Album of the Week: “Bluffer’s Guide to the Flight Deck” by Flotation Toy Warning

Every once in a listen, we encounter musical pieces that hold in them some innate sense of familiarity. Perhaps an artist’s musical style is reflective of another you’ve heard, or you encounter some forgotten sound which, when sampled, rings a nostalgic bell within your memory. Regardless of the reasoning for your recognition, familiarity brings with it a certain sense of comfort to the listener, while any improvisation upon the known can be viewed as exciting and new.

This was my initial impression upon hearing Flotation Toy Warning’s debut album, Bluffer’s Guide to the Flight Deck, released by the London-based band in 2004. Looping ponderous cosmic vocals, reminiscent of The Flaming Lips, with woefully reflective lyrics similar to those of Neutral Milk Hotel, Flotation Toy Warning presents a sequence of personal scenes that seem to meander betwixt dreaming and waking. On the track “Happy 13”, FTW introduces the album by beginning an intimate story as they sing “… on the day the journey began… seems I was part of some lack of a plan… ‘cause you weren’t ready,” while hinting that you’re embarking upon some “Space Oddity” with lines like “please leave all shiny objects behind… you won’t need them where we’re going.”. Their record combines an array of styles, finding a nice place amongst other early 00s indie rock albums, while managing a unique foggy-sounding background of sampled nostalgia, accompanying this mulling collection of shared questings and emotions.

Making great use of stringed and brass instruments, Bluffer’s Guide also adopts a melodic classical sound, likening to baroque pop artists such as Arcade Fire, Grizzly Bear and the resurgently popular Kate Bush. Mournful strings crescendo front and center on more somber tracks like “Donald Pleasance”, while organ and harpsichord inputs are joined by ebbing choir voices on “Losing California for Drusky”, creating an otherworldly lullaby staged within some dreamlike opera hall. Each of these elements further complement the recurring themes throughout the album. As they find frustration in questioning, in grasping at the known and unknown, the lines “trying to understand it all… just makes your head hurt” repeat throughout the track “Popstar Researching Oblivion”, as the melody calmly marches on towards the brass-carried fanfare, presenting a maddening quest attempting simply to comprehend the inexplicable in life.

Whether you yourself grapple with great swirling incomprehensibilities, ponder-blurred distinctions between dreaming and reality, or humbly enjoy listening to new music, consider Bluffer’s Guide to the Flight Deck. It might be that you end up uncovering something familiar within the unfamiliar.