"Adelaide's Aviator Lane are making some very pretty indie electronica tunes and have just put out a sweet EP that's worth a listen." Zan Rowe, Triple J Excitement Machine (Adelaide) This is apparent from the first track ‘A New Code’, a wonderfully layered acoustic-electro instrumental. The bass drum pulses softly in the background like a hint of thunder beneath sad arpeggios, sustained keyboard melodies and a variety of lo-fi electronic rhythms. Radzevicius has always been able to transport the listener to the place of his songs and this EP does it again. The slow feeding of subtle sounds and dynamic restraints builds a lot of tension. Instead of exploding from crescendos, his songs kinda leave you hanging, trapping you in the mood they’re created. ‘The Calm We Left’ is very nice. After a good four minutes of soft singing Radzevicius shows us what he can do with his larynx, letting out pitching, heartbreaking cries without going overboard. My only critisism of the album is a really picky one about sequentiality. Following the first track ‘A New Code’ the vocals are abruptly introduced on the second track ‘Comfort is Shifting’. Maybe one of the other tracks with a slightly longer intro and sustained vocal line would have seamlessly complemented and fortified the warmth established in the opener. But I’m splitting hairs. It’s a fucking great EP. Drum Media (Sydney) Issue #812 - July 2006 Sounds Like Sunset, Heligoland, Aviator Lane, Dave Olliffe The Sandringham Hotel, Newtown (Sydney) Friday 14 July Adelaide visitors Aviator Lane timidly launched their CD via an understated, if excellent, set. Michael Radzevicius' voice might barely go beyond a whisper but his new material is bolstered by bandmates Ianto Ware and Alicia Woodrow swapping from keys to bass to acoustic guitar and even occasional drums. Superb as they were, may their future visits to Sydney be better attended and less nerve-wracking. Derives (Belgium) “Aviator lane ep” is the second ep for this project of Michael Radzevicius, a songwriter from Adelaide exploring the sunny melancholic side of slowcore that the Australian indie scene has developed these last years, from Art of Fighting to This Is Your Captain Speaking, from Purplene to Braving The Seabed. On this new record, with the absence of Marty Brown (Art of Fighting), the drums disappeared and are replaced by beats not completely unlike those found on records by Arab Strap or Havergal, but in a less experimental way, with more smoothness. Everything else remains constant - his voice, the guitars, bass, keyboards – but this change makes the songwriting of Michael more modest and intimate, hopefully without leaving the beaches of a certain melancholic plenitude. The climate is radiant with a feeling of serene lethargy. It isn’t a record you choose for its immediacy, it’s much more like a comfortable refuge, away from the disturbing events of the every day life. It’s probably the perfect record to take with you for long train ride or for walking alone under a gentle spring rain. Very soon it will surround you with a blissful atmosphere. There is something from the Red House Painters circa “Ocean Beach” in the instrumentation and the sensitivity of the instrumental track that opens the record. “A New Code” is a delicate journey under the trees, among clumps of blossoming flowers, distilling their perfume into the air. And you feel nice. And you lie down on the green grass, just to see the clouds passing by into the azure sky. The layers of synth on “Comfort is Shifting” give a more intimate, interior feel, like if the temperature was below zero outside. Filtered warm lights, a sofa, but you don’t feel that well, something too fragile inside, and something that could break in a minute or two. You are in communion with these waves of melancholy that never want to leave you alone, which always emerge during these times. But it’s not that bad, it’s yourself, a way to protect something true and absolute in your modest inner soul. Deeply beautiful. Each time you hear Michael repeating ‘you still destroy me’ – and it will happen, because this song will finish with the repeat function -, you’re one step below, and the guitar line could almost bring you to tears. “Sinking from the Corners” opens with a pounding heart and then goes on with a soft folk melody which finally runs with almost joy through windy paths. There is a spirit of nostalgia here, about something ephemeral or elusive, though successfully captured for a time, in the space of the dream. Sometimes we want the reality to be far away. “The Calm We Left” is darker and unsettling. Beats and keyboards are omnipresent and contribute to a kind of emotional suffocation but it gives also a very positive sentiment of urgency. The whole song sounds a lot like a possible lost Sepia Hours song, the similarity is really surprising. And it is even truer on “Contact Controls”, the way Michael Radzevicius sings here and interacts with the beats in the first part of the song is very close to what Sébastien Biset (Sepia Hours) achieves at hist best. The second part of the song is very different and pays tribute vocally to a certain style of late eighties Australian indie music recalling me The Church, The Triffids or the Robert Forster side of The Go-Betweens. “We Found the Colony, Now We Have Peace” finishes the ep on a note of contentment. This is like the late lights before dusk at the end of a long summer day, full of chance encounters and moments of awe, opening up the way for glowing hopes. Michael Radzevicius confirms here the beauty we already found on his first ep. One more gem to add to the list of precious intimate slowcore Australian records. Beat Magazine (Melbourne) Comfort is Shifting takes things further over to the electronica camp for a moment. By the time the half-whispered vocals come in, we are immersed in a kind of 4am insomnia kind of vibe. A vibe that blends well into the relatively lighter and more ambling acoustic line of Sinking from the Corners. The Calm We Left is the first song to effectively marry the resonant organic and sharper electronic aspects of Aviator Lane's sound, producing something that could, along with the rest of the EP (though in varying proportions), be described as The Panics meets The Cure. Even after seemingly establishing its tone, this EP still has a couple of surprises in store, such as the muscular gang vocals of Contact Controls, or the more vivacious sounds and textures of closing track We Found the Colony, Now We Have Peace. You could say that Aviator Lane is 'dreamy' in the truest sense of the word - hazy and ethereal, yes, yet also unpredictable and somewhat profound. Jesse Shrock Rockbeatstone (UK) Gentle. Thoughtful. Meditative. Subtle. Apologies for the racial slur, but none of these are words I'd associate with Australians. I met a spare Australian over the weekend who informed me that not only was the barbeque, "not a fucking barbeque, it's a fucking grill" but that her countrymen were, "a bunch of fucking convicts." Surprisingly, however, all of the nice words above (not the fucking convicts) can be easily associated with Aviator Lane. It might be the time of year, but I found the whole thing rather affecting. There are moments when you can imagine Aviator Lane as a Belle and Sebastian raised in constant dry heat rather than drizzle, then produced by TV On The Radio (especially on the oddly euphoric ‘Comfort Is Shifting'). Male vocals offset by spiritual sounding female harmonies, over a backdrop of dense but basic drum loops, simple droning electronics (best used on the ominous ‘The Calm We Left'), sparse acoustic guitars (which do occasionally lapse into Crowded House territories) and minimal piano chords. Layers of these components work to create a quilted comforting world where it's easy to get lost. It's clearly stuff borne of the New Wave Of Bedroom Recording (‘We Found The Colony...' being recorded with one mike and a desktop PC), but like any medium with such immediate connections to it's muse, this gives it an emotional resonance untapped by studio based artists. Keith Patterson Aviator Lane - Aviator Lane Aviator Lane est un projet australien conduit par le songwriter Michael Radzevicius qui, avec son ordinateur et quelques instruments, parvient à donner vie à un disque flamboyant et mélancolique à souhait. Après un premier ep paru en 2006 today the hills are closed, il revient nous donner un nouvel échantillon de son savoir-faire ; celui de composer des folk-songs lentes et empruntes de vague à l’âme, construite à la fois avec des instruments traditionnels mais aussi avec des sonorités électroniques, notamment pour les beats. Le résultat donne un mini album folk-tronica très réussi, très beau, rempli de chouettes harmonies, d’arpèges de guitares lumineux, aux ambiances contrastées qui nous font espérer un véritable premier album tout aussi enjoué. (8.0) Autres
Directions (France) Aviator Lane - Aviator Lane One-man band Michael Radzevicius, a.k.a. Aviator Lane, brings intimacy to a whole new level with his second EP in as many years. The instrumental opening track, A New Code, builds slowly up from one lonely acoustic guitar to a mellow choir of organ, spots of electric guitar noodles, computer bleeps and minimalist drum machine. This is about as intense as the self-titled EP gets. But as soon as the vocals appear in track two, “Comfort Is Shifting”, we know where this is all heading – softly spoken, whimsically phrased, bleeding heart music, born of the bedroom recording artist and plonked on a PC. That's not to say Aviator Lane isn't a nice listen, especially when fading off to dreamland. The musicianship is exceptional, with fantastic guitar picking and great arrangement, but the vocals lead it down a path all too often trodden by the lovesick shoegazer. Danny Griffith Kathodik (Italy) Rockus Online Magazine There’s a very fine line between doing the down-tempo acoustic-meets-synth
moody indie style well and doing it in an utterly predictable boring
manner. Due to its minimalistic approach, such a genre is reliant
on the individual/s and their ability to convey their own emotions,
their outlook on life in order for us to appreciate and empathise,
rather than indulging in the same ol’ melancholy that has
been expressed a billion times before. Oh, the burden of the world
is too much for me…. We get it. Basically, the mastering of
such a style is all about wanting to put yourself out there and
tell your own story, and not someone else’s. dB Magazine (Adelaide) Issue #388 (June 21 - July 5, 2006) Low, Outland Brothers, Aviator Lane Fowler's Live, Adelaide Tues 6 June Local trio Aviator Lane played songs from their two EPs, singer Mike Radzevicius now joined by Ianto Ware (No Through Road) and Alicia Woodrow, each on various instruments. The group opened as a stark guitar/bass/drums trio, the volume at its highest for the set. Later, meagre programmed beats and keyboard tones supplied a bed of hum and crackle, acoustic guitar and bass added, Radzevicius' voice lifted, his crystalline guitar tone leading the group. Lenin Simos dB Magazine (Adelaide) Despite a casual, instrumental introduction, this EP again gets underway with its piece de resistance: Comfort Is Shifting, built solidly around a radiant, cheap Casio refrain, a perfect sibling to last year's shining light, Lengthways We'll Run. The Calm We Left, another live favourite, does lose some of its power with this more electronic arrangement (but, had I never heard it acoustically, I would have declared it genius). And Contract Controls, now complete with Jon Ashley-penned chorus line ('Come on you big strong boys, 'cause we've got to pick up our bags...' - marvellous) is simply superb. And, while I occasionally tire of the incessant stream of EPs from this part of town, the short format works perfectly for Radzevicius, allowing him the space to tease out his ideas without being forced into any corners. The only criticism of this record is in the mixing. Radzevicius
has a soft, whispery voice, which seems disjointed at the top of
the mix, and quite separate from its harmonies. And occasionally,
the mix drowns out some of the more inspired arrangements. Still,
great songs, a great first production credit by Ashley and co. -
now, where's this Brer Mouse EP we're all hearing about? Derives (Belgium) www.derives.net March 2006 Aviator Lane est le projet d’un certain Michael Radzevicius, résidant à Adelaide, en Australie. Originairement un trio fondé en 2002, Aviator Lane devient solo après que les deux autres membres ont choisi de s’expatrier. Depuis ce temps, Michael a préféré se produire avec l’aide de musiciens bénévoles plus invités que devenant partie intégrante de Aviator Lane. Parmi ceux-ci on retrouve surtout Marty Brown, batteur de Art of Fighting mais qui s’est aussi activé chez Sodastream, qui joue également le rôle d’ingénieur du son. D’un point de vue stylistique et des ambiances, Aviator Lane s’inscrit à la perfection dans la tradition esthétique de cette scène dreampop / slowcore que l’on s’emploie à vous présenter ici. Aviator Lane est bel et bien un groupe de la même mouvance que Sunny Disposition, Sea Life Park, This is Your Captain Speaking, Purplene ou Light’s Surprising Constancy. Un joyau de plus à célébrer né au cœur d’une scène aussi enthousiasmante que peu célébrée en dehors de ses frontières. Aviator Lane est donc contemplatif, chaleureux, émouvant, doux, mélancolique et lumineux. ‘Today, the hills are closed’ compte cinq titres et prend un peu moins de trente cinq minutes. Pourtant on trouve ici la densité et la plénitude d’un album. Les tempos sont particulièrement lents, sereins, mélancoliques et épanouis. C’est un disque qui demande un certain investissement avant de se révéler pleinement, il y a quelque chose de Hotel Alexis ou de Hayden mais porté dans un environnement plus planant, atmosphérique, pas loin de Quinimine ou d’un American Football qui se serait converti à un slowcore minimaliste aux accents chaleureux. Tout se joue sur des nuances infimes, Michael semble chuchoter souvent plus qu’il ne chante, tellement sa présence est rassurante. Additionné d’un beat, “lengthways we'll run” qui ouvre l’album en est le titre le plus rapide même si on n’est guère plus véloce que les premiers Low. Il y a une certaine tension dans l’air, comme lors d’un orage sec, où tonnerre et éclairs déchirent un ciel qui ne soulève que poussière au sol. Surtout il y a ce chant mélancolique et protecteur auquel on s’abandonne plus que volontiers, par lequel on se laisse bercer, qui nous entraîne sur des lignes dynamiques fragiles et émouvantes, avant de s’élever peu à peu au fur et à mesure que le morceau avance, que les émotions effleurent la peau et laissent des frissons. Déjà exceptionnel ce premier morceau n’est qu’un ambassadeur face aux merveilles intérieures qui suivent. Sur une intro dodelinante et chancelante, ‘Line end’ imprime d’emblée un niveau de recueillement hors du commun, évoque des paysages vastes comme observés du sommet d’une colline rocheuse tandis que le jour décline sur un paysage de fin d’été, des oiseaux dans le ciel, des vaches qui paissent au loin, un calme serein, la sensation que tout est à sa place même si la mélancolie se fait assaillante. C’est alors qu’elle fait partie intégrante de nous-mêmes, un refuge, un filtre pour saisir les beautés époustouflantes qui nous entourent, un point de vue en embuscade, qui peut comme ici se révéler source palpitante d’une ferveur qui peu à peu nous humecte. Le minimalisme slowcore à son apogée, modeste mais renversant, troublé et tremblant. Plus intérieure encore, la plage titulaire, “today, the hills are closed”, nous la joue contemplation brumeuse de l’aube, réverbération, flou, léthargie nocturne non encore dissipée et lumières pâles émergeantes. Dort-on encore, est-on réellement réveillé, on flotte en tout cas dans un état second proche de la plénitude sereine, dans l’attente du retour de l’astre rayonnant, célébrée comme il se doit par une apothéose musicale où l’euphorie accompagnée d’une course oxygénante vers la lumière est le vecteur. Euphorie qui s’accentue encore sur “A sudden farewell”, une ballade sublime et désarmante à la American Football / Art of Fighting et réelle apogée de ce premier album, on observe la lumière qui peu à peu se contamine à tout le paysage, réveille oiseaux, humains, animaux et provoque l’éclosion de fleurs. Le disque se termine sur sa plage la plus sombre et désespérée où la voix de Michael semble à la limite de défaillir sous les coups d’une mélancolie qui semble l’assaillir, “Heavy horse memorial”, slowcore émouvant et contemplatif où le regard fuit vers l’horizon à la quête d’un espoir vacillant. Tandis que le morceau se déplie, le chant devient plus lumineux, féminin presque, au fur et à mesure que le flot de larmes se libère et qu’un sourire vient éclairer son visage. Fantastique début pour Aviator Lane. La suite est annoncée pour très bientôt. Reste à compter les jours. Le slowcore connaît un nouveau songwriter d’exception. L’Australie est bel et bien aux 00’s ce que la Californie était dans les 90’s pour ce style musical qui est aussi mon préféré. De loin. dB Magazine (Adelaide) dB Magazine (Adelaide) Issue #373 (December 14 - 20, 2005) Okkervil River + Lawrence Arabia, Subaudible Hum, Aviator Lane Jade Monkey, Thurs 8 Dec Imagine my disappointment when I arrived at The Jade Monkey to see that Deloris' name was not among the acts listed on the board outside. Unfortunately it turned out that singer Marcus Teague had fallen ill and the band had returned to Melbourne after travelling half way to Adelaide; the silver lining being that Aviator Lane had filled the spot. [...] Aviator Lane, AKA Michael Radzevicius, came up next to demonstrate his songwriting prowess and vocal skill. Carefully arpeggiated guitars accompanied some of the best vocals I've heard from a local artist in a while. Eddie Chan Rockus Online Magazine Usually you demo extensively on your own before getting down
to the production work. Was it the same process with this recording? I hear it's supposed to feature mostly programmed beats, which
would be a departure from your last recording? So how far off is the new recording from completion? You constantly have different musicians featured in your live
performance, including members from Brer Mouse, Art of Fighting,
Little Ice Age, and at your upcoming support for Gersey, Ianto Ware
will make an appearance. Do you find this keeps things fresh in
your live show, rather than getting an actual set group of musicians
together to perform with you all the time (when possible)? This year, you've done shows in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney
and London and soon you'll be visiting Perth for the first time.
You never seem to undertake long spells of touring, rather, a few
shows here and there in different places. Do you find this works
better for you then having to deal with the pressure of constant
travel? Or is it simply a money restriction? So what are your plans following the upcoming Perth shows and
the Gersey support? Steph Edwardes dB Magazine (Adelaide) Issue #355 (April 9 - 16, 2005) "It's not theoretically too lonely at the moment," says Michael Radzevicius, the man almost single-handedly behind one of Adelaide's most interesting musical endeavours, Aviator Lane. "Tim and Josh from Little Ice Age are... well, Tim's got his broken arm at the moment, so he's not playing... but they're pretty much the guys I'm playing with. So it's good. I'm pretty keen to get this CD launch out and underway." Well, that means there's one other person for the launch... "I've got a friend of mine filling in on bass. And Alicia [Woodrow], who's in Paper Tiger, she's playing. And Steph, who's in the No Through Road band, will be playing some guitar as well on a couple of tracks. So we've pretty much got three of us for half of the set and six for the other half." Even so, it must be somewhat difficult for Radzevicius, who recorded his debut CD-EP 'Today, The Hills Are Closed' as a quartet with three guys who right now all live in Melbourne. And it's an impressive line-up too; on guitars and other assorted instruments, he has Jon and Alex Ashley, the frontmen for local heroes Brer Mouse, and on drums and in the producer's chair, he has Marty Brown, well known as the drummer for Art Of Fighting and also Clare Bowditch's Feeding Set. "It's a slightly frustrating situation not having Jon; and Marty Brown, well obviously he'd be a good guy to play with if we could ever do that. But I'm not hanging out for it. I think he's got a few projects on the boil," he says with a chuckle. So how did this recording quartet come about? "We just met through numerous acquaintances and at some point at about the start of last year, I think Alex suggested getting together and having a jam on some of these songs. They had some good ideas on some of the arrangements. We played one gig before Alex moved to Melbourne, then Jon and I went over in August last year. I recorded three songs with them and two, well I pretty much organised that stuff with Marty. " So how exactly did the great Marty Brown become involved? "I sent him a demo that Jon, Alex and I had done, of the three songs we'd done at home, and just rang him up and organised a week; he's got a studio pretty much in his backyard!" The thing that struck me the most about this new CD-EP is its guitar sound; so crisp, so bright, it nearly jumps out of the speakers. Radzevicius is not entirely sure where it comes from. "It is to a certain extent deliberate, but I hadn't planned it that much, it's just something that has come out of playing. I guess everything Fender is everything good! I borrowed Miles from Art Of Fighting's guitar amp, and that was a really beautiful old Fender, but it's nothing really specific." And, getting past that, there's also the songwriting. The record is full of these seven-minute, introspective epics and I suggest that would be difficult to achieve without getting entirely lost in the process. "That's why it was good having Jon, Alex and Marty involved, because there does tend to be a certain amorphous quality to those songs. If you're doing it on your own, it's very easy to get lost in the structure of those songs, they're very ponderous. You just try and fit some sort of aesthetic that you've got in your head. I have something in mind when I approach writing a song, but not in the sense that I sit out and write how it should be; if it turns out that it's seven minutes long, and it's only going to be at 70 bpm, so be it! "It's been a progression obviously, with different forms of songwriting, and basically I've only just played guitar for most of my musical life. I'm just trying to simplify... I don't know, I'm getting lost in my talk, there!" Ben Revi Oz Music Project
(2005) dB Magazine (Adelaide) Issue #355 (April 6 - 19, 2005) Aviator Lane - Today, The Hills Are Closed Patterns In Static/Independent Michael Radzevicius, aka Aviator Lane, is quickly proving to be one of the best songwriters in Adelaide and this record is a brilliantly produced document of his skill and finesse. Produced by Marty Brown, aka the drummer of Art Of Fighting and founding member of Clare Bowditch's Feeding Set (and producer of many fine Australian records), and featuring musical contributions by Jon and Alex Ashley, aka the frontmen of local heroes Brer Mouse, 'Today, The Hills Are Closed' will hopefully be the first chapter in a very impressive musical career. Featuring one of the cleanest and most striking guitar sounds I've heard in a long time, first track Lengthways We'll Run is both powerful and beautiful. Lines End is simplicity at its best, gathering momentum by a few notes on a guitar and a light tap of a snare drum. The title track, Aviator Lane's first major key moment, is a nice surprise, leading into A Sudden Farewell, a slow-burning melody piece. Closing track Heavy Horse Memorial goes a long way to showcasing the intricacy of Radzevicius' voice and provides a perfect closer to the collection. Alright, so it could do with a little diversity, and it hums along at perhaps a little too slow a pace for its 35 minutes. But if you're into Art Of Fighting and other like-minded bands, you should definitely check these guys out. Oh, and they sound great live too - you can take my word for it. Ben Revi Rockus Online Magazine Another to file under quiet, brooding, reflective aside Art of
Fighting, Augie March and their ilk, Aviator Lane is Adelaide’s
Michael Radzevicius joined by members of Brer Mouse and the ubiquitous
Marty Brown, who also produced this EP. Five extended songs at a
total of 35 minutes, beautifully recorded by Brown, but falling
for the usual trappings of the style - being a lack of variation
in sound and tempo. |
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