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Air Traffic Pro

Genres: Indie / Pop

Location: London, United Kingdom

Stats: 1,167 fans / 78,101 plays / 12 plays today

Members:

Air Traffic's Top Song: Come On Buy Album

Billboard

Fractured Life
In Stores February 5th

Purchase from Amazon
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Purchase from Newbury Comics

(includes autographed booklet)

Air Traffic's Fractured Life is a debut album of brilliant, occasionally brutal, mood music. From the sexual euphoria of "Charlotte" to the bleak introspection of "Empty Space", its mindscape is one we have all experienced, or soon will. By turns anguished and exuberant, cocksure and crestfallen, it is rock lived at a pitch of bi-polar intensity that reminds you why you got into this stuff in the first place. Because life is fractured, actually, and its highs and lows have a disconcerting way of interrupting each other (which is one reason why Fractured Life makes its point all 12 of them - and leaves in 41 minutes).

It takes a particular sort of outsider mentality to create music of such rare accuracy and honesty. And, sure enough, Fractured Life is emphatically not the sound of a scene. Air Traffic are from nowhere, man. As far as they relate to any other bands you might have listened to recently, they are a shining example of the West by South West maverick tendency. Just as the small UK towns of Abingdon begat Radiohead and Teignmouth reared Muse, so Air Traffic are an unlikely product of Bournemouth, a Wessex border town on the British Costa Geriatrica with no rock heritage whatsoever. As the group's singer and main songwriter Chris Wall puts it; "There are no music venues, and absolutely no pressure to sound like anyone else. So you have the potential to develop your own style."

After the band were signed to Astralwerks/EMI, Air Traffic set up in Rockfield Studios to begin working on their their new album. Soon after, news arrived of a fatal car crash in Canada which killed a close of friend of Wall's girlfriend. I never really knew her, but I could feel my girlfriend's grief, and the sense of helplessness was overwhelming. This swiftly inspired the album's most poignant and beautiful moment, the aching piano ballad, "Empty Space". The 2 month Rockfield experience was, overall, cathartic. "It made us focus on what we do, and also appreciate how different we are from other bands." That emergent self-realization is unforgettably expressed in "No More Running Away", a heaven-bound anthemic chant earthed throughout by tribal drum. That sense of empowering otherness found voice in the album's title track, the last song to be written and, like "Empty Space", a haunting testimony to Wall's growing confidence as a chronicler of complicated emotions.

Just watch them go. In a world in which it is increasingly easy to confuse things that sound urgent with things that are actually important, Air Traffic are, triumphantly, both. Don't miss the U.S. version of Fractured Life, featuring the raucous new opening track, "Come On".

Comments

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Annie Anderson said:
No More Running Away Oct 11
LovelyNoelle said:
Mmm, I love your music ... :) Any chance you'll be coming out with new material? Sep 23
Ariel Pattinson said:
Come On is so amazing. Aug 11
SonicHitman said:
you guys are awesome! Also, if you like these guys you'll love this brand new band i just found here at www.purevolume.com/roadtobremen ! They're amazing! Jul 07
aquatic poet xD said:
it only took 5 mins for me to be enthralled by your amazing sound. thank you for your talent it is much appreciated by this unoriginal music industry.=]yayyy&i luv your name. Jul 04
Natty Catastrophee said:
Lovee Your Music Guys Greetings from England - York :P ox Jul 03
Hardcore=christian said:
Check out my youtube account account.... http://www.youtube.com/longboardskillz Jul 02
soWRONGit'sSAM!™ said:
you guys are good :] Jul 01
LaurenGrapefruit said:
very good music!! Jul 01
Goldrock said:
i'm so glad you guys are finally on purevolume. i think you rock! and Shooting Star is the most awesomest song ever ^_^ Jul 01
Jon said:
you might like this band that i discovered theyre pritty good! help spread the word! www.purevolume.com/CurseofApocalypse Jun 30
Brett said:
Love "shooting star"! Jun 30
Ariel Pattinson said:
new favorite. Jun 29
Colemanation said:
awesome tracks! also, if you like Air Traffic, you'll love this new band i found www.purevolume.com/roadtobremen they're amazing!! Jun 29
Archie said:
niiiiiiiiiiccccccccceeeeee. i love the style. might sound wierd, but i love the passion you guys put in your music. beautiful. Jun 29