Somewhere amid the pattering buzz of guitar and low thunderous roll of drums of Let Airplane's Circle Overhead's self-titled album lay the perfect accompaniment to finding oneself lost. To the unmindful ear,it could be said it all sounds a bit samey; but then, the unmindful ear would be missing the seamless transitions, the baseless continuity of a sonic landscape.

The term "sonic landscape" is far too overused, but here entirely applicable. Stretched over seven tracks is the curve of the ocean: seabirds caw and fight through fuzzed distortion and brief scramblings over the high-hat, grey-green waves seethe and foam in the low rumbling bass drum, sandy footprints escape from the gritty, staccato noodling of electric guitar. As the album deepens, so does the landscape change. The wind whispering through dunes and reeds soon finds itself tumbling through the skeletal remains of a desert town. Tension mounts, is reigned in, is cooled off, takes flight until at last in the final track, 'Hired Guns of the Old West', shaking with nerves, the hero emerges. An anti-hero, perhaps. Shane: gripped in torment, struggling with inner demons, turns on his steed only to shoot the first bullet and be drawn headlong into the sunset duel. He parries, dips and weaves. At the last moment the final shot fires, the dust soars. When it settles, our hero has disappeared. Only the low, long horizon and the oncoming black of night remain.

Mercifully there are no vocals to muddy the performance. One feels that vocals would be a cop out. Something to relax against, instead of taking the risks necessary to tell the story accurately. The austere finesse of this work holds together in its instrumentality. Carefully arranged and beautifully executed, this album steps away from traditional shoegazing, and branches out towards a symphonic and structural narrative.


Track Listing