Airway - Live At Lace

Airway was a music group based within the Los Angeles Free Music Society. They started off as a solo project of Le Forte Four member Joe Potts. The first release was the Airway 7”, which featured subliminal messages to coincide with an art exhibition in Tokyo. In August 1978 Airway made their live debut at the Lace Gallery. This lineup featured Potts and Chip Chapman on electronics, Vetza on vocals, Rick Potts on mandolin, Dennis Duck on saxophone, Juan Gomez on bass, and Tom Recchion on drums. They attempted to create subliminal messages beneath a wall of noise by using tape delay. Recordings from the performance were released as Live At Lace by the Los Angeles Free Music Association.

Live At Lace is an interesting album. It reminds me of Boris's collaborations with Merzbow, only with less vocals, combined with elements of improvised Krautrock and Psychedelica. It's certainly innovative and whilst it can drone on at times as with a lot of improvised music it seems to have been influential on many modern acts today, if not directly, such as the two I mentioned. I know japanoise legends Hijokaidan are fans. Definitely worth a few listens and another enjoyable gem on the Nurse With Wound list.

Bitrate: 192 kbps