Farflung - The Belief Module

Like their previous releases, the latest from Farflung is pure, unfiltered, no additives spacerock. Tommy Grenas had told me at Strange Daze '98 that we could expect tracks along the lines of "Landing On Cydonia" and indeed this is pretty accurate. But in a departure the band also delves into 60's acid and jam rock, though embellished by the Farflung wall of sonic rockin' mayhem.

The disc leads off with one such tune, "The Day Of St. Anthony's Fire". The song builds up over several minutes with the trademark Farflung guitar sound and Grenas' heavily efx'd vocals, though it has a more Middle Eastern psychedelic feel and more floating synth passages during the quieter moments. Of course, everything eventually explodes in a rush of total space intensity. Farflung excels at combining layers of simple guitar and synth lines to create a wall of blistering spacerock. The 16 minute "The Dead Sea" is similar, drifting along for a while on a cloud of slowly tripping guitars, chirping birds, and the sound of ocean waves. The music stops after a while and all we hear are the birds, waves, and a boat creaking in the water. This goes on for a bit until the guitars begin to pound again and high pitched vocals sing a "doot-doot-dootin-doot…" chorus that develops into an electro-ambient journey. Actually I think this tune goes on way too long, but it's nothing compared to the last half hour or so of Raven That Ate The Moon!

"Fingers Of The Sky Catcher" dives into acid jam territory with a bit of a bluesy feel, though still chock full of spacey synths. In fact, parts sound like Cream as a spacerock band. But as with all things Farflung the tune culminates in a final blast of intensity, in this case the final 30 seconds being a punked out shot of adrenalin. The title track, "The Belief Module" is somewhat similar sounding like a 60's acid pop tune embellished by Farflung's heavy rockin' space sound. More along the pure acid rock side is "Gleam". Instead of the usual slow buildup ending in a blistering finale this tune begins as a guitar wrenching bit of pure acid rock that ends on a calm note with soothing female vocals. And "World Within A World" is a short rocker with harmonies that sort of reminded me of the Monkees (no shit!).

It took me a couple of listens to appreciate this disc but I can now highly recommend it to Farflung fans. The sound we've come to know is intact, but the band is exploring some new and interesting directions. Also, this release is barely off the press and the folks at Bad Acid tell me that another Farflung release is expected later this year.

1. The Day Of Saint Anthony's Fire
2. Petal
3. Fingers Of The Sky Catcher
4. The Belief Module
5. Gleam
6. The Dead Sea
7. World Within A World

http://rapidshare.com/files/175322201/ff-belief-trks1-4_7.zip
http://rapidshare.com/files/175342336/ff-belief-trks5-6.zip