Airlines - s/t (1994, Quixotic)

This is a request and a follow-up to the Airlines tape I put up last month.  Unlike today, the nineties never struck me as an era of legit post-punk revivalism (unless you want to count a few random Elastica singles), but if such a movement had been afoot, I'm sure these guys could have more than held their own.  Owing a debt to the Feelies just as much as Mission of Burma, Airlines wrapped dextrous, sometimes challenging guitar lines in a fuzzy sling of warm reverb, achieving nearly sublime results on "Remote Color," "Weekend," and "Talking About Talking."  In fact, nothing on Airlines is a let down, but if you're not well versed with the likes of Television, Versus and the aforementioned, this album could pose itself as a bit of a grower.  This is what Big Takeover magazine had to say about it:

Add Airlines to the list of promising New York bands (at last there is a small crop). Theirs is a sprightly minimalist pop, the occasional one-chord drone uplifted by loping bass, bopping snare hits, and caustic guitar lines that encircle that steady bass. The playing is crisp-former KRAUT producer RYK OAKLEY gives them a tight mix-and simple but effective ideas run all over spaces this economical quintet leaves. Like the late `70s Wire, to whom they might be compared (as well as all the U.S. West Coast pop minimalists they inspired, such as the Urinals/100 Flowers, Sleepers, Flyboys, later Middle Class), nothing is chunky, yet the sound has depth, and the post R.E.M./Libertines plucked guitars never fail to invigorate and take unexpected paths... Investigate.

01. Empathy Box

02. Steady Goes

03. Still Life

04. Remote Color

05. Deja Vu

06. Talking About Talking

07. Interval

08. No. 2

09. Weekend

10. 10,000 Days

11. Ad Infinitum 

12. Manitoba 

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