Just take a look at the cover of this album. Yes I realize it's sad when I have to make yet another cover/sound of the album type of comparison but hell, it works. The picture shows a blurry sun setting into some giant, jet black trees. The day is just winding down into night and you are stuck by yourself camping out in this deep, mysterious, and dark forest. Take every single thing you hear during the night and put it onto one album.
Further captures sounds of chirping insects, calm breezes, harsh winds, relaxing water tides, and noisy sirens. If you give it your full attention it will make you feel like you’re in the same forest that is pictured on the front of the album. Strange, isn’t it?
While these different sound effects don’t dominate the music they certainly play a huge roll in creating a gloomy mood. They are able to generate a calm, peaceful, and relaxing feel and really set you in a trance.
Further is an album that is intended to be listened to while playing it with headphones to get the full effect, yet the forest noises are still hearable without them. The mood and “feel” is very dreary and sluggish, this creepy mood is never interrupted and Flying Saucer Attack are able to keep you in a trance throughout the course of the album.
While in this forest imagine that an invisible ghost is lurking around playing his invisible acoustic guitar. This “invisible ghost” happens to have a name, and it is Dave Pearce. Pearce usually whips out his acoustic guitar when the forest gets quiet, just so some sound is there to keep you company. His acoustic playing is simple yet effective. Folkish bending notes, echoing riffs, and quiet guitar strums are all that the music consists of. Pearce’s acoustic playing really makes you want to kick back and just absorb the soft, rainy forest. It has an eerie yet mellow tone and the dreary clinging of the acoustic will send chills down your spine.
Pearce also has a voice, and it never goes above a whisper. He sounds like a nervous wreck about to fall apart at any moment but I don’t blame him, he’s probably just scared of the forest. His quivering, panicky, mumbled tone is oddly soothing yet hypnotic at the same time. Pearce’s ghostly voice shows up frequently throughout the album, but doesn’t play that big of a role. Oddly enough Pearce pops up while songs are going through their climax and usually sings while playing his acoustic. His voice is very hard to make out and he often plays around with it by making it echo and drone on, just to add onto the sounds of the forest.
Further is an odd combination of ambient, lo-fi/folk, and post-rock. All of these songs are very anti-climactic yet their overall ambience and folk feel make them seem like post-rock songs. I can’t say that
Further has a lot of range musically, because all of these songs have that same “dark forest” feel that I won’t shut up about. The third track,
Come and Close My Eyes is a great example of this. At first listen you will just hear Pearce fiddling with his acoustic and whispering but just turn up the volume. In the background you can hear the sound of leaves shuffling around, and a heavy breeze also takes place. The hushed acoustic playing is ace and fits the heartwarming mood perfectly. There are other songs such as
Still Point were the forest sounds are the main focus. On this particular song you can hear a bunch of bugs chirping and making noises while the soft acoustic strums are difficult to hear. This can be very irritating if you are planning on using this as background music because it’s main purpose is to be listened to all at once.
The rest of these songs follow along the same lines as the first two that I just mentioned.
Rainstorm Blues makes you feel like you’re in the middle of a thunderstorm warning with loud siren noises and the vibrating guitar effects. The albums closer
She is the Daylight is the most melodic thing I’ve ever heard Pearce produce. It has a much lighter tone then anything else and it’s vibrating acoustic line and misty background effects make you feel lazy and chill.
In the Light of Time combines everything that we have already heard on the album. It includes Pearces wistful voice along with another acoustic strum fest and some apocalyptic backing dynamics. In all honesty I don’t think that there are any highlights because all of these songs need to be listened to in one sitting for you to get the full listening experience.
Whenever you listen to
Further and close your eyes it puts an image in your head. This album will need your time and patience because this is not something that you can just pick up and listen to. The louder you play the music the better, that way you can hear every single thing that is moving in the forest.
Further is a dark , haunting, and hypnotic experience, its ambience is hard to use as background music once it has you sucked into the whirling wind, the drizzling rain, and the loud sirens. It really takes you to a whole new world.
