4 out of 5

Label: VHF

Produced by: Flying Saucer Attack?

When DIY groups like FSA release vinyl singles, they get some wiggle room on the sound you might not allow for on traditional “singles.”  The group’s sound is built as much around an aesthetic of haze as it is, y’know, songs, so I imagine the excitement of finding and listening to an FSA 7″ back in the day was hearing something that just felt like a true original crackling ‘neath your needle to the speakers.  It was something different, even if that difference was, perhaps, in-directly-definable.  Some years on the group has floated in and out of art-rock, noise, and experimentalism, picking up a following, but it’s hard to replicate that pre-digital feeling of hunting something down and “discovering” it, which, I imagine, was an integral part of being blown away by the singles collected on ‘Distance.’  Thankfully, they hold up well when put together – miraculously well, as I was surprised to learn this was a compilation – but I think the release context is important when considering some of the less defined moments on the album.

The book-ending Oceans tracks are, respectively, a wonderful introduction to FSA’s possibilities of texture and a somewhat disappointing conclusion that feels like a bookend just to shape the listening experience in some sense.  Not that Oceans 2 isn’t an engaging listen on its own (and it’s actually new to the collection), but as an opener it totally works to expand your horizons; as a closer it no longer has anything to add, and has the bad luck to follow the excellent ‘Soaring High,’ which is one of a pair of triumphs here – along with ‘Standing Stone’ – where the group (a duo, Dave Pearce and Rachel Brook) takes what could otherwise by a nigh-radio friendly folk rock song and bleeds it do death beneath endless washes of glorious noise.  Elsewhere FSA wanders a bit (‘Crystal Shade,’ and the title track), part of that 7″ sensation, and then pause for six and half minutes to do VHF proud with the psych romp of ‘Instrumental Wish.’

I’ve approached the more ‘known’ acts on the VHF roster – Pelt, Rake, and FSA – with some trepidation, thinking I might not know what to do with a group if Matthew Bower isn’t involved, but I’ve thus far been pleased with everything I’ve heard, confidence in the label reaffirmed.  ‘Distance’ is another great example of something my ears never would have tolerated back in the day (“People purposefully record things like this?”) but now bleed joy for when they hear the kind of noisy bliss these groups can create.