March 2002 • Rockbites Alternative Daily
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Airport 5 (Robert Pollard + Tobin Sprout) release 2nd LP 21 March 2002
Number 17, a project called Go Back Snowball, was his first ever Fading Captain collaboration with someone outside the GBV camp—Superchunk and Portastatic main man Mac McCaughan. We’ll review it tomorrow. Number 18, the topic of this review, is Pollard’s second full length in as many years with former GBV guitarist Tobin Sprout. They call the collaboration Airport 5, and the new album is Life Starts Here. For Airport 5, Pollard writes the lyrics and sings while Sprout plays all the instruments. There’s a distinct home taping/lo-fi/naive/demo feel throughout Life Starts Here, with ultra simple percussion or drum machine (or songs without percussion at all, such as Out In The World), mouth noises and breathing and off-mic laughing all captured to tape, raw multitracking of guitars and synths, and primitive reverb and effects. But in the masterful hands of Pollard and Sprout such ingredients never come across, in even the smallest measure, as disingenuous. Nor are they vaguely frustrating, as some lo-fi productions can be (viz the more impenetrable fare by My Bloody Valentine). Here they just add an unaffected psychedelic/garage atmosphere and become essential to the success of this album. If you appreciated the David Candy LP by Jeremy Butler, John Austin, and Ian Svenonious, you’ll probably dig this as well. Life Starts Here is full of false beginnings and trick endings, evocative psychedelic poetry, and some of the most musically elegant and bright low-fi minimalism ever committed to disc. Four bites out of five. Rockbites ratings 5: life changing, 4: stunning, 3: captivating, 2: amusing, 1: annoying. The Fading Captain series releases its 19th disc, a vinyl-only double album titled Acid Ranch - Some Of The Magic Syrup Was Preserved, on 2 April. We hear that its limited edition run of 500 has nearly sold out. Also on 2 April, Guided By Voices begin a three week midwest-eastern US tour in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Check the GBV site for dates. | Fading Captain info | | Guided By Voices | | Tobin Sprout | | CD from Amazon UK | | top of page | |
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