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The Toronto Star September 9, 1999 Band's Long Flight To Airshow Parts Unknown's new recording was three years in the making. One could never accuse Parts Unknown of lacking creative wherewithal. During their first three years together, the Toronto noise warriors kicked out three cassettes, numerous one-offs and a fine debut CD, The Ocean's Wrong, all jammed with studiously structured and increasingly refined punk rock chaos. It seems a bit out of character, then, that the prolific outfit took close to three years to complete its arresting new disc, AIRSHOW. "We didn't want to settle for less on this one - we wanted to get to a point where the songs were done and we we didn't feel like we could do them any better", says frontman and guitarist Derek Westerholm. The 26-year old is sipping a cheap raspberry daiquiri after a marathon, five-hour practise session with bandmates Eric Abboud, Minesh Mandoda and Mondo Lulu in preparation for tomorrow night's AIRSHOW release soiree at Ted's Wrecking Yard (549 College St.) "I think the thing that was hard for us is that we're still prolific. We have tapes full of stuff that's just unmined territory. There'll definitely be songs played at the release that aren't on the album." Hindering AIRSHOW's quick completion were the usual logistical factors any indie band juggling existence and art must face, not to mention the departure of multi-instrumentalist Len Van Bruggen. To further complicate matters, Mandoda also has guitar duties to fulfill in Mean Red Spiders. But Parts Unknown - working with studio genius Dale Morningstar (the mad professor who's behind the harrowing records by Montreal's Godspeed You Black Emperor! and his own Dinner Is Ruined projects) and post-production whiz Dave Newfeld - also devoted time to the recording, mixing and mastering of the new disc. Morningstar "was just good for ideas: 'why not put it through this Sears amp? If you want to do something crazy with the vocals, why not sing it through a pylon?' He has this washroom he's miked up for natural reverb", recalls Westerholm. "and Dave Newfeld's a lot the same." The attention to detail shows. Airshow is hardly precious or polished, but its Sonic Youth -meets- The Fall anti-melodies boast an impressive depth, achieving remarkable cohesion between outwardly dissonant and anarchic elements. Acoustic guitar and cello collide with squalling feedback and bursts of brass; old vinyl crackles; ambient electronic noise and odd oscillations hover in the far reaches of the mix. "It's out of respect for the stuff that we like," says Westerholm. "For me, it's always the stuff that you're always discovering new things in when you go back to it... "Our influences are many. We've got a broad base of stuff that we listen to and we just bring them in all the time, more and more - especially when it's recorded over a long time." To give you an idea of just how long that was, cast your memory back to the fighter jets ripping through the sky over Toronto this past weekend's air show. The racket from last year's airborne spectacle is actually what provided Parts Unknown with the new album's name. "That's basically what happened during one of our sessions," explains Westerholm. "There were jets screaming by while we were doing the recording, and there's actually the sound on one of the tracks of a string reverberating that was set off by a jet going by. "So we thought, 'Hmm. AIRSHOW. That's not a bad title.'" -Ben Rayner |
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