SPAGA - SPAGA Plays Dead (Limited Edition LP)

SPAGA are full of life on SPAGA Plays Dead.

With Aron Magner on piano and keyboards and serving as main soloist, this instrumental Grateful Dead covers LP also taps solo songbooks of Jerry Garcia on "Eep Hour" and Bob Weir with "Heaven Help the Fool," which, along with "Cumberland Blues," hews closest to the original of Plays Dead's six cuts.

But even "Heaven" is deeply interpretive; jazzy with a touch of Vince Guaraldi and a reggae bridge woven into the trio rendering from Disco Biscuit/Billy's Kid Magner, drummer Matt Scarano and bassist Jason Fraticelli.

Former RatDog/the Other Ones sax blower Dave Ellis drops in for "Estimated Prophet." Rendered with jazzy syncopation in 7/8 time, it finds the temporary quartet splicing pieces of the original arrangement into something new. Yet, the old blueprint remains as frist Fraticelli's bass, then Ellis' brass trace the vocal melody over trance-like backing.

"Friend of the Devil," on the contrary, owes less to its titular antecedent than to "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" and "Cosmic Charlie." It's essentially a fresh composition – before morphing into a 60-second, quadruple-time "FOTD" interlude that leads to the coda of the song and of SPD, a "Space"-heavy rendering of "Loser."

— Kristopher Weiss, Relix

Limited edition of 400. First and only pressing.

SPAGA dives headfirst into the Grateful Dead songbook on SPAGA Plays Dead, a fully instrumental studio LP that filters six classics through the piano-driven lens of Aron Magner (keyboards, The Disco Biscuits), Jason Fraticelli (bass), Matt Scarano (drums), and Dave Ellis (saxophone - Estimated Prophet). Tracked at Tom Hamilton’s The Ballroom studio, these performances move from deep-groove head-nodders to spacious, late-night explorations, with every melody stretched, twisted, and reborn.

Pressed on psychedelic tie-dye swirl vinyl that echoes the album art’s blue-and-coral glow, this limited-edition LP captures SPAGA in full improvisational flight, offering an instrumental reimagining of the Dead that feels both deeply familiar and entirely new.

All songs are arranged by SPAGA, produced by Tom Hamilton & Aron Magner, and mixed and mastered by Jon Altchiller, resulting in a rich, cinematic sound that rewards both close listening and repeat spins.

Side A
Eep Hour
Cumberland Blues
Heaven Help the Fool

Side B
Estimated Prophet
Friend of the Devil
Loser