Lets fire up our musical DeLorean Time Machine and go back a little. To a time before The Shins’ ‘Oh, Inverted World’ landed and its glistening opening salvo ‘Caring Is Creepy’ established them as the indie darlings they are today; before Natalie Portman’s ‘life was changed forever’ as she tuned into ‘New Slang’, on a pair of particularly snazzy headphones. And many moons before James Mercer and Danger Mouse teamed up to create mellow, psych-pop meanderings as Broken Bells. The year is 1997. Flake Music have just released their debut LP ‘When You Land Here, It’s Time To Return’. By 99’ the original group will have disbanded to focus on their side project, The Shins.

Now, as of the 24^th November 2014, Mercer will be re-releasing the album on his own record label Aural Apothecary via Sub Pop. As a fan it can feel fairly enlightening to be able to listen back to an artist’s earliest recordings. Sometimes catching a glimpse of those subtle characteristics, which later evolve and appear refined and resplendent on a favourite record.

‘When You Land…’ is brimming with just these moments and due to the quality of the material, even those unfamiliar with Mercer’s work will probably still dig it. It’s steeped in the alternative influences of the time. Built To Spill, Guided By Voices and the frenzied fuzz of Sonic Youth seep through on ‘Deluca’, ‘The Shins’ and ‘Vantage’, with the latter track slipping into post-rock territory. The aqueous strums of ‘Roziere’ and the chilled, channelled psychedelic wavering of ‘On The Playground In The Wind’ offer a softer side to the record. Opener ‘Spanway Hits’ is definitely the closest visible Shins descendent.

Sometimes some of Mercer’s signature wry witticisms are lost in the collaborative clamour, however it’s this loose, rough, time-encapsulated-presence that makes ‘When You Land…’. From the hints of brilliance that would be brought together later, there’s no denying Mercer’s self-prophesising when he concludes on ‘Meike’: “This is the race we’re meant to run”.