Main lighting of the Norwegian revolutionary rock scene for greater than 15 years, Airbag have at all times had a transparent identification. Throughout their 5 studio albums so far, their subtly distinctive pressure of post-Floyd despair has without a doubt proved itself to be a malleable factor.
Their 2013 album The Largest Display On Earth noticed them highest their sound. Each next unlock has introduced new dimensions and textures to the tearful birthday party, whilst additionally conserving the essence in their trademark dreamy go with the flow.
Within the darkly virtual paranoia-fest of 2016’s Disconnected and the back-to-basics sumptuousness of 2020’s A Day At The Seashore, there’s a way that Airbag may just tinker on the edges in their sound ceaselessly and an afternoon with out ever sacrificing the unfussy, humble energy that lies at its coronary heart.
That continues to be in large part true right here. The Century Of The Self provides no radical departures or jarring detours, and with the disarming vocal presence of frontman Asle Tostrup dominating the foreground, those songs must slot smartly into {the catalogue}. However, this can be a very other document from its predecessors – if best in sonic phrases.
The background is a masterclass in minimalist class
Blurring the traces between conventional prog, its trendy an identical and, extra unusually, mind-expanding house rock, opening epic Dysphoria highlights the brand new dynamic sensibilities that tell this document. Constructed on a languid groove, it has a lot in not unusual with the somnambulant stoner ritualism of bands like King Buffalo and OM, quasi-dub bass line incorporated; however with the predicted, bittersweet melodic thrust of the fashionable prog set, and a slight fringe of post-punk grubbiness thrown in.
The place earlier albums favoured a extra conservative quiet-to-loud aesthetic, right here Airbag sound liberated via the sheer enormity of house that their songs have wandered into.
At the annoying however tumultuous Tyrants And Kings, the backdrop for Tostrup’s pleas for mercy echoes the kohl-eyed vastness of The Treatment’s Disintegration, raising an differently easy tune to a better stage of atmospheric efficiency.
At the gently heart-breaking Awakening, as Tostrup sings, ‘Don’t glance down/Stay your head up…’ the background is a masterclass in minimalist class, with best drums and strummed acoustic offering an anchor to fact, as Riis wrings narrow shards of bluesy wistfulness from his tool.
The ultimate Tear It Down embraces Airbag’s newly expansive sonic environs, veering from stripped-down finesse to churning, angular alt rock, and spiralling in opposition to huge, post-rock crescendos. The Century Of The Self is a delicate however efficient sideways step.
The Century Of The Self is on sale now by means of Karisma.
