On! Air! Library!

I thought i had way more time to kill, so i was halfway through writing the next installment of Bottle's Bootlegs. Screw that, Canada sent me records! Let's listen to On! Air! Library!'s only album i liked so much back when i liked it so much the first time a week or so ago. 

They formed in 1998, got enough local buzz to put out a split with The Album Leaf, made their debut LP, toured with Interpol and The Secret Machines, broke up in 2005. Easiest discography i've ever reviewed. 

Ha! Inner sleeve bent to hell straight from the manufacturer. Hilarious. 

Experimental Ambient Post-Rock? Sure, that's about the best you can do for this total downer collage of lethargic harmonies, fragile melodic duets, and musica concrete soundscapes. This sounds like what The Bird and the Bee implies it feels like on the inside. Not gonna lie, this is an incredibly accurate aural depiction of what those days i tell you were a struggle feel like. They feel like this. I wanted to say there is a real Industrial quality to the more experimental noisework, you really can hear traces of Throbbing Gristle, like Genesis P. Orrige is gonna take the next verse rather than p!. 

This is not subtle, nor is it grotesque. This is just super-heavy, all encompassing, like the universe is made of molasses but you still have to get to work on time. 

Oh wow, the "i need a bambulance" sample is hiding in here, but i'll let you find that Waldo on your own. 

Ok, if you're going to go listen to it you need to realize the swings are extreme. Chilling at the bottom of the swimming pool level reverby post rock, to mind crushing noise cacophony, recorded phone conversations, doors opening and closing, out of tune instruments, you name it. This album might be the most depressing thing i've heard since Neutral Milk Hotel's On Avery Island. It's gorgeously disturbing. This album sounds like if Napolean Dynamite was not in any way a comedy. I am of course making this up, but i imagine this is like that brief moment right before you never wake up from a fentanyl overdose because nobody wants to waste their Narcan on you. 

Remember, these are just tasting notes. You know, like hints of cherry blossom in a tire fire, or an earthy bitterness that slowly morphs into overripe bananas. Faint whiffs of chlorine and sadness. A bizarrely unenergetic Mazzy Star/Butthole Surfers collaboration. It's really good, but you aren't going to want to do much of anything afterward except sleep. 

Very interesting thing, this album is way better on vinyl. I wouldn't normally say that, and i can't really put a proper description to it. I could also be imagining it. Regardless, the next two albums are going to be even more interesting. I picked a fun batch this time around. Fun for me, at least.

Animal Slaves