Reviews
From
Lost At Sea online:
Fighter Pilot
Thinktank Records
Rating: 7/10
Fighter Pilot is the collaboration of Travis Johns and Dan Mintz, students of
the Oberlin Conservatory’s TIMARA department. If that sounds artsy and
impressive, it’s probably because it is – there’s a lot of
brains to back up that beauty, and the group is a nice representative of both.
Featuring warm electronic instrumentals, their untitled debut is at times organic
or deceptively concise, but always densely layered. There’s a lot to take
in and doubtless places for one’s imagination to run free.
"Phase" and "Reforestation" are particularly striking, and
are personally the most affecting listens. "Phase" is a perplexingly
short track, channeling the frightening darkness of a damp, uninviting cellar.
It is bleak and corrosive, hinting at rusting pipes and hidden dangers.
"Reforestation," then, is a complete turn at the album’s end
– a lengthy exploration of supernatural hopefulness. It balances the arresting
beauty of Aphex Twin’s "Flim" with the crushed-yet-airy nature
of Bjork’s "Sun in My Mouth." It feels like a hymn cried out
to the Great Unknown, reassuringly clinging to rescue fantasies.
Through every shift and tangent, the disc requires a receptive audience - which
is, unfortunately, an attribute it can’t always count on. If played to
an inattentive listener, it would likely slip right by, offering a quiet hum
of unobtrusive background noise. This oversight doesn’t give the duo justice,
however, because when absorbed in greater concentration, there’s a lot
here to be enjoyed. Every thought or feeling you pour in with your own interpretation
will rightly be explored; Fighter Pilot proves a complex, deliberate amplifier
for self-discovery.
Reviewed by Sarah Peters
From
Splendid Magazine:
Fighter Pilot
Thinktank Records
Review 12/2/2004
Minimalism is like a warm gun. So sayeth the debut from Oberlin Conservatory
alumni Travis Johns and Dan Mintz, whose collaboration as Fighter Pilot is as
much an experiment with sound as it is a chill-out manifesto. If you can hear
anything at all on this high-tech, lo-fi debut, it's the sound of two men guessing.
So much of the album appears unplanned and unrehearsed that I'm inclined to
say it was a lucky accident that happened to take place while the mics were
live. That's when I notice that the album's elements are separated into "phases",
and I begin to suspect there's some scholarship at work here. But regardless
of the disc's roots, its contents are well worth a spin.
Perched primarily in the upper register, Fighter Pilot is a collection of drones
interrupted, of ethereal chimes and counterpoint bass, of keyboards conspiring
to lull one another to sleep. It evolves and exists without agitating or causing
a commotion. Sometimes it's barely even noticeable; I drove in my car for forty
minutes and nearly changed the radio channel twice because I forgot I had a
CD playing. But to complain about the album's non-impact is to miss the point.
Saying "nothing happens" on Fighter Pilot is like saying nothing happens
when a flower opens -- it's all a matter of perspective.
-- Justin Kownacki