Better Off Airport Vivre

RoRo

IN WHICH BETTER Off Airport kicks the airport style, gleefully assaulting rock & roll with the very tools it was built with. Three MC stooges man the frontlines--one baritone, one tenor, one falsetto--screaming rounds of barely intelligible babble like a Japanese-noise crew weaned on Beastie disorder, glib showtunes, and proletariat hardcore. The rough-hewn guitar and drums backdrop lends some faux avant-jazz figures to the pandemonium, while horn and keyboard experimentation spruces up the mix.

It's on track three, "AARIP," that the Airport achieves liftoff into a soundscape of its own: a throbbing, bobbing bass born for the dance floor, with a subdued screaming/guitar narrative that makes it all sound quite like a live-band rendition of something by DJ Shadow. (Hey guys, where's the remix?) BOA have flown above and beyond their pranksta/novelty status. The comic element of their legendary performances, however, is inevitably missing from the recording--a shortcoming you can forgive with higher volumes and a good imagination.