Albums by this artist

Mirror (2000)

New Lands (1997)

Flying Saucer Attack

Mirror

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» PIERO SCARUFFI | STAFF WRITER

Flying Saucer Attack Mirror Drag City, 2000 RiYL: My Bloody Valentine, Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, Broadcast, Spiritualized

Far from being the failed experiment so many wrote it off as, Flying Saucer Attack's 1998 album New Lands contained some of the best music David Pearce had ever conceived under the FSA umbrella. Unfortunately, on Mirror, rather than trying to perfect that standard, Pearce has decided to stage a tactical regression to acoustic folk ("Suncatcher," "Tides").

Some of the lullabies are arranged in a bizarre way, with noises and percussion coining a dissonant song format that would appeal to ex-DNA maestro Arto Lindsay ("Rise," "Dust," and "Space (1999)"). The powerful rhythms that detonated New Lands reapper only in the maelstrom of "Chemicals," in the "Brazilian" techno of "Winter Song," and, as mere backgrounds to languid drones in "Dark Wind."

Pearce should face the fact that he is no Pavarotti, and that when he sings too much, he forces listeners to judge him on the basis of that singing. It's like Saddam Hussein asking to be judged on his humanitarian merits. Perhaps the most effective track here is "Islands," an 8-minute dirge on a ringing beat that offers a more mellow, but no less gothic version of Suicide.

A similar vibe surfaces in the album-closing nightmare of "Star City." Had the whole album followed this creepy inspiration, it would have been the masterpiece that Pearce has never truly delivered. As it is, the album is a confused stack of conflicting ideas.

PIERO SCARUFFI | Piero Scaruffi runs the exhaustive music database Scaruffi.com. A native of Italy, he has also been praised for his work on the General Theory of Relativity, formal theories of the mind, and artificial intelligence. And no, we aren't making that up.