Flying Saucer Attack - Instrumentals 2015
- Written by Ben Macnair
The one word that grabs the listener when playing Instrumentals 2015 is “mood”. Other words also spring to mind, such as “space”, “melodicism”, and “experimentalism”. Flying Saucer Attack are one of those bands that have been around for a long time, never really breaking through into the mainstream, but attracting enough interest to sustain a career, like the similarly sonically bound experimenter Rhys Chatham, who writes work for 100 piece guitar orchestras, but comes from the same melodic template.
Instrumentals 2015 is the group’s first release in 15 years, and follows on from Mirrors, which was released in 2000. The tracks range in timbre and mood from the short number one and number two that open the album, to the long and meandering pieces, some of which stretch to nine minutes or more, that feature at the album’s close, so this album is not going to be for everyone. It does not really give a lot for guitarists to be amazed by, and many people will just not get what the band had in mind at the time of writing and creating these pieces. The drifting, meandering nature of the pieces mean that they have more in common with Indian music, and the sitar in particular. Fans of such performers as Philip Glass, Mike Oldfield, Steve Reich and Ed Alleyne-Johnson are likely to find something to like in this release.
David Pearce, who wrote the album, and also plays all of the guitars and produces all of the sounds on this album, juxtaposes sweeping majestic moments with cacophonous feedback and misplaced drones to keep the audience’s interest. This is one of those albums that should be listened to in its entirety. It is not an album that is designed to be sold by the million. There are no hit singles, but a consistent mood that is maintained by the foresight and planning of Pearce’s singular talent.