I noticed this as well. PDODataSet has a distinct() method, but it's useless w/o being able to modify the select clause.

There's a selectAs, but that doesn't keep the model from also selecting *

I started writing a setSelect() method for ModelSet, but found that I could achieve the behavior I was looking for at that moment with a GROUP BY clause instead.

So I added a method to all named 'groupBy' method to PDODataSet.

http://github.com/KevBurnsJr/recess/commit/c6c5cc5fc6f1884fdc80985230a5a35123ea876e

Sent a pull request but haven't heard back. I'll resend it now.

Hope this helps,
- Kev