stay inside/feel everything
Here it is, folks... my final installment in the new shoegaze records of 2004. And maybe, I've been saving the best for last. Air Formation makes music the way that music is supposed to be made. Pure and simple. Walls of guitar, floating vocals, heavy use of the ride cymbal, and just enough feedback, all add up to some of the finest rock music that the world has seen since Slowdive's Just For A Day. Most certainly, Neil Halstead can be proud of the effect that his early band has had on the world... and rightly so.

Every moment of Stay Inside/Feel Everything is a moment of shoegaze brilliance. From the opening delayed guitars and ride cymbal of "Turns Into Sky" to the final seconds of the melancholy "Here Comes The Rain", Air Formation have crafted a piece of musical art that breathes new life into a once dying genre. This is accomplished by adhering to the rules set forth by the earliest shoegazer bands, staying well within the boundaries of the sound, yet not simply playing the same notes by rote. There is no sense of plagiarism here, only that sincerest form of flattery. Air Formation definitely creates their own voice inside the choral of shoegaze.

Songs like "Turns Into Sky" are instantly familiar to a seasoned 'gazer like myself. The slow musical build to a noisy crescendo is compelling and highly enjoyable. The dense guitars of "Fallen Leaves" are comforting to my ears. Dirty bass guitar gives "Seethrustars" an added dimension of sonic fullness. "Stay Inside, Feel Everything" pulls out the production tricks and feels like two songs within a song. It has every single trademark that makes for an undeniably brilliant shoegaze track; vibrant synth pads, ride cymbal, and molasses thick guitars. "Caught Upon The Waves" adds just a bit of indie flair, while "Here Comes The Rain" is set to an ambient noisescape filled with acoustic guitars and pleasant AM radio vocals.

Did I mention the ride cymbal? This is by far one of my favorite records of the new millennium... and I don't think it's only the flu medicine talking.

reviewed by: Embo Blake for Hybrid Magazine

Brighton, England’s Air Formation play a heady and intoxicating blend of shoegazer-inspired space rock that ought to appeal immensely to fans of Flying Saucer Attack, Slowdive, Bowery Electric, and the trippier side of The Telescopes. Stay Inside, Feel Everthing is the band’s third full-length effort, their first for acclaimed Sacramento shoegaze imprint Clairecords. The group’s sound ranges from lush, pastoral pieces to heavy duty droning and feedback, sometimes within the same song. The one common thread throughout this release is that Air Formation manages to be catchier than hell at all times, everything on this all-too-brief 39-minute effort hitting the spot in spades. The crashing opener “Turns Into Sky” sets the mood perfectly, starting slow but ending in a flurry of seductive feedback-laced ‘explosions in the sky,’ if you will, that at times almost bury the lovely, hushed vocal melodies. This is followed up by “Fallen Leaves,” a hard-hitting noise pop gem reminiscent of early Ride and the even more intense, yet just as melodic, “Seethrustars,” which contains a sea of sound thicker than Coke syrup. Also great is the insanely huge “Full Flight,” which brings to mind My Bloody Valentine and early Slowdive at their most majestic. Highly recommended.

reviewed by: Ben Vendetta for Skyscraper

This is the third release from Brighton, England's Air Formation (the prior 2 having been on Drive-In Records). As you might guess from the band name, it's quite atmospheric, with guitar sounds draped in rich blankets of distortion and echo, creating a sound which is both dense and spacious, expansive and intimate at the same time. The songs are slow and sometimes heavy-tempoed with buried or minimal percussion, and they drift and float and sweep along much like the clouds depicted on the album's cover (in special printing which glows under a black light). It's a classic shoegazer sound, and these boys are treading ground already broken by bands like Slowdive and Flying Saucer Attack, but they definitely are equal to the legacy of their predecessors. For me the album's standout is the closing track, "Here Comes the Rain", a lovely, acoustic-based track which reminds me of The Notwist or Hood. On a cloudy day or a late night, this album fulfills the invitation of its title.

reviewed by: Mike for Copacetic Zine

From the UK, Air Formation play a beautifully cosmic brand of guitar driven Shoegazer styled space rock. This is the kind of stuff that sweeps you up and carries you away on a journey to otherwordly dimensions... ethereal to the Nth degree. "Stay Inside, Feel Everything" is their second album, and for this set the band consists of Matt Bartram on guitars, programming and voice, Ben Pierce on bass, Richard Parks on keyboards and drones and Ian Sheridan on guitar and feedback.

Air Formation construct their songs such that they come roaring out of the starting gate at full volume impact, only to ease the tension at key points in the songs. Others build from floating cloud like spacescapes to high intensity, crushing waves of droning yet melodic sound, that have the power of a tidal wave yet lovingly caress the listeners mind with the sheer beauty of the music. This is multi-textured space guitar heaven for the heavy rocking cosmic drone assault crowd. Bartram is credited with vocals and there certainly is singing on the album, but like much music of this style you can't really make out the words and the voice really just serves as soothing brain balm, which is an effect I personally like.

"Seethrustars" is a standout track, being the shortest but one of the most potent songs of the set, pounding out thunderous percussive blasts and power chords that add a metallic edge to the trademark Shoegaze sound. Very intense. "Full Flight" and "Caught Upon The Waves" are highlight tracks that have a similarly overpowering affect. "Stay Inside, Feel Everything" is a little different, having more of a rock ‘n roll groove than the other songs, while still retaining the spaced out wall of sound style of the album. Fans of nuclear powered Shoegazer space rock will find much to love here. Check it out.

reviewed by: Jerry Kranitz for Aural Innovations

I don't know how many times I will have to say this, but Clairecords signs another winner to their label. I picture them hunting high and low for the best blissed out, fuzzy, shimmering bands of all time and coming away from the hunt with great results. Newest in their sights is Air Formation. Captured and packaged in a disc called Stay inside/Feel Everything, Air Formation brings to the table all the elements of a next generation shoegazer band with subtle touches that make the genre their own. Air Formation takes shimmering, blissful guitars and sweeps the listener into space rock heaven.

Stay Inside begins with "Turns Into Sky." The track starts off with soft, shimmering piano and blissed out guitar. Breathy vocals ride on lush sound with punchy percussion and driving bass. "Turns" is a 6 minute soundscape that achieves a sound not unlike cascading water falls in the background. "Fallen Leaves" follows on the heels of "Turns into Sky." This song has recessed vocals My Bloody Valentine style, but with a deeper tone. The melody in this song is catchy, intricate and beautifully sits on top of the floating guitars. "Seethrustars" is a nice change of pace after the first two tracks. It is a slow piece that is heavier in feeling with widening bass and purposeful percussion. The vocals sit on the heavy laden sound like fresh air floating on heavy tones. The bass really drives this song while high, shimmering bleeps ride the tonal waves.

"Why I Lost You" is almost an instrumental, with the vox being used minimally. It rides on the heels of "Seethrustars" but lightens the heavy feel and brings lighter vocals with simpler bass work and light tapping on the ride. "Full Flight" is more spacey and shimmering in its approach. This song feels a lot like Jeremy Wrenn's work in Airiel. It is a cycle of continued, soaring chords with a simple feel. It is a nice break in their more complex composition on the album up to this point. All in all, this album really flows well and the pace the band sets in each song really lends itself to making the album feel whole and not fragmented, never boring the listener. "Say Inside/Feel Everything" begins with guitar with less effects and percussion turned down. Then, the volume is brought up and the effects become thicker and fuller. This is a four-minute song that is classic shoegaze in the vein of Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine.

"Caught Upon the Waves" changes the tempo of the album once again. Driving percussion and staccato guitar really bring this peace out on the album. Also, the vocals are basically following a melody that feels very different from the beat of the song, perhaps a little like Morrissey in The Smiths. Another unique aspect of the song is that the bass is following the melody rather than sticking completely with the percussion. It makes for a nice affect. The album ends with "Here Comes the Rain." This is an acoustic song with minimally altered vocals. It has beautiful shimmering noises in the background. There is a somber feel to this song, painting the picture of an impending rainstorm beautifully. It rounds out the album with a simple, yet somber mood.

reviewed by: Jason for Somewhere Cold

There are two modes of thought on the nomenclature of genre type. On the journalistic side, there is an acquiescence to pedantry that goes beyond the descriptive tenets of a genre; in short, it is a crutch infested with termites. On the musician's side lies the danger of an albatross with the weight of an anvil that can pull down and obstruct any attempt at a singular definition of intent and vision. On Air Formation's third album, Stay Inside, Feel Everything, there is not so much deadweight, however dense and impenetrable this record is, but more a case of a bale of cotton the size of Mississippi. Although it's less heavy than an anvil, there's a palpable sense of being enmeshed in a gauzy and fluffy web that is hard to extricate oneself from.

Air Formation has studied the masters but has lost something in the lesson and subsequent execution. Throughout Stay Inside, Feel Everything, Air Formation struggles along a path beset with guitars that are both hazy distorted reverb swaths of dense fog and delayed shimmering textures. Rhythmically, loping angular bass lines and perfunctory lackadaisical drumming underpin just about every song. Opening track "Turns Into Sky" sets an agenda of little fluffy clouds of blissed out ambience. But by the time you get to the middle of this album, on "Full Flight" the story has become as predictable as a snowstorm in Montreal in the middle of January. Without any variance of dynamics, subtlety, or arcane deviations, Stay Inside, Feel Everything gets lost in a morass of intemperate weather rather than the cool blast of a sun shower on a humid day.

The biggest problem with Air Formation's strict adherence to the governing tenets of shoegaze is the complete lack of lyricism and melodic ambition established by its progenitors. Shoegaze has always been a crapshoot where one has to maintain vigilance between getting mired in the torpor of effects and technical aspects with the immediacy of delivering solid song structures. This is the fundamental issue at fault with second-wave shoegaze that bands like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, et al all seemed to understand and elude. It's this fundamental issue that second-wave shoegazers like Air Formation suffer from, and that ultimately leads to meeting a creative waterloo.

reviewed by: Gary Jansz for Delusions of Adequacy

There are a handful of rarefied musical genres that only have room for a couple of artists, and anyone who trafficks in similar material must either "evolve" his sound or risk being tagged an imitator. For example, when you think trip-hop, the name Portishead should appear above your head like a cartoon light bulb. When you hear the word shoegazer, the same thing should happen with the words "My Bloody Valentine" or "Slowdive".

Air Formation hope that you'll soon add their name to the shoegazer roster. They have the spatial, lethargic rhythms, the ebow drones, the spacy keyboard patches, the barely audible vocals, the upper register bass guitar melodies and everything else they need to become the genre's 2004 poster children, but there's one catch: whereas bands like Medicine, Lush, Smashing Pumpkins (remember "Rhinoceros"?) and newish group Voyager One personalized the template with their own unique spin, Air Formation are pleased as punch to hover there without changing a thing.

They do a great job of it, working their textures into a creeping frenzy and spilling out chord after lilting chord, and vocalist Matt Bartram has the perfect croon for the job. However, it's easy to zone out after the first few tracks, and with the exception of "Stay Inside, Feel Everything"'s mildly inflated tempo, you'll soon be hard-pressed to remember any details of the music.

Based on their work here, I imagine that Air Formation are content to live in the shadow of the aforementioned bands. If you're satisfied living under that tree with them (which I picture as a weeping willow on a hill in the countryside), go for it -- but I'll stick with my worn out copies of Isn't Anything and Loveless, thanks.

reviewed by: Dave Madden for Splendid

The folks in UK-based Air Formation play mind-numbing shoegazer pop. The band's repetitive tunes feature thick fuzzy guitars, distant keyboards, and extraordinarily subdued vocals. The overall effect is something like listening to a rock band playing in a room that is very far away. Interestingly, there is a peculiar majestic quality to the band's music ("Seethrustars" is a good example). The songs on Stay Inside / Feel Everything spin like the ocean. Wave after wave after wave approach and disappear...creating a peculiar organic brand of subdued droning fuzz pop. Eight lengthy tunes here including "Turns Into Sky," "Caught Upon the Waves," and "Here Comes the Rain." The disc features some wonderfully trippy photographs of the sky.

reviewed by: Babysue.com

I love music that encourages relaxation and tries to hypnotize you. Air Formation do just that in Stay Inside, Feel Everything. The guitars wash over you in a repetitive manner until you give in. The vocals are heavy in echo, and the drums are there to keep the beat, but stay in the background. I was reminded of All Natural Lemon And Lime Flavors and The Appleseed Cast's Low Level Owl series.

reviewed by: Alex Llama for Impact Press

Post-rock, shoegazing, out-rock, dreampop - call it what you will - but the one thing you can't avoid calling it, is wondrous. This is a CD just short of forty minutes that lifts you up, carries you off and takes you to another dimension. 8 tracks and an ocean - a vast expanse - of wall-to-wall guitar drones, sawing, chiming, ringing guitarscapes, deep rivers of bass and almost distant but still powerful and, in this context, mixed to perfection, drumming - all this forming a tidal wave of magical proportions that engulfs you in wave of pure pleasure as the sound of the band fills every corner of the room, every part of your being, with utter wide-eyed magic. The vocals are low down in the mix but easily heard, almost like another part of the instrumental canvas, as the whole sound seems to rise up in an almost shoegazing anthemic fashion, as you gaze, misty-eyed and jaw-dropped, from a place somewhere deep inside your mind, onto a sea of searing bliss. The effect is a warm-feeling of immense pleasure from a sound that is so loud, slow and vast, an effect that you'll want returning time after time after time as the dual guitars blaze long into the night and the universe becomes your playground. Drugs never came this good - utter genius!!

reviewed by: Andy Garibaldi for Dead Earnest