Experimental Aircraft
Love for the Last Time (Rollerderby)Now veterans of a vibrant Austin space rock landscape, Experimental Aircraft finally emerges from Research and Development with a follow-up to their 2000 debut on San Francisco indie label Devil in the Woods. Besides a proclivity for effects pedals and early Nineties Brit pop, ExAir’s chief amenity is the Bilinda Butcher-like vocal gauze of Rachel Staggs. Love for the Last Time charts her development as a more assertive vocalist/lyricist. The title track and “Contemplative Silence” are dreamy odes to radioactive love, the kind that dissipates into the atmosphere but never really decays. On the latter, resolution comes in a saturated discharge and an early Lush-style vocal coda. Guitarist T.J. O’Leary jumps further into the vocal mix, taking lead on the valium downer “Tired Way” and blending with Staggs on a number of turns. Most notable are the lovelorn “Johnny,” which spotlights Jason Ferguson’s beefy drums, and triumphant rocker “Seasick,” where the upper-register bass of Mark Smith (not the one in the American Analog Set, nor Explosions in the Sky) steps a stratospheric tango with O’Leary’s shrill electric surgery. Dissonant interludes abound on Love for the Last Time, but they’re generally a setup to moments of skeletal restraint, such as the haunting somnambulant dreamscape of Staggs’ “Suspended.” Eight-minute closer “Elephant” gives ExAir room to stretch out and cut loose on the album’s final minute, going out in a blazing supernova, all whirlwind, heat, and flash.
This article appears in November 29 • 2002.