Customer Reviews

Airs Above Your Station

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

'Airs Above...' is the band's third CD release,and nearly as brain damaging as that split CD they'd done with Acid Mothers Temple(see my review).I'm nearly amazed that a good American space rock ensemble like this even exists in this day and age.We need more bands like this,I'm proud to say.Tracks I found myself playing repeatedly were the ten-minute dream-like opener "Steve's Basement","Rhode Island Freakout","Waves Of Second Guessing" and the Brian Eno inspired "I Think I Blew it Again".Line-up:Chris Martin&Mathew Reid Schwartz-guitars,Lucy Atkins-bass and Dave Weeks-drums.Might appeal to fans of Gong,Abunai,Hawkwind,Monster Magnet(first three albums)and the previously mentioned Acid Mothers Temple.Record store clerk,be sure to file this one under '21st Century Space Rock'.Recommended.

I just got the cd today and I must say this is one of the best purchase I have ever made. I am used to listening to albums with lyrics, however Kinski is an exception. Within 10 seconds of listening to it, I could feel my heartbeat synchronizing perfectly with its tempo. Kinski is a great post-rock shoegaze album with loads of hazy feedback and distortion tied in with a combination of beautiful mellow passages. This album is highly recommended.

Kinski is a relatively new band that has been opening up for the Acid Mothers in NY , I would describe their sound like this imagine Brian Eno joining Velvet Underground or Sonic Youth? Airs Above Your Station is pure Space Rock-experimental using sound as much as anyting creating backdrops of colour. "Schedule for Using Pillows & Beanbags" features tasteful guitar line that weaves into a back and fourth riff that repeats over and over. Very cool, sort of like Syd era Floyd circa late 1967. "Think I Blew It" and "Blew It Again" are the most ENO influence tracks again with washes of sound.

With a heavy '70s sound mostly free of lyrics, Kinski cranks out dark, sonic tracks that start slow and calm then build to a fever climax, allowing for visceral emotion unclouded by specific message. But images do come, and they come on strong.

The first song on the disc, "Steve's Basement", begins as a nearly subsonic reverberation that builds slowly and inevitably to a crashing, driving slow-motion implosion halfway through. It captures the raw feeling of riding a wave of heroin, awakening to slowly building panic as you realize your friend beside you has overdosed...

"Semaphore" is akin to being chased through the woods at dusk by an ominous shadowy creature that suddenly bursts out before you with an impossible size just as darkness closes in. And yet you refuse to relent and so you flee for your survival...

Like a rumble between two rival gangs, "Rhode Island Freakout" can be described in two words: F@*K YEAH!

"Schedule For Using Pillows & Beanbags" is melodic and restrained for the first half of the track, then tears into an aural assault that tosses you about, ending just at the moment you think, "Enough!"

You fumble the line and lose your grip, drifting away from the space station into the lonely vastness of the universe. "I Think I Blew It," is all you can think. The beauty of the stars and planets opens before you. You're going to die, but it is glorious.

You are home again, alone and very drunk, punishing yourself over why your girlfriend left you. It churns sickeningly inside you for a long lonely time before exploding out in a violent rage that leaves you finally spent and bleeding. This is "Your Lights Are (Out Or) Burning Badly".

A slow ethereal dream. Am I flying? Am I passing into the afterworld? I float on a cushion of peace. It is gentle. It is warm, almost...too warm. You slowly wake. What's that smell? Oh my god! THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE! You tear down the curtains, stomp the flames! Grab the extinguisher, spray the walls! Throw blankets on the burning table, dump water on the couch! Spinning around you see tons of smoke, but the flames are all put out. Oh my god, I did it! "Waves of Second Guessing" is both the dream and the ensuing fire fight.

And finally, after it all, "Think I Blew It (Again)" is the long trembling sigh at the end.

Kinski is the undisputed champion of this sound and you will want to collect their entire catalogue. But "Airs" is the rare recording that is good start to end, one you can listen to over and over. Buy this disc and blow your friends away with sound.

Others have beaten me to it here, but I agree. Sonic Youth meets Eno both in his Tiger Mountain and Another Green World phases, with Krautrock and electronic aggression paired against fragile waverings: this is/was Kinski's strongest album to date. If you like this, move on to their next full-length Alpine Static (also reviewed by me) and then their split w/Acid Mothers Temple, and then drift back to previous albums Be Gentle and Space Launch. They're getting better all the time, but have never been less than solid from their first recordings.

The production's up a notch here for a more panoramic ambiance. Although the repeated langorous-harsh contrasts the band relies upon (and admittedly executes with applomb) do wear out their welcome a wee bit--you get the point after a few of their songs what to expect for the rest of the album. Still, on a song with a (as with their CD monikers) that great Pillows title, they do shine brightly. The added bonus is that they favor instrumental over vocal passages, allowing the band to carry you more into your own realm without interrupting you with words. This makes the album seem more expansive and free-flowing.

At their best, they even come on like the return of Band of Susans' massed guitar epiphanies and Rhys Chatham's assertive six-string orchestral works. The album photo of what looks to me like Prague Castle may be fitting: a bit of Mittel-European dignity and baroque grandeur persists amidst the more contemporary chaos, above it all, imperious and enchanting.

My problem with Kinski is not the "experimental drug-induced 70's space rock " that everyone who is into this band admires them for but the inability to complete a song. Okay yeah i get it, lets get spacy and jam however playing the same riff and chord progression over and over does not consitute a reason to buy a cd. Jamming is best left for shows and friends, but to give a cd 4 stars and more becuase the band jammed for an hour and had 5 ideas that didnt get annoying after 2 min is idiotic.

Now that thats out of the way, Semaphore the song is actually good, the rest of the cd drifts in and out of "hey lets to go to sleep" and "damn this is a cool riff wait it was until i heard it for 4 min straight."
Oh and throw in, " The drummer almost has the beat and the idea" and those three quotes are the entire cd. Three stars is generous and they also get credit for not over producing their cd due to a lack of lyrics which thank god are absent on the cd.

Would I recommend this cd. Who cares who am I but honestly yes i would recommend it, if just for the weird beaten path it does take you on at least for Semaphore.