Spectrum

Kember distanced himself immediately and peremptorily from rock music with Spectrum (Silvertone, 1990), on which he was accompanied by Jazz Butcher, Jason Pierce of Spiritualized and members of Perfect Disaster. Kember pivots on atmospheric guitar playing, able to blend serene and humble melody, pulsating picking and mournful electronica, a style that is suited to resurrecting Roy Orbison (Pretty Baby) nulla da overdose (If I Should Die, forse la "canzone" piu` audace della as much as Lou Reed (Angel), and dissipating the songs into the void of an overdose (If I Should Die, probably the boldestg "song" of his career). Echos of  Suicide and of the Velevet Underground resonate throughout the album, but the musical structures are so volatile and minimal that very little of the traditional song format remains.

Kember had to be admired for his consistent research on the mystical qualities of sound. Singles such as Octaves/Tremolos, Drone Dream, and To the Moon are objects without personality, shapeless, such that you cannot figure out if they want to parody the shoegazing movement or establish a new kind of art.

The album Soul Kiss (Silvertone, 1991), overlong and redundant, is a concert for reverberations of ethereal sounds. Music hides behind a hallucinogenic fog that stops it from taking on a recognizable form. Between the subdued prayer of Lord I Don't Even Know My Name and the languid chords of Waves Wash Over Me (almost an excerpt of Popol Vuh's Hosianna Mantra), the album mostly delivers arbitrary free-form suites, pretentious instrumental electro-acoustic sonatas halfway between Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music and avant-garde chamber music (for example Neon Sigh). The sixteen minutes of  Phase Me Out are the peak of both arrogance and abstraction, as if a Tibetan mantra had been remixed by Stockhausen. Possibly, the true peaks of the album are the tender lullaby Touch the Stars, immersed in a science-fiction atmosphere, and The Drunk Suite, in which nebulae of  melodic fragments of the various instruments flutter about lazily and intersect casually, giving birth to intriguing musical shapes.

The new single How You Satisfy Me, a psychedelic ride that blends references from the Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, and the Beatles, is not any more original than many other songs of the genre.

Most importantly, Kember had learned to use the organ and he put that sound to good use on the EP Undo the Taboo (Silvertone, 1994) and on the album Highs, Lows, and Heavenly Blows (Silvertone, 1995), two projects that further dilate the trance of Spectrum. Take Me Away purrs like a sleepy lullaby by Mazzy Star, Then I Just Drifted Away dilates the spaces of Spacemen 3. Alas, the leader's hymns to drugs sound somewhat anachronistic and pathetic, and many of them are limited to repeating the threnody of Undo the Taboo.

The mini-albums A Pox On You (Space Age, 1996), a half hour improvisation in collaboration with Jessamine, and Songs For Owsley (Reprise, 1996), a dedication to the "acid" guru, performed using electronic instruments, announce a sharp departure from Spectrum's initial project.

Forever Alien (Reprise, 1997) is a tribute to the origins of electronic music, to the first timid experiments with oscillators, synthesizers, theremins and tapes, which were for the most part sponsored by radiophonic studios. Feels Like I'm Slipping Away and Matrix are accordingly endless expanses of gurglings, crackles, and bubbles, that too often incorporate the leader's annoying chanting, and only in one instance (Delia Derbyshire) flow into a stunning lysergic ceremony (Pink Floyd plus Silver Apples). German rock had already done these things a quarter of a century earlier (Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream), and with much more genius. The Stars Are So Far steals the idea of a sidereal hiccup from Laurie Anderson of O Superman. Professionals like Michele Jarre and cult projects such as the Tonto's Expanding Head Band and Mother Mallard would blush at hearing the sub-psychedelic banalities of these inept grandchildren.

Sonic Boom was also active in E.A.R. (Experimental Audio Research) with Kevin Martin of God and Kevin Shields My Bloody Valentine.

Richard Formby has later formed Triumph 2000, whose Phazed & Confused Derailed, 1999) continues Spacemen 3's shoegazing mission.

Peter Kember returned after a long hiatus with Indian Giver (2008), credited to Spectrum Meets Captain Memphis, a collaboration with Jim Dickison.

Spectrum returned with the four-song EP War Sucks (Mind Expansion, 2009), whose title track is a cover of the Red Krayola song.