Monday, July 11

July 11, 2016 - Skip Spence - War In Peace (1969)


Skip Spence was one of the founders of Moby Grape, and he also played with Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service. His story is tragic, and as mentioned in the article in The Hangar, he  
"neither died young nor had a chance to find his way out. Unlike the advice in the Neil Young song, he both burned out and faded away." 

His only solo album is the excellent Oar, and it is a very sparse, raw, and isolated document. War In Peace is my favorite track. Skip's voice sounds like he's floating in a cloud of ether, so dreamy and lethargic. The guitar is so spidery, spindly, trebly, shimmering. The best moment is at 1:20, just that slight little one second riff. It's magical. Then a sweet solo goes from 1:35 - 2:30, all spiky and reverbed. If you isolate the right speaker, the bass is pretty amazing too. The outro is Cream's Sunshine of Your Love riff, cruising down into a gulf of confusion.

 

No comments:

Post a Comment