Flying Saucer Attack (album)

Pearce himself described the style of the album as "rural psychedelia" (which was also an alternate title for the album[1][2]).[3][4] Ned Raggett placed the album in the context of its contemporaneous scene, writing that it "crystallized an incipient 1990s underground as in thrall to folk music as to feedback blasts and Krautrock influences."[3] Mike Goldsmith also heard influences of "Jazz, noise and Kiwi indie" in the music.[2] "If any one thing could be singled out about the album," Raggett writes, "it's the continual contrast between Pearce's soft, reflective singing, often sunk deep into the overall mix and treated with heavy-duty echo, and his often tremendous guitar work, electric squalls, and drones piled atop one another."[3] He noted the "initial comparisons" made to My Bloody Valentine, but found them to be "misplaced -- it's a consciously different style employing some similar elements, but with notably varying results."[3] The tracks "Popol Vuh 1" and "Popol Vuh 2" were "open tips of the hat to the long-lived German experimental group."[3] Goldsmith described the two "drone instrumentals" as "post-rock guitarscapes draped around the tribal percussion Matt Elliot [sic] would explore further in The Third Eye Foundation."[2]

Gravenhurst's Nick Talbot highlighted a sense of romanticism in the song titles and lyrics, and Pearce's use of "a pagan semiology to paint an escapist fantasy."[5] "And buried deep - often very deep -" he writes, "beneath the haunting swirls lie naive pop gems as perfectly formed as those on Ride’s early EPs."[5]

The low fidelity recording (a characteristic of the band's early output) was highlighted by Talbot, who wrote that the band's "unprecedentedly noisy debut took lo-fi to hitherto uncharted depths by making technologically compromised bedroom amateurism an essential part of its unique, rural psychedelia."[5] He wrote that Flying Saucer Attack "was also created by sonic processes which to this day remain partly shrouded in mystery. The outfit’s diffident visionary Dave Pearce spoke of his obsession with Popol Vuh, and lacking access to orchestral arrangements he attempted emulation with whatever he had to hand. In particular, (and it is worth noting that this is on a par with Kevin Shield's ‘glider’ tremolo technique in its sonic originality and startling costless efficacy), he found a way of emulating a choral ensemble by turning down the tone dial of his electric guitar and gently drawing a screwdriver crossways against the strings, through a distortion and a delay unit."[5] He also noted the incorporation of "squalling clarinets, mesmerically delayed tribal percussion and pitch-shifted howls and moans, appearing and disappearing in a rainstorm of autodidactic chaos."[5]

The album was self-released by the band through FSA Records in Britain on LP.[6] In 1994, VHF Records released the CD version of the album in the US.[7] The latter label released an mp3 version of the album online in 2017, whilst also reissuing it on gatefold vinyl.[8][9] The same year, Domino Recording Company reissued the album on both CD and 180-g vinyl.[10][11]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Record Collector	[2]

Raggett wrote that compared to their later albums, "Flying Saucer Attack sets more of an immediately consistent mood -- some numbers aside, the dreamy singing, the seemingly straightforward guitar parts that get more involved the more one listens, and more continue from track to track, generally speaking. The end results, though, are more than worth it." The tracks "A Silent Tide", "Wish" and the Suede cover, "The Drowners" were picked as highlights.[3] Goldsmith praised the album, writing that while "1995’s Further is where it’s really at [...] their debut shows that in 1993, Bristol was way, way out west."[2] Talbot called the album (and all of the band's early output) as "an inward journey, the very antithesis of a desire to be 'discovered' - that noxious delusion that leads so many musicians to shamelessly emulate the latest sound in the hope of being signed in its slipstream."[5]

All tracks are written by Flying Saucer Attack, except where noted.

Credits for Flying Saucer Attack adapted from album liner notes.[12]

• Flying Saucer Attack – instruments
• Rocker – drum programming, bass programming, computer
• The Third Eye – bongos, clarinet
• James – photography
• Tasmin – back cover painting
• Khoi Vinh – design