February 24, 1999
Across Uneven Terrain
And now the real [B]Future Pilots[/B]: young and not-so-young astral travellers plotting courses through genres invariably prefixed with a 'post'...
8 / 10
And now the real Future Pilots: young and not-so-young astral travellers plotting courses through genres invariably prefixed with a 'post'; disparate souls united by their commission from London's conceptually solid Fat Cat Records stable.
We've heard similar before - in Boards Of Canada, Mogwai and, yes, in Slowdive - but this compilation of music previously available only on vinyl drags it deeper and then thinks about it some more. Take Bristol's Immense, for example. Post-Mogwai, post-rock and, quite probably, postmen, their 'Spontaneous Combustion', as you can imagine, positively smoulders.
And for the first time, Transient Waves handle the discovery of a tune with breathless grace, while Live Human and Mice Parade tackle the much-derided avant-jazz discipline and emerge with dignity intact.
Fat Cat play the populist card with Funkstvrung's dismantling of Bjvrk's 'All Is Full Of Love', though they redress the balance with techno-based assaults from Grain and Insync V Mysteron; abstract affairs with which the label is most commonly associated.
A dense journey then. Just throw away the map and follow your instincts.
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