Air Formation: Air Formation (Club AC30)

Off-again, on-again shoegazers Air Formation have pulled their flying goggles back on for the first time since 2018s Near Miss for this eponymous release, their sixth LP. While the album is strongly imbued with the spirits of the band’s antecedants: Ride, Slowdive, Spiritualized, with almost quarter of a century on the clock, the Brightonians put their own stamp on the material through the sheer force of their playing.

Pressure Drop is a slight false start, the album bursting into life on second track Only So Much Light, where the combination of rumbling toms and keyboard patinas send proceedings rocketing skywards. The set has the feel of being sat in with the band, with Finding Gravity’s crisp drumwork and the guitar maelstrom of Crashing In especially creating the atmosphere of being at close quarters at the stage front or in the studio. Sounding like a great lost single from early-era Creation Records, album highlight Sparks Die underpinned by a wonderfully rubbery bassline is a lullaby soundtracked by swirly guitar sounds.

Possessing a guitar sound that truly deserves the sobriquet ‘cavernous’, The Final Wave bids farewell sounding like the Tardis disappearing into the vortex. Sparks Die? Not in this instance, they burst into flame every few years. 4/5