i heard that wire cover, it's good. plus some other things, dunno what tho.
will check out, thanks
― pc user, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 19:44 (sixteen years ago) link
i like everything fsa did pretty much except i wasn't that big on Mirror or the collaboration with tele:funken (which was just fsa samples, so it wasn't really their fault).
― scott seward, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 19:48 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah I got pretty much nothing out of the Tele:funken thing tho I liked Mirror when it came out. Still think New Lands is well underrated. Forgot about Clear Horizon as well! Probably cos I never heard it
― DJ Mencap, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 19:52 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, New Lands is good. I just don't listen to it near as much as the early ones.
― Trip Maker, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 19:56 (sixteen years ago) link
i haven't listened to new lands in a long time. come to think of it, i haven't listened to ANY of their albums in a long time. further might be my fave if i had to pick one.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 19:57 (sixteen years ago) link
gotta love that groovy mirror cover though:
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00003XAJB.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
― scott seward, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 19:58 (sixteen years ago) link
hey Ned, did Light release anything besides that single on Wurlitzer Jukebox? 'cause that's all I have, but I love it. And does anyone know what exactly the FSA connection was?
― sleeve, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 20:15 (sixteen years ago) link
What in the hell! Never seen that. Is that a Savage Pencil design? My LP copy is a light brown sleeve with strange line drawings
xpost - album called 'Turning' IIRC
― DJ Mencap, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 20:16 (sixteen years ago) link
There was a Light full-length on Wurlitzer Jukebox that a friend of mine I had. I remember really loving it, but I heard it around the time that I was fully into this kind of thing. I would love to hear that again. xpost-that's the US (Drag City) cover.
― Trip Maker, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 20:17 (sixteen years ago) link
And yes, it is Savage Pencil.
― Trip Maker, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 20:18 (sixteen years ago) link
Anyone heard Clear Horizon? I don't like Jessica Bailiff...
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 20:38 (sixteen years ago) link
there were three Light full-lengths, Turning, Paperboat and the fairly recent Waterside Reverberations on Unlabel. i seem to remember at least as many 7"s.
i don't believe that there was any connection between Dave Mercer and FSA other than the special camaraderie enjoyed by the Bristol bands.
― Mr. Hal Jam, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 20:41 (sixteen years ago) link
wow, thanks! I'll have to keep an eye out for those.
― sleeve, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 20:43 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, I have the first two Light albums but not that third one. Must investigate. A comp of the singles would be great.
Speaking of, the three disc Amp rarities comp is killer.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 20:47 (sixteen years ago) link
xpost. That Clear Horizon album is pretty much of a piece with the Flying Saucer Attack stuff, and it's *very* good. I've mentioned it in a few other threads: seems to have gotten completely overlooked because nobody knew who it was.
― dlp9001, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 21:05 (sixteen years ago) link
"xpost-that's the US (Drag City) cover."
i never knew there were different covers! never hurts to sell the yanks a little razamataz.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 21:29 (sixteen years ago) link
Trip Maker and others on this thread...thanks! I have long been an enthusiast of some unholy trinity or quadrernity or whatever of U.S. west coast bands influenced by F.S.A. (it's not too difficult to guess the suspects), but for whatever reason, I've never properly delved into Flying Saucer Attack's catalog. Gratzi for the recommendations and erudition.
Now I need to head over to the Dr. Savannah's Buzzard blah-blah Band thread to express thanks for turning me on to that stuff.
'tis the season.
― dell, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 23:26 (sixteen years ago) link
U.S. west coast bands influenced by F.S.A. (it's not too difficult to guess the suspects)
Aptly phrased.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 23:34 (sixteen years ago) link
ha, yeah. 'nuff said.
― dell, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 23:34 (sixteen years ago) link
I second Clear Horizon. Very good album.
I think Movietone is still together, aren't they? I seem to recall they released an album a couple of years back. I love their s/t debut, but I didn't really get into the follow-ups.
― Bill in Chicago, Thursday, 20 December 2007 18:59 (sixteen years ago) link
picked this up the other week, 'tis pretty immersive:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:anfexqyhldfe
― stephen, Thursday, 5 June 2008 21:57 (fifteen years ago) link
(let's try that again...)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21AMBVPGRFL._SL500_AA130_.jpg
― stephen, Thursday, 5 June 2008 22:02 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah, that's not my fave. i hardly ever played it. not like their other stuff. but it does have a fab cover.
maria and i have a new three hour sound collage/musique concrete/fx/cut & paste & loop radio show on her radio station and i was creating material for it and i played some FSA at 45 RPM and it sounded great! like they become the greatest shoegaze band ever and dude's vocals become MBV girly and cool. i could even see listening to a whole album like that. i was impressed by this totally new band i was listening to.
― scott seward, Thursday, 5 June 2008 23:35 (fifteen years ago) link
the ones that really blow me away are Further and the 1st S/T one aka Rural Psychedelia. Chorus is good in parts but I remember it being kinda inconsistent since is is a singles comp. New Lands seemed like a failed extension of the formula and I was even less enthusiastic about Mirror or whatever that was called.
I also really like the later singles - Sally Free And Easy, Coming Home, and the Roy Montgomery collab.
Was just reading a good interview with Dave in Popwatch #9, I wish there were still magazines like that.
― sleeve, Friday, 6 June 2008 01:27 (fifteen years ago) link
oh also the Corpus Hermeticum CD is a very different kind of beast but well worth tracking down (on MP3, I doubt it's in print). Kind of like Neil Young's Arc as applied to FSA.
― sleeve, Friday, 6 June 2008 01:28 (fifteen years ago) link
further is my fave. fave cover too
http://detour-mag.com/assets/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/flyingsaucerattack.jpg
then new lands and then chorus probably. as far as faves. i need a copy of the first album. don't have one on vinyl.
― scott seward, Friday, 6 June 2008 01:30 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh gee, I wonder who reviewed it.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 6 June 2008 01:31 (fifteen years ago) link
Further is the greatest, of theirs. For any other band Rainstorm Blues would been a stupid title, but they pull even that one off
― sonderangerbot, Friday, 6 June 2008 01:51 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah any of rural psychedelia, distance, and further is wonderful. i love chorus too but it's not up to the other three. i've never heard mirror, also i think i'm one of the few who love savage pencil's cover art for it
― electricsound, Friday, 6 June 2008 01:53 (fifteen years ago) link
no people think it's groovy. Though i'd hardly call them groovy, the Further cover is a perfect match as far as their sounds concerned
― sonderangerbot, Friday, 6 June 2008 01:56 (fifteen years ago) link
damn I forgot about Distance, looking at my copy of that and Chorus it seems they both have singles on them. I'm putting these on RIGHT NOW.
― sleeve, Friday, 6 June 2008 02:01 (fifteen years ago) link
OK I'm leaning towards Chorus as being a tad better than Distance, but I should really listen to these like five more times. As I recall Distance has the earlier singles, Chorus is seeming more developed and assured to me. And "Feedback Song" is a real highlight.
― sleeve, Friday, 6 June 2008 03:36 (fifteen years ago) link
so in order:
Soaring High/Standing Stone 7" (on Distance) Wish/Oceans 7" (on Distance but w/instrumental Wish) 1st LP Crystal Shade/Distance 7" (on Distance) Land Beyond The Sun/Everywhere Was Everything 7" (never heard this!) Beach Red Lullaby/Second Hour 7" (on Chorus) Further LP Outdoor Miner EP Chorus LP (includes Peel session, comp track and 7" above plus more) At Night split 7" with Jessamine (haven't heard this either) In Search Of Spaces CD Tele:Funken LP Sally Free And Easy "Since When" suite on Harmony Of The Spheres (I like this a lot) collab w/Roy Montgomery New Lands Coming Home/Hope Mirror
so Chorus is kind of a patchwork whereas Distance is more a proper singles comp. Much more discog info HERE.
― sleeve, Friday, 6 June 2008 03:52 (fifteen years ago) link
cover of "outdoor miner" may be better than wire original. ain't easy to pull that off
― kamerad, Friday, 6 June 2008 05:34 (fifteen years ago) link
Land Beyond The Sun/Everywhere Was Everything 7" (never heard this!)
you should def hear this, it's among their best IMO. the track on the jessamine split is good but quite FSA-by-numbers at the time it came out
there's also a track on an Enraptured 4-band ep that's again good but not among their best tracks
― electricsound, Friday, 6 June 2008 05:37 (fifteen years ago) link
there's also an earworm demos 45 of land beyond the sun (under the name of jon + dave) which is an interesting take on the track..
― electricsound, Friday, 6 June 2008 05:38 (fifteen years ago) link
i'm wondering what people might think of fsa in comparison to sun dial. it seems at times they were both going for the same thing, albeit fsa more ethereally and sun dial more garagey. and while i'm mumbling tangentials, i might as well rep for the first self-titled album by movietone, rachel brook's band after she split from fsa. for my money, that debut album is as good as anything fsa ever did
― kamerad, Friday, 6 June 2008 06:08 (fifteen years ago) link
ah, you see my opinion of movietone is very much less positive than that. and then some.
― electricsound, Friday, 6 June 2008 06:10 (fifteen years ago) link
youshallknowourdiscography had all of the singles ripped and available at his site some time back. probably still available. i love Movietone but I think that their first record is the weakest one.
― keythkeyth, Friday, 6 June 2008 06:14 (fifteen years ago) link
ah, my opinion of movietone is not all that positive, except for that first album. that one haunts me, the way they establish that woozy groove in the first song and then keeping working it until the last track dissolves into mist and fog. sublime. but after that one, i have no use for them
― kamerad, Friday, 6 June 2008 06:15 (fifteen years ago) link
I hardly ever listen to Movietone but I find it very rewarding when I do
― DJ Mencap, Friday, 6 June 2008 08:51 (fifteen years ago) link
Surprise surprise. Nice review, Ned.
― stephen, Friday, 6 June 2008 17:25 (fifteen years ago) link
i'm wondering what people might think of fsa in comparison to sun dial.
If memory serves, both bands sort of became careers by accident. I think FSA was just going to release some singles and then kinda got carried away by the momentum. Sun Dial though is clearly looking towards the late-80s era of acid rock with Bevis Frond, High Rise, and fellow travelers who had the Fun With Mushrooms comp and some issues of Ptolemaic Terrascope.
I always thought of FSA as an out-of-time post-punk band - very much a pop band (or at least with pop sensibilities) but inverted and deconstructed all to hell. Pearce could have just as easily been working in 1981 or 1994.
Maybe FSA and Gary Ramon's Quad albums?
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 6 June 2008 18:46 (fifteen years ago) link
I think the first Movietone record is actually the best, mostly because of the first side. "Chance is Her Opera" is pretty much one of my favorite songs ever. Their other albums are good, but feel a bit formulaic to me in the sense that they hit the Movietone sound and stuck with it. Maybe I should give them another listen though.
The thing that I appreciate most about FSA is how it was so prescient of what happened in music ten years later. Not that I believe that there is this eschatological notion of progress in music by any means, but the approach they took with home recording and the psych-folk sound were not that popular then. There was the whole krautrock revival thing going on, but most people were lifting from Neu! and Can, not Popol Vuh and Amon Duul. I feel like they don't get enough credit as being a major influence on the psych-folk revival of the 00s.
― Bill in Chicago, Friday, 6 June 2008 21:11 (fifteen years ago) link
Definitely agreed on the last point, they had to have been a gateway drug for a lot of folks.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 6 June 2008 21:13 (fifteen years ago) link
i'm just hearing fsa for the first time "at night" is amazing!!
― sleep, Friday, 6 June 2008 23:36 (fifteen years ago) link
@Scott Seward
What album did you play on 45? I'm very curious about this!
For me the best FSA's are Further and New Lands (I feel the latter is being ignored way too much!).
― Le Bateau Ivre, Saturday, 7 June 2008 01:15 (fifteen years ago) link
New Lands is my favourite FSA album. But I didn't much care for Further.
― Colonel Poo, Saturday, 7 June 2008 01:17 (fifteen years ago) link
(hell, I suddenly seem to remember it was actually Elvis Telecom (Chr1ss right?) who got me into FSA in the first place, via recommendation on the DroneOn mailing list, ages ago!)
― Le Bateau Ivre, Saturday, 7 June 2008 01:19 (fifteen years ago) link
(hell, I suddenly seem to remember it was actually Elvis Telecom (Chr1ss right?)
Yup!
There's not one particular stand out FSA album that I reach for more than the others. I have a vague nostalgia trip for the first self-titled LP. I first heard it in '93 at a friend's place in SF - typical winter fog outside and side 2 just made the whole setting work out. The week after that, I found the LP at Noise Noise Noise with the description "Hot New Something" on the shrink-wrap (still kept that part of the shrink-wrap intact because of the description)
My main FSA memory goes like this: It was 2am. I'm driving somewhere NW of Lakehurst, New Jersey because I wanted to see where the Hindenburg crashed and I'm trying to find the I-95 turnpike. There's a major rain/sleet storm going on (worst I've ever tried to drive through) and I'm the only car on a road filled with trucks (all of whom see nothing wrong with driving full-speed through a Major Fuck Off Storm Of Doom). I needed something to keep me going and the first thing I grabbed was a live FSA tape from some early 1993 gig in Bristol. Hadn't listened to it yet so I didn't know what I was getting into. No songs but one long drone out that begins similarly to one of the "Popul Vuh" instrumentals that winds out into a mammoth space/time/metal-tearing Something both terrifying and awe-inspiring - sorta like viewing a slow-motion asteroid impact that takes a hour to complete. I did eventually make it to Connecticut where I finally passed out in a hotel room, but I was convinced that I was going to be killed by a truck, killed by the road spray thrown up by a truck, or would suffer the worst case of missing time ever and eventually wake up at the city limits of Rapid City, South Dakota.
Heavy stuff. I can understand why people were so pissed by Jim O'Rourke's clown joke at Terrastock I.
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 7 June 2008 08:07 (fifteen years ago) link
i think it's safe to say that if you listen to an FSA album and like it you'll probably like most of the other stuff too.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 15 July 2015 16:07 (eight years ago) link
you just never know which popol vuh people are referring to, that's the main problem i guess
― La Lechera, Wednesday, July 15, 2015 10:22 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Another musical Popol Vuh to def hear sometime is the crazy orchestral piece by that title by Alberto Ginastera. It sounds nothing whatsoever like danny and florian but it's a ton of fun
sorry for boring classical derail
― demonic mnevice (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 15 July 2015 16:11 (eight years ago) link
(new issue of The Wire is out today according to the woman in whsmiths this morning. unfortunately it was in a box that she hadn't unpacked yet so i'll have to go back (for the 4th time))
― koogs, Thursday, 16 July 2015 09:07 (eight years ago) link
I never quite forgave FSA for beating me to covering Sally Free and Easy. My dad used to play it on his guitar all the time when I was a kid, and I wanted to cover it. So I downloaded lots of versions from Limewire or Oink or whatever it was then, and found their version sounded exactly like what I wanted to do with it. That was my intro, actually, and I do love them.
― Rouge Trooper (dowd), Thursday, 16 July 2015 10:54 (eight years ago) link
Really enjoyed that Wire piece though I'm sure reading it in the garden with a bottle of red and some Quorn Chorizo helped.
Strangely, I was bemused to find that I don't seem to own any Flying Saucer Attack albums (lost them? sold them?)
Happy to be prompted to play Movietone.
― djh, Sunday, 19 July 2015 17:09 (eight years ago) link
Remarkable how many people I've mentioned the Wire piece to have gone "Aren't Movietone fucking incredible? They're sounding better with time" or similar.
― djh, Monday, 20 July 2015 21:27 (eight years ago) link
I don't know why I didn't pay more attention to them the first time round tbh, they fit nicely alongside hood and dean roberts and all the other post-talk talk stuff I was listening to back then. saw them play once but it was at a festival thing where the whole intimacy of their sound was lost on a fairly large and noisy crowd
― feargal czukay (NickB), Monday, 20 July 2015 21:43 (eight years ago) link
Movietone that is
― feargal czukay (NickB), Monday, 20 July 2015 21:44 (eight years ago) link
I could see why they would have been missed at the time. I definitely like them more *now* than *then*.
― djh, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 18:27 (eight years ago) link
I was going to move this conversation over to a Movietone thread ... but there isn't one.
― djh, Wednesday, 22 July 2015 21:09 (eight years ago) link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b066325j
(partial) repeat of the '96 peel session
Heartbeat (Radio 1 Session, 1 Mar 1996)Guitar Blues (Radio 1 Session, 1 Mar 1996)Resolution Island (Radio 1 Session, 1 Mar 1996)
(missing Jeff Mills Blues and I Can Take You To The Sun)
― koogs, Monday, 17 August 2015 10:31 (eight years ago) link
Dave's new FACT mix is an extremely pleasant listen but lol at the tracklisting http://www.factmag.com/2015/08/17/fact-mix-509-flying-saucer-attack/
― Hector Ringtone (DJ Mencap), Monday, 17 August 2015 11:45 (eight years ago) link
haha, five disc CD changer on random style
― feargal czukay (NickB), Monday, 17 August 2015 12:12 (eight years ago) link
haven't listened to amc for 25 years, might give it a whirl
― feargal czukay (NickB), Monday, 17 August 2015 12:13 (eight years ago) link
Holy heck, an actual interview!
http://thequietus.com/articles/18662-dave-pearce-flying-saucer-attack-interview
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 16:59 (eight years ago) link
Cool!
Having a hard time getting into the new one despite my best efforts. It sounds cool and all, but I guess I'm waiting for it to reveal itself beyond that.
― Wimmels, Thursday, 3 September 2015 00:48 (eight years ago) link
good interview
― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Monday, 7 September 2015 23:51 (eight years ago) link
Hey, I like it -- expanded reissue of In Search of Spaces on vinyl...
https://www.vhfrecords.com/catalog/flying-saucer-attack-in-search-of-spaces-2xlp
But also streaming for free on Soundcloud
https://soundcloud.com/vhfrecords/sets/flying-saucer-attack-in-search-of-spaces-vhf145-2xlp
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 November 2017 17:44 (six years ago) link
Also available on Bandcamp if you don't want the dead dinosaur versionhttps://flyingsaucerattack.bandcamp.com/album/in-search-of-spaces
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 15 November 2017 04:23 (six years ago) link
Movietone 'Peel Sessions' (x3) release coming in the spring, according to their FB page.
― Maresn3st, Saturday, 28 November 2020 17:13 (three years ago) link
Nice!
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Sunday, 29 November 2020 11:18 (three years ago) link