CRITIC'S CHOICE

Spiritualized, Wednesday, October 25, at the Mercury Cafe, works in textures: oscillating notes or aural phrases piled atop each other or blended together until they beget a fuzzy, moody sound deep enough to wallow in. Jason Pierce, aka J. Spaceman, first worked this territory while piloting the cult favorite Spacemen 3, but his work in Spiritualized is more assured and distinctive--so much so that the version of Laurie Anderson's "Born Never Asked" that's on the group's latest CD, this year's Pure Phase, seems as much a part of its oeuvre as any of the originals. An adjective frequently used to describe this music is "druggy," and perhaps it is. But even those teetotalers among you should enjoy how Spiritualized can alter your consciousness.