their label as
well.
Soundchaser has a discography of FSA singles
, with
illustrations.
Finally, also see the discography at Heartbeat Productions
, Simon
Edwards' label for the earliest (and now, the latest!) FSA releases.
3.2. I'm new to FSA. Where should I start?
It used to be that most people recommended the Distance album as a
good intro, although Mirror, the last full-length album, is as good an
intro as any. That's also the one Dave suggests as being most
``accessible.''
Personally, I really like Further (whose namesake was Ken Kesey's
famous psychedelic bus, Furthur) . And Chorus, and ...
3.3. Where do I buy this stuff?
You can also order some of these releases directly from the label or
zine that put it out; otherwise, try your local indie music shop. If
you don't have have one of those, try Used Kids Records
, Aquarius Records
, Twisted Village
, Vinyl Ink
, or Midheaven Mailorder
. I've
dealt with all of these folks and can personally vouch for them --
great people, excellent service. Additionally, Soundchaser has a ton
of FSA and related rarities for sale
.
Some of these things can also be bought with your credit card directly
online from Amazon (buying from these links supports the FAQ author):
o Chorus
o Distance
o Distance + 4
(import disc on Phantom)
o Distant Station
o Excursions in Ambience: The 4th Frontier
CD comp with ``Instrumental Wish''
o Flying Saucer Attack
o Further
o Further + 3
(import disc on Phantom)
o Goodbye
o Mirror
o More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album
CD comp with ``Grey / Afro''
o New Lands
In addition, Amazon also stocks the Day and Night
CD
by Movietone.
Forced Exposure carry the Tele/Funken CD
.
The Tom Rapp tribute compilation can be ordered directly from Magic
Eye Singles, Box 6165, Baltimore, MD 21231 USA. magice19@idt.net
Information about the Oppobrium music zine can be found on its Web
site, at . The postal contact
address is Nick Cain, PO Box 3913, Christchurch, NZ.
That Hayfever zine can be obtained from their website
or from Ajax mailorder
, who carry other FSA releases as well.
3.4. What's this ``phase two'' stuff?
It was rumoured that the band broke up after Chorus came out, when in
the liner notes it had said, ``this marks the end of FSA phase one ...
when we return with phase two---who knows where the wind blows.''
Meanwhile, a number of interim releases came out, including last
year's ``Sally, Free and Easy'' EP and Tele:funken's Distant Station.
Dave has called the phase business ``just a windup, a joke'' [Puncture
interview, mid 1997], but said that it did give him something to think
about in terms of musical directions. Liner notes in New Lands say,
``this is phase two.''
Now, Dave and others (including the author) feel that Mirror is a good
coda to what was finished with Chorus.
3.5. Who does the band's artwork?
It's mostly the work of Dave and friends.
3.6. The live CD isn't indexed. What's a DJ to do?
This message from Kris Thompson offers advice:
From kthom@tiac.net Tue Dec 10 22:03:47 1996
Date: Tue, 10 Dec 1996 21:24:47 -0500 (EST)
From: kthom
To: [unnamed list]
Subject: Radio: Don't Fear the Saucer
I'm not completely caught up with all the recent posts, so I don't know
to what extent the new Flying Saucer Attack live CD (on Corpus
Hermeticum) has been discussed. If you haven't heard it, the gist is
that the band gave Bruce Russell live drone-out audience tapes from '94,
which he proceeded to weave into a largely seamless 50-minute whole.
Needless to say, it's quite great, but it hurts to think that even
adventurous college-type DJ's will largely pass it over because it's an
album-length piece with no individually indexed sections. It's
understandable to a degree - I remember a German import CD like that
(Algebra Suicide) from my college radio days. That one was needlessly
non-indexed, though, because it was full of fairly short songs with
spaces between them anyway!
So for the jockeys who care, here's my fave sections on the new F.S.A.:
start end duration
----- --- --------
4:51 (fade after) 7:15 2:24+
10:39 (fade after) 21:15 10:36+ (great "workout"!)
37:07 (fade after) 46:00 8:53+
or
40:25 (fade after) 46:00 5:35+
47:47 50:25 (end of CD) 2:38
45:40 47:34 1:54
0:01 4:31 4:30
Too bad you can't dispense nitrous oxide over the radio,
Kris Thompson
3.7. I like their music. Who else would I like?
Bands somehow involved or usually grouped with FSA (but not
necessarily sounding like them) include AMP, Crescent, Movietone
(Rachel Brook) and the Third Eye Foundation. Also Rachel: Drag City
(Sea Note) put out a 7" by a Canadian band called the Sundowners
called ``Singing death chants to the stars.'' You might enjoy some of
the seven inches put out on the Wurlitzer Jukebox
label.
Certainly check out the Ptolemaic Terrascope
magazine for info on these and other
droney bands of their ilk. Another site worth checking out is
. The DroneOn mailing list FAQ
is an older source of information
on early influences such as 70s Krautrock. In the early days, droneon
was the place for talking about this music as it was happening. Now
more than half a decade later (whew!), it continues to be a place of
active discussion for this kind of music.
Stephen Robinson notes that in the FSA John Peel session, ``he read
out a note from FSA that said that Jeff Mills Blues was dedicated to
the Techno man himself.''
3.8. What are FSA's musical influences?
Dave's top five influences are Syd Barrett , Nick Drake
,
Roy Harper , Nigel Mazlyn Jones
, and John Martyn
.
A noted influence on Dave Pearce is the band AR Kane. He also likes
the Dickies (!). Here's an FSA collectible to print out: a list of
all-time favorite albums .
4. Online resources
4.1. Sounds
As far as getting sounds from published albums, I'm told they're all
out there, if you know where to look. Use Napster
. Or Gnutella .
From Mirror: ``Suncatcher '' [2.6MB
mp3]; ``Chemicals '' [3.2MB mp3]; ``Space
(1999) [3.1MB mp3]
As-yet-untitled track from the upcoming live album on Staalplaat, in
RealAudio format:
4.2. Images
Here is a photo of Dave Pearce from January 1998, courtesy of Drag
City [42k GIF] , as well as an
older picture of Dave and Rachel from the Spunk interview (below).
[24k JPEG]
Also online are logos: their old one [29k GIF]
as well as their more
recent one [8k GIF] .
4.3. Album covers
Many of the album covers are online at Sven Skjer's FSA discography
.
Anyone want to take a stab at making an FSA album artwork gallery?
4.4. Interviews
An expanded version of the Fred Mills chat from Magnet appears in the
latest (tktk number?) Ptolemaic Terrascope
, which also includes a compilation CD
with an old, rare, and previously unreleased FSA track on it.
An interview and article about Dave is one of the features in the
April/May 2000 issue of Magnet. By permission of Fred Mills/Magnet,
you can read the full text of the article online:
The oldest FSA interview on the net is the nice interview in Spunk,
but also check out this interview
, taken after Further
came out. More recently is an interview by radio station 2SER-FM in Australia.
Needless to say, along with their rising popularity in the past year
or so, a number of FSA interviews have been published, and I can't
keep up with them all. If you have any info to add to this section, by
all means let me know.
4.5. Reviews
Mirror revieed in Ink Blot Magazine
.
Pitchfork reviewed Mirror and New Lands
.
FSA review themselves in the Terrascope:
There are a few reviews of FSA releases at both the Edge of Obscurity
Music Database and Review Addict
; Further was reviewed
in Bunnyhop #6.
Finally, reviews of Crescent's debut
and
Movietone's Day and Night
both make mention of FSA.
4.6. Other fun links on the net
David Miers started a Flying Saucer Attack mailing list which has
become a great way to stay abreast of FSA news and talk to fellow FSA
junkies. To subscribe, either send email to fsa-list-
subscribe@topica.com or visit
on the Web. David notes:
``Hopefully it will become a convenient way for fans to get and share
the latest news and views about the band.''
The 4AD FAQ archive hosted by the Evolution Group's nice public-domain
Internet server has a page for FSA notes which contains an interesting must-
read about vinyl politics .
Drunken Fish have put up the liner notes
for the Harmony of the
Spheres boxed set.
You can change the root window on Mark Beauchamp
Taylor's X workstation to display
the FSA logo. But he tells me that it spends nearly all its time on
the FSA logo now, so maybe you might want to change it to something
else to give him a little
variety instead.
5. Musician Info
5.1. Has anyone transcribed lyrics to their stuff?
The lyrics for Mirror are available at:
Also available are the lyrics for FSA's cover of Cyril Tawney's
``Sally, Free and Easy,'' at:
5.2. Where can I find guitar tablature for FSA songs?
No longer on OLGA, I'm afraid. This monumental, community-built
resource was destroyed as the result of corporate terrorism -- see
.
But you can get a minimal chord chart of ``Soaring High'' at
and ``Land Beyond the Sun'' at
.
David Miers made an excellent transcription of ``My Dreaming Hill,''
which is up at .
Dave P. offers some suggestions for budding noiseniks who want to play
FSA on the guitar: ``Learn the basic chords such as: D, G, C, F, Em,
A, Am, Bm. Practise adding/taking off some of the fingers, getting
different variations on the chords.''
5.3. What kind of guitars does Dave Pearce use?
Right now, it's a Gibson copy electric, and a 70s Martin acoustic
(``recently bought -- not used yet'').
5.4. How much processing and effects does it take to get the sound?
Not much, actually -- Dave just uses a distortion pedal and/or a
digital echo box.
5.5. What does the guitar setup does Dave Pearce use?
Better yet, here's a two-part chart [a 110k jpeg file] that Dave made, which shows you a) how to
play an FSA song on guitar and b) how to record an FSA song on
4-track. Make your own in the privacy of your own home!
Dave recently (May 2001) produced a better version of this chart,
available as an 86k jpeg file .
At Guitar Geek , they've published a
diagram of
Dave's guitar setup and a diagram
of his studio
setup.
