Sorry, Mr Ashcroft, but it appears that the drugs do work: the recent Channel 4/Guardian/HMV musical poll of polls had in its top 30 a significant number of albums that were created under the influence of illicit pharmaceuticals. It's a bit pat to describe Spiritualized's Ladies And Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space as heroin chic, even if main man Jason Pierce is on record as saying that he was whacked out on drugs during the writing and recording of the work, but still it's yet another critically swooned-over album that was voted the best album of 1997 by the majority of music publications. "I don't want to romanticise anything, especially the use of drugs," says a wary Jason Pierce, "but, yes, drugs were a part of my life. But without sounding too wanky about it, music will be always be more important than drugs. I know about all the arguments relevant to the `drugs and great albums' debate but really, anybody will tell you that drugs, after a while, dull the senses - and without labouring the point, the music can give you a better buzz."

Certainly in the case of Spiritualized it can: the dark, neo-psychedelic band were formed from the ruins of Spaceman 3 a few years back and their work to date comes in under the "art-rock" category, given Pierce's penchant for "aural sculptures" as evidenced on the two previous albums, Lazer Glided Memories (1992) and Pure Phase (1995). But buckets of credibility and an intelligent, musically informed fan base didn't help the band get out of the "artrock" ghetto - until, that is, Ladies And Gentlemen pulled in more votes than Oasis, Radiohead and even The Spice Girls in last month's "best of the year" polls. Fame, fortune and the cover of Smash Hits await you, Jason? "I've honestly never, ever had a interest in chart position or album sales," he says. "And even now I couldn't tell you how Ladies And Gentlemen is selling - all I know is that it's selling a lot." You wouldn't need a degree in the socio-cultural ramifications of popular music to know why the band's current offering qualifies as "great" and why it has found so much favour. With the exception of Radiohead, most of what passes for contemporary rock is mere tarted up, three-chord pub rock, or worse still, the peculiar musical condition known as "retrophilia" - which, to be honest, wasn't even that good the first time around, towards the end of the 1960s. Spiritualized, if anything, represent the post-rock vibe. "I think, in a sense, most bands today think everything has been done before and they are quite happy to palely imitate the classic sounds of the 1960s. But away from that, you have innovative and progressive areas like Jungle and the newer wave of psychedelic acts making a breakthrough with fresh and resonant sounds. Acts like Spring Hill Jack, Acetone and Photex represent the very best of what you can do with music these days. Having influences is one thing, but having limited influences is another. Personally, I go from Bach to Miles Davies."

If the original Spiritualized sound showed more than a tad of Suicide, The Velvet Underground, MC5 and Stooges in its mix, the 1998 version is pushing the parameters and going where no bands have boldly gone before. On Ladies And Gentlemen you can hear the massed voices of the London Community Gospel Choir, 1970s Elvis-style Memphis horn arrangements, string quartets, complex neo-jazz drum patterns, the bass being used as a lead instrument, My Bloody Valentine-style sheets of guitars and keyboard stylings that would make your average synth band give up in despair. "People always said about us that we educate, as opposed to cater for, an audience," says Jason, "and if you look to really great albums like Screamadelica by Primal Scream or Loveless by My Bloody Valentine, you'll find that there are always ways of making new sounds and making those sounds interesting. "Really, what I am trying to do, at least on one level, is to create music that fills the gaps between all my influences, the gaps in my record collection if you like. I'm trying to make the connections people have missed. It's very easy to sound like the Beach Boys, or The Beastie Boys, but it doesn't make for great music. It makes records that appear superficially great."

But is it possible to make a record that is both "classical" in the sense of a Revolver or Pet Sounds and also "avant-garde" enough to satisfy your own particular criteria? "It has to be," he says. "The problem is that too many people go simply for the `classical' sound, without realising that those albums were products of their time and products of the musical technology that was available back then. Something that is very much from 1998 but still `classical' is naturally possible. It's just that there aren't that many role models out there - there's too much bog standard white boy guitar rock around."

If Jason Pierce comes across as a dour ideologue, hung up on musical tub-thumping, it's simply because he has spent years on the musical margins. He now finally feels a bit vindicated by the success of his album. He's also a massive music fan who "cares" about what he hears around him. Speaking just after he had come offstage at one of the NME Brat gigs, he was euphoric about being able to bring one of his all-time favourite bands, US cult rockers Suicide, on stage to play the last three numbers with him. "It's strange, but I got a really big thrill about discovering some rare Suicide B-sides the other days. These things still give me a buzz. And that's one of the reasons why we're going off to do a tour of Greece shortly - not many people know it, but you can pick up some amazing Greek psychedelic bootlegs over there."

Looking forward to playing Galway, he finishes with a story about a strange gig Spiritualized played a few months ago. "We played the highest-ever gig in the history of music. We did a show at the top of that tower in Toronto which is the highest free-standing monument in the world. We are now in the Guinness Book Of Records for doing that show." If the charts and music magazines don't interest you, why did you go to such lengths to get into the Guinness Book Of Records? "We didn't do it to set a record - we did it for a laugh." Fair enough.

Spiritualized play Galway's Leisureland tomorrow night (doors open, 8 p.m.). Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space is on the Dedicated label.

Sleeve Notes will return next week.