When ambient, noise, and/or experimental music is done by a master, it has as much spark and sorcery as any music you are going to come across. Flying Saucer Attack are masters of this kind and we are very lucky to have them back.

Full Review

Best of 2015

Recent Reviews

The Line of Best Fit

Whilst it can often be easy to jerk the proverbial knee and overstate an instrumental album’s implication and worth, David Pearce and Flying Saucer Attack have once more positively set themselves apart from others of their ilk on Instrumentals 2015.

It's arid and windswept – an album of bleached out landscapes, abandoned underground citadels and concrete sound mirrors.

Instrumentals 2015 feels like a successful reinvention after such a lengthy absence, but at the same time, it could've been beamed in at any point during FSA's existence, as its elemental, bare-basics construction isn't beholden to any trends, and therefore it feels timeless.

Instrumentals 2015 doesn’t offer any kind of in-road, gimmick, key note, single, or any other concession to people who aren’t willing to meet it all the way. It is an obelisk. The music is fearlessly patient in a time when musicians will do and say just about anything to remain in the spotlight for a few more minutes.

Overlong at almost an hour but, largely, as pretty and organic as crystal.

It's an unrestrained, third-eye gaze at the aforementioned horizons; quiet, cross-legged worship at the temple of Popol Vuh; the electric guitar as a sentient being. A satisfying gift.

The strangeness and slightness of Instrumentals 2015 is admittedly refreshing in our age of overdoing it, and it does fit with the whisper that is Pearce's overall career arc, but when placed next to Flying Saucer Attack's best music, it still comes off like a faint echo.

The problem is that this is more of a collection of improvised pieces than a cohesive album, and some feel more like sketches than finished work. It makes for a record with some distinct highs and lows.

Full Review