Good Weather For An Airstrike – Lights
Good Weather For An Airstrike ‘s sole member, Tom Honey , provides a music-based service of sorts; his compositions are designed to relax the listener and it’s a need that is borne out from Honey’s years of suffering from tinnitus. As a self-confessed lover of Sigur Ros and Hammock too, it won’t be a revelation to learn that Honey likes post-rock of the dreamy, cinematic variety. ‘Lights’ certainly doesn’t disappoint on that front.
The album begins with ‘A Quiet Day’. It’s a grand, hopeful number which could soundtrack a beautiful island or, perhaps more likely these days, the beginning of a major sporting event. The album could be regarded as consisting of separate tracks (or, more accurately, soundscapes) but it also works well as a seamless piece since each offering segues easily into the next. There’s plenty of samples of dialogue/field recordings towards the middle of the record but these really serve as background chatter and even when ‘Storm Fronts Collide’ features a brief but surprising cameo of a banjo, its quiet and unassuming enough not to interrupt the flow. Tellingly, the longest segment, ‘An Ode To Fring’ is the one which changes the least; it’s really a warm, pleasant drone murmuring its way through eight minutes, but the final track wins the day courtesy of its wistful, graceful melody and a stronger sense of emotional weight.
Pleasingly, ‘Lights’ never goes over the top in its quest for instrumental utopia. Instead, it steadily builds up layer after layer of swelling atmospherics. If on occasions its lofty ambitions seem a little out of reach to connect with and the record never comes close to entering the realms of excitement, Honey deserves credit for making music which is both epic and peaceful.
For more from Jon, please visit Leonard’s Lair