Primal Scream – “Mantra For A State Of Mind” (S’Express Cover) (Feat. Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce)
S’Express was this weird conceptual house-music project that had a few huge hits in the UK in the late ’80s. They’ve been kind of lost to history, but they were awesome. As someone who lived outside London for a year between 1988 and 1989, I can say that tracks like “Theme From S’Express” blew my little-kid mind. And now Primal Scream, whose minds were also blown by that late-’80s dance music wave, have covered one of their tracks.
For a new Record Store Day single, as Pitchfork points out, Primal Scream and Spiritualized frontman Jason Pierce have teamed up to cover S’Express’s 1989 single “Mantra For A State Of Mind.” The cover features Pierce on guitar, and it uses the original backing vocals that Naomi Osbourne sang on the S’Express track. The cover is a full-on acid-rock wig-out, and it’s the best Primal Scream track I’ve heard in a long minute. It’ll appear on a Record Store Day 12″ alongside the instrumental B-side “Gravitational Space (Drifters Wave).” Stream it below.
“Mantra For A State Of Mind” b/w “Gravitational Space (Drifters Wave)” is out 4/16, Record Store Day.