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 FLYING
SAUCER ATTACK / MAIN / WHITE WINGED MOTH
Play Mort Aux Vaches
2000
Staalplaat
48:39
UK distribution: These Records
Five years ago I wrote my first piece for The Lizard, a glossy
music magazine that graced the shelves of many a major retail outlet.
Surprisingly enough my debut co-incided with The Lizard's demise:
that Autumn 1995 edition was the last ever issue. If it is now a collector's
item then that is no doubt nothing to do with my ramblings about Steve
Hillage and the Aphex Twin, and everything to do with a much
more lucid piece written by Robert Hampson of Main, in
which he detailed Main's motives and intentions. In this article Hampson
describes standing on sacred ground, a gigantic slab of pink marble in
Texas, known as the "Enchanted Rock". The emptiness around him
sang with subconscious sound - "You couldn't hear anything, but you
could hear something". Much of Main's early music, in particular,
was an attempt to show how our surroundings can affect us. There was,
and still is, a desire to encapsulate environmental sounds of all sorts,
and a thirst to exploit innovative sound sources. 'Counterglow', Main's
fifteen minute long contribution to this disc, moves from abrasive rumblings
and scratchings, through glistening throbs of metallic wash to a high
pitched hum of sound, punctuated by static. This is by turns unnerving,
and - particularly towards the end of the piece - calming, and sits well
with the work of the other two contributors. Flying Saucer Attack
offer three shorter pieces that sound like rainfall on a distant planet;
subdued white fuzz and blissful guitar. White Winged Moth (Dean
Roberts) puts in another fifteen minutes of ominous, blistered soundscape.
The most guitar based Mort Aux Vaches yet, this disc will certainly
perk up your senses. It gives a feel of travel through space, limitless
one moment, claustrophobic the next. An intriguing and rewarding experience,
and never the same listen twice.
STEWART GOTT - 3 October 2000
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