release date: Oct. 26, 1998
format: digital (11 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,16]
producer: Tim Whitten & The FOC
label: Polydor - nationality: Australia
Track highlights: 1. "Don't Blame the Beam" - 4. "Montreal" - 6. "If You Want Release" - 9. "Suicide at Home" - 10. "Parachute"
Studio debut and only album by side-project band The Far Out Corporation consisting of vocalist & guitarist Grant McLennan (The Go-Betweens), guitarist & vocalist Ian Haug (Powderfinger), bassist Adele Pickvance (Natives of Bedlam, later in Dave Graney Show, later member of The Go-Betweens), and drummer Ross MacLennan. Apparently, Grant McLennan had been asked to provide some ambient music for an art project event in early '98 after which he gathered a band that could perform the music live, which then led to the idea to produce an album.
Stylewise, this is far from McLennan solo and / or The Go-Betweens - and it basically sounds more like something his bandmate Steve Kilbey from Jack Frost could have been involved in, which is also reflected in Grant's singing style (listen to "Montreal"). It's touching on neo-psychelia but may be characterised as art pop blending inspiration from an alt. rock / art rock sphere (Australian alternative rock band Underground Lovers being inspired by The Velvet Underground) with bonds to earlier classic synthpop (Depeche Mode meets New Order). The band played some gigs after the release but as The Go-Betweens was reformed in '99 the project was abandoned.
It's not entirely bad, and then on the other hand, it doesn't deliver something remarkably unforgettable. Most of all it shows McLennans artistry, and although all songs are credited all band members it seems likely that Mclennan - who started the project - wrote the lyrics, and especially the song "Suicide at Home" made Robert Forster attentive on McLennan's mental state, which Forster in this period recalls as 'really bad'. Luckily, the two kept touring supported by Adele Pickvance, and when McLennan approached Forster about the idea of reforming the Go-Betweens he accepted, and in the Summer of '99 the two constituted the new band assisted by Pickvance, Janet Weiss and Sam Coomes.
