Air Show Disaster - Exodus

​Air Show Disaster

Exodus
​self-released; 2022

By Jamie Funk

Air Show Disaster aka Eric Sporer has been prolific. Pitch Perfect reviewed his self-titled album Air Show Disaster as well as Misdirection. His latest album entitled Exodus is more of a concept album. There are three long form songs which he defines as movements which is a term more correlated with classical music. Sporer says “The album was inspired by my own travels to the Negev desert years ago, which has always influenced my songwriting.” The imagery he sets up is “The long wanderer in the desert reflects widespread feelings of isolation due to two years of lockdowns.”

“Exodus I” starts off with a raw acoustic guitar and what sounds like wind blowing. Wind you might hear in a desert. The song does take off a little after the one-minute mark with drums and overdrive type distortion on the guitars. It’s slightly ominous and heavy and as other elements start to combine. There is a post-rock vibe emerging. Sporer mentions people have compared his music to King Gizzard and The Mars Volta but I was picking up more on bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Do Make Say Think. The song gets intense until it fades out quickly and then fades in just as quickly. The second half of the song is this dissonant and haunting. Some of the guitars sound a bit out of tune but I think that was intentional. I was immersed. 

“Exodus II” starts off haunting as well and something about it feels Eastern as well. The song soon explodes into more of a psych rock affair. There are guitars which topple over like behemoths and there’s an almost meditative quality at points. Around the four-minute mark it feels very Zen for a couple of seconds before the heaviest moments come like an avalanche of sound that is alarming. There’s one last section that sort of ends the song close to where it began.

“Exodus III” continues to flesh out this sound he established. This song has clear Eastern melodies and is also all over the place. There are a lot of transitions from ambient to blaring sounds. It might be the most ambitious song of the three. At the very least I thought it was the most experimental and the drone metal ending was awesome.

I think this is the most realized and cohesive album I’ve heard from the artist. The songs flow together well and he revisits themes which make this a fulfilling listening experience. If you aren’t familiar with Air Show Disaster this is a solid place to start.

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