a first listen, give it more of a chance, because there's more going on here than meets the ear at first.