Simon Finn is a British and rather experimental folkrocker/singer-songwriter. He was only 19 when this album was released on the small UK based label Mushroom – and it would take no less than 35 years before a second album saw the light of day! ‘Pass The Distance’ was more or less ignored at the time, but has since become a highly regarded cult album within the mainstream genre we call acid psych folk. Personally I find it to be an uneven affair, but it is also a highly fascinating album. Uneven because several of these songs – at least in my view – are more like sketches than full bodies songs. Fascinating because it’s all so unique. I have yet to hear anything quite like this. For one thing, his vocals are so strange. Sometimes he sings in a very dreamy way, other times like he has resigned completely, before he almost sounds like a more aggressive Syd Barrett. The music is just as strange. The opener, ‘Friend of mine’, is atonal and disturbing, but it surely draws you in. The uneasy feeling continues on ‘The Courtyard’, which features experimental el-guitar by David Toop – one of four musicians who joined Finn on this album. You’ll also hear unconventional and very raw vocals by Mr. Finn. The melody isn’t exactly easy to grasp (is it even there at all?), but again: This IS fascinating stuff. The lyrics seam to deal with loneliness, alienation and other cozy themes. The music reflects this. By the way: This is NO rock oriented album! That is, with one very notable exception: The epic ‘Jerusalem’, that closes the first side of the album. This has to be one of the most extraordinary songs ever written by anyone! Certainly it is some of the most intense you’ll ever hear in any genre. It’s not a religious song, mind you. It deals with hypocracy in the wider term, as well as the pure stupidity and brutality we humans all too often seam to indulge in (we surely are the most destructive species on this planet). The song just builds and builds, and the vocals get more and more desperate until they become totally unintelligible. All this while an organ (played by guest musician Kenny Elliot) plays some slow and ultra powerful chords in the background. The organ playing too gradually gets more and more heavy, before it all simply explodes! This really has to be heard to be believed! Fantastic stuff, but also VERY disturbing. In the liner notes, Simon Finn explains that he wrote it on mescaline, and recorded it in one take. This doesn’t surprise me at all. ‘Jerusalem’ is clearly my favourite song on the album. The other highlight for me, is a song that is the complete opposite: ‘Patrice’. This is a simple love song with a wonderful melody, and is clearly the most conventional number here. Some acoustic guitar figures introduce the song, before a heavenly flute theme appears, and Mr. Finn sings in a beautifully fragile way here. Other little gems are ‘Laughing ‘Til Tomorrow’ and ‘What A Day’, even though I think they should have been developed into more fully formed songs. A song like ‘Where’s Your Master Gone’ I’m not too sure about. There are parts of it I like, but as a whole I find it too jarring. The same can be said about the closing song ‘Big White Car’. Again it’s intense stuff, and it kind of resembles ‘Jerusalem’ in its structure, but this one simply doesn’t work in my opinion. So, to conclude: This is far from a perfect album, but I do understand the cult status it has achieved. ‘Pass The Distance’ is not exactly an alnbum I play often, but I’m still thankful that I have it – on vinyl. And as you understand, there’s a lot to say about it! I also absolutely love the simplistic cover, which I guess can be interpreted in all sorts of ways. On the back cover, you’ll see the nightmarish version of these two characters. It’s like an image of a trip gone terribly wrong!
Simon Finn – Pass The Distance (Mushroom 1970)
