Further

FSAを代表する名盤と謳われる、二作目となるスタジオ・アルバム『ファーザー』が奇跡のリイシュー!(1995年作品)各メディアから大絶賛、高評価を獲得した『ファーザー』。デビュー・アルバムから大きな進歩を遂げ、もっとノイジーでアンビエントでアシッドで、静寂な世界観が全面的に推された一枚。

Alternative Press - "...some of the sparsest, most emotional music you have ever wanted to astral project to. Home tape hiss weds lush swirling melodies and unearthly sonic textures, with an acknowledgment of the European prog-rock scene apparent. FURTHER is the 20th-century analogue to erotic sirens leading armadas to crash upon the rocks into watery graves..." Rolling Stone - 3 Stars - Good - "...very English, reclaiming that juncture in the late '60s early '70s when Pink Floyd and a host of lesser bands gleefully pushed music to its limits....music that is often hypnotic and bewildering, humble yet not of this world..." Option - "...FSA doesn't write songs so much as sculpt instrumental haze. The resulting mirage runs through a meandering path of low-key static, calm vocals, shrill drones and plucked acoustic guitar..." Rolling Stone (8/24/95, p.102) - 3 Stars - Good - "...very English, reclaiming that juncture in the late '60s early '70s when Pink Floyd and a host of lesser bands gleefully pushed music to its limits....music that is often hypnotic and bewildering, humble yet not of this world..." Option (9-10/95, p.109) - "...FSA doesn't write songs so much as sculpt instrumental haze. The resulting mirage runs through a meandering path of low-key static, calm vocals, shrill drones and plucked acoustic guitar..." Alternative Press (8/95, p.85) - "...some of the sparsest, most emotional music you have ever wanted to astral project to. Home tape hiss weds lush swirling melodies and unearthly sonic textures, with an acknowledgment of the European prog-rock scene apparent. FURTHER is the 20th-century analogue to erotic sirens leading armadas to crash upon the rocks into watery graves..."

FURTHER, the second proper album from Bristol's Flying Saucer Attack collective, evidences an extraordinary level of artistic growth. FSA holds fast to its credo ("home taping is reinventing music") but strips away nearly all of the lo-fi fuzz and tape-hiss. David Pearce compensates with sparkling pastoral pick-work and artful shades of muted feedback. As FSA's clouds of distortion dissipate, the shy, sweet vocals he once obscured are finally revealed, as painfully intimate and vulnerable as cult-folk icon Nick Drake's introverted whisper.
The cold and foggy drizzle of "Rainstorm Blues" sets a mood of rain-streaked blues and grays. "In the Light of Time" throws down shafts of autumnal light, carving out a painfully intimate space within the album's comfortable shadows. This idyllic, acoustic aura holds throughout, bathed in occasional cascades of tempered guitar noise ("For Silence") or illuminated from within by Rachel Brook's faraway purr ("Still Point"). The turbulence hinted at by FURTHER's unsettled atmospherics finally manifests itself in "To the Shore", an onrushing tide of chromatic radiance swept along on a bed of flitting percussion. "She Is the Daylight" follows this climactic unburdening, closing the album on a contemplative note suffused with a rosy, optimistic glow.|

Thanks to its release on Drag City and an increasingly higher profile (and rabid fan base), Further turned out to be FSA's breakthrough, at least in cult terms. Even Rolling Stone reviewed the album (amusingly pairing it with a modern Pink Floyd live release), but Further was anything but a corporate sellout. Rather, the twosome achieved a new balance of delicacy and power, heightened in noticeable part by Pearce's increasingly assertive singing. His vocal approach of extended sigh as singing hadn't changed, but his words had a new clarity and crisper delivery, with fine results. Otherwise, FSA stayed the same general course musically, but again the arrangements provide the difference, with the unplugged folk side of Pearce's music now firmly taking the fore on songs like the extended, multipart "For Silence," often with gentle reverb or extra studio effects that make the songs all that much more intriguing. It's not quite Bert Jantsch or John Fahey redux, but there's a definite sonic connection there that's well worth the hearing. Other highlights are the clear acoustic notes cutting through the hum and drone of the majestic "In the Light of Time" or the buried waves of electric guitar in counterpoint to the gentle picking on "Come and Close My Eyes" -- the latter accompanied at the end with what sounds like a typewriter, without sounding jarring or out of place. No compromises were aimed at radio-friendly unit shifters -- opening track "Rainstorm Blues," a roaring feedback squall ascending and descending in volume, got further accompaniment from hard-to-place crumbles and squeals, Brook's growling bass work setting the mood even stranger. Brook herself gets a lovely moment of vocal glory on "Still Point," her voice even more soft and restrained than Pearce's, rising through a striking squall of sound and, once again, upfront acoustic guitar. ~ Ned Raggett