FURTHER

Well this is my second Flying Saucer Attack album. The first I have an excuse for since I found it in a used record store and had no idea what I was getting into. This time is my own fault since I did know what they sounded like but still didn’t resist buying this in another used record store almost a decade later. My bad.

I guess this one isn’t as horrible as the debut, which is just gawd-awful acoustic-and- feedback tripe scratched onto four tape tracks with a dull fingernail or broken glass or something. Truly dreadful.

This one isn’t that bad, but it’s nothing I’d go out of my way to try and find. There’s some acoustic guitar, some electric guitar feedback, some poorly-done sound effects, and occasional vocals that are kind of like a flat Bryan-Ferry-meets-that-guy-from- Icehouse (for some reason every time I hear a slightly-bored, slightly-creepy, mostly- dull male vocal set to bad prog music I can’t resist comparing it to Icehouse – now that was some terrible music!).

The production quality is somewhat better this time around, and I guess the girl that was in the ‘band’ is gone so it’s back to being a solo act again. Hard to make a relationship work on bad post-rock and sonic feedback alone, I suppose.

So anyway, the songs are all about the same: some slow and fairly mild (usually acoustic) guitar lead-in; slowly building and phasing in feedback to a point where that’s all you can hear; maybe a few cheap sound-effects like wrinkled tin foil to simulate rain; then some sort of disjointed ending. Sounds like this is all done on four tracks like the first one was. Pretty sparse in the artwork and packaging too. “To the Shore” sounds like at least an attempt at something more complex, but ends up dragging on too long with an endless guitar repetition regardless. The only mildly interesting tracks are “Come and Close my Eyes” with an acoustic back line that persists and kind of gives the composition some grounding; and “Still Point”, where the vocalist manages to appear at least interested for a couple minutes. The rest is completely forgettable. This is not some hidden gem; it's just obscure because it deserves to be.

I’m sure this is a nice guy, or at least I don’t have any reason to think he isn’t anyway. But this music is incredibly simple, undeveloped, and unimaginative. I think he’s just sitting in his apartment with a tape machine and a couple pedals and moping about his girlfriend the bass player leaving him. Get over it dude. One star.

peace