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Exclaim Magazine November 1999
Parts Unknown is indeed one of the great unknown quantities in Toronto's scruffy pop scene, which has suffered from neglect long enough. In 1994, the Leisure Terrorists compilation of Toronto indie-popsters, including Neck, Made, A Tuesday Weld, and Katrocket could plausibly have been a home-grown equivalent to the legendary C86 sampler that brought the British indie scene of the '80s to a critical mass. But that generation has since hewed pretty doggedly to their aesthetic, even while the affections of the fickle music press, not to mention alt-whatever fans, turned elsewhere. Airshow harkens back appealingly to the golden age of North American indie-pop of roughly 1991 to '94. Unassumingly confident, played as well as it had to be, but more than filling its quota of hooks-per-song and played with that characteristic mix of detachment and utter sincerity that marked the best of Unrest, Tsunami and too many standard-bearers of the day to mention. Parts unknown are no means a nostalgia trip, but they do take you back to a somewhat better time. -Chris Woodskou |
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