Dark Ground Spirit

2018 five CD clamshell box set by the legendary American band Spirit. Formed in Los Angeles in 1967 from the remnants of The Red Roosters, Spirit was one of the great bands to emerge on the US West Coast in the psychedelic era…

Essential: A masterpiece of rock music.
After the superb Clear album, Spirit was really flying in a class of its own which allowed them to make THE psychedelic album that not even The Beatles would managed to do.

Newly re-mastered, this anthology features all of Spirit’s recordings for the Ode and Epic labels between 1968 and 1972 and notably includes the entire mono mix of the band’s self-titled debut album (appearing on CD for the first time), the complete soundtrack to the film The Model Shop, along with original 1968 stereo mix of The Family That Plays Together, associated out-takes, singles and alternate mixes undertaken in 1991 for the Time Circle compilation. It Shall Be also includes an illustrated booklet with essay by Malcolm Dome featuring archive interviews with Randy California and Ed Cassidy.

Spirit Dome returns with a perfect companion, Live Archive. Living proof of the power of live performance, these recordings are so immediate and engaging it would be easy to assume they were crafted over months in the studio. Live Archive, from their 1997 tour, serves as a natural complement to 2004's Spirit Dome, recorded live to stereo master in one take in a studio-like environment. Live Archive was originally released as a small run on the Groove label in Holland, and has been out of print for several years.
Steve Roach / Vidna Obama's 2002 CD Innerzone served as the doorway to the surreal environment explored on Spirit Dome. Recorded in one continuous 74 minute session in a hotel room in Philadelphia, this is a dark sanctuary of pure texture and beautiful, if foreboding, dissonance pulled along with pulsing beats, subtle loops and dense soundworlds…