Beach Sloth

Good Weather For An Airstrike – Lights 7.2

                Good Weather For An Airstrike remains calm. On ‘Lights’ they try to be reassuring. The snippets of audio suggest a world going on outside of the infinitely mellow music. What this appears to symbolize is the ability to handle it. Considering all the terrible things that can happen at any given moment and don’t this is a good feeling. Over the course of the album Good Weather chooses to focus on that positive aspect of life. The narrative of the album references certain faraway conflicts and enthusiasm ‘those are my brothers’ is said on ‘The King XXVI’ yet the general mood is hopeful, that perhaps an end may be in sight or a peace somewhat can be achieved. 

                In the first section of the album Good Weather expresses a certain level of contentment. This is shown on ‘A Quiet Day’ complete with guitar, occasional percussion, and lacks the audio clips that mark the rest of the album. ‘Storm Fronts Collide’ begins rather dramatically with a clip about the Paris Peace Accords. From there the album breaks down into its uneasy middle section. With the short clips the level of tension is increased considerably. Only with the final two songs do things begin to settle, with audio clips mostly gone as the music becomes completely smooth. Indeed in these final two pieces the sound is almost translucent. 

                These are comforting songs. It feels less like a series of songs than a narrative. Little details (guitar here, slight inflection there) give the sense of an ongoing story. Overall it is a strange but human approach to ambient music.

Good Weather For An Airstrike – Lights 7.2

                Good Weather For An Airstrike remains calm. On ‘Lights’ they try to be reassuring. The snippets of audio suggest a world going on outside of the infinitely mellow music. What this appears to symbolize is the ability to handle it. Considering all the terrible things that can happen at any given moment and don’t this is a good feeling. Over the course of the album Good Weather chooses to focus on that positive aspect of life. The narrative of the album references certain faraway conflicts and enthusiasm ‘those are my brothers’ is said on ‘The King XXVI’ yet the general mood is hopeful, that perhaps an end may be in sight or a peace somewhat can be achieved. 

                In the first section of the album Good Weather expresses a certain level of contentment. This is shown on ‘A Quiet Day’ complete with guitar, occasional percussion, and lacks the audio clips that mark the rest of the album. ‘Storm Fronts Collide’ begins rather dramatically with a clip about the Paris Peace Accords. From there the album breaks down into its uneasy middle section. With the short clips the level of tension is increased considerably. Only with the final two songs do things begin to settle, with audio clips mostly gone as the music becomes completely smooth. Indeed in these final two pieces the sound is almost translucent. 

                These are comforting songs. It feels less like a series of songs than a narrative. Little details (guitar here, slight inflection there) give the sense of an ongoing story. Overall it is a strange but human approach to ambient music.

Good Weather for an Airstrike - A Summer 7.4

Good Weather for an Airstrike uses a wide palette of sound to soothe. “A Summer” goes through classical, post-rock, and ambient influences during the course of its 42 minutes. They know exactly what they’re doing: they started out creating relaxing sounds meant to induce sleep. I rarely encounter a project devoted to such a simple goal. Each song on here meets that worthy goal.

Field recordings are employed liberally throughout the album. Sometimes these are simple sounds of nature but usually they are disembodied voices transmitting through various radio signals. Hearing some of these approaches reminds me strong of Tim Hecker’s “Radio Amor” album. Their use of grainy noise as melody confirms their respect for Hecker’s way of doing things.


“A Summer” features plenty of guitars. The guitar hovers throughout most of these recordings. While not explicitly rock, the guitar gives off the illusion of a distant shoegaze sound, particularly on the track “The Beginning of the Rest of our Lives (Reprise with Inchus)”. On this track the guitar ring as a distant drummer keeps the tempo.


“The Sun sets over us, and we are Happy” takes up roughly a third of the album’s entire playing time. Hearing this I see they’ve mastered the art of drone on this track. Out of the whole album, this is perhaps the most angelic and I’d say best track. Stars of the Lid come to mind while listening to the tasteful, gradual build of the song.


Really this album has a wide range of moods and emotions. Good Weather for an Airstrike keeps things engaging and proves that ambient music still has plenty to offer.