Any band that starts off their record with a 17-minute jam is either ambitious or should be confined to a loony bin. That Day For Airstrikes take more than 5 minutes of said song (‘It’s Your Funeral And It’s Fantastic’) before they even manage to start to make a din is even more admirable. It’s always a brave move to be an instrumental act, even more so when nearly every song here goes way over 5 minutes – and in this case, often over 10.
Day For Airstrikes are like marmite – you will either love it or hate it, there’s not too much middle ground. And while my score may suggest I’m fence-sitting, the reality is that while this band are nothing short of excellent, it’s just not something I’ll find myself listening to over and over. The level of musicianship is incredibly high and the song structures are brilliant – often there is so much going on (even glockenspiels at one point) it must have taken forever to arrange these tracks. If I did have one complaint though, it’s that ‘Widow’ isn’t very loud. I’m not too sure whether the copy I have is unmastered or whether this is intentional, but I had to turn the volume up to a high level to fully appreciate this record – and when I listened to something else almost made my ears bleed in the process.
It would take forever to explore each song; the first song is actually longer than a couple of whole albums I’ve reviewed recently. DFA are certainly an acquired taste, but a taste well worth checking out. Special mention for Nick Hamilton’s artwork which is as splended as ever.