Quickspace was/is a UK band born out of the ashes of Th’ Faith Healers, a Krautrock/drone-ish kind of indie pop group whose biggest claim to fame was supporting the Breeders and briefly sharing a label and a drummer with Stereolab. While most of the group went their separate ways into civilian life, Tom Cullinan had different ideas. After a fast but interrupted start out of the gates as Quickspace Supersport, Cullinan dropped half his band members and half the band’s name to become simply Quickspace.

1996 through 1998 represents the band’s most active period by far, with two albums and a couple of EPs ensuring that there was always a new Quickspace release every couple of months or so. Maintaining many of the drone-like qualities of Cullinan’s previous band while bolting on more free-ranging melodies, Quickspace’s best songs create an almost pastoral kind of noise—like space rock played in a sunny meadow lined with wildflowers and tall grass. Precious Falling, the band’s second album, covered a lot of bases, but all somehow manage to embody different variations of that same basic feeling. “Quickspace Happy Song #2″ is a lot noisier, while “Take Away” is more obviously bucolic and carefree, and “Obvious” exposes the band’s quieter side.

The major letdown is the sound, which like other similar records of the era (Prolapse’s The Italian Flag comes to mind, though it’s not nearly as bad) feels rather flat and lo-fi in a way that, for some reason, sounds even worse than the actual lo-fi movement in the American indie scene of the mid-90s. Luckily, Quickspace’s next album solved that problem quite nicely.