Review Summary: A debut release that never really gets off the ground.
Reviewing new music from an upcoming artist can be quite a thankless task - particularly as there are some releases which smack of sincere effort from head-to-toe, but are severely lacking in several other departments. Hang Glider's self-titled debut EP is one such album, and it is quite a shame to have to send this record home with a decidedly mediocre evaluation and its rudder between its legs like an over-long turd.
A self-confessed lover of synth, it comes as no real surprise that Glider's first studio effort is entirely propped up by an assortment of textured beats, buzzing synthesizers, and electric drums. The entire mix seems rather convincing at first glance, but unfortunately it is quickly revealed that the entire melange doesn't actually achieve anything worthwhile. Most of the five tracks end up pandering around rather aimlessly, with Glider's helium-ridden and rather spacey vocals adding nothing at all to the overall texture of the record. Take album opener "Glide Time", for instance; it begins with a very promising bass-line, but the words "dull" and "monotonous" quickly spring to mind, for Glider displays absolutely no desire to be creative and venture outside the sultry bed of beats that he has somehow concocted for himself. The song "Cliffs" suffers from the same fate, as a similar deficit of adventurousness puts paid to its soaring dreams; in the end, nothing is spared from the massacre - not even its half-interesting introductory synth.
Although Glider may argue that the true function of a spacey record is to inspire the recollection of the wondrous realm of head-space, the only image that this reviewer managed to recall was a dense mix of Atlantic fog at midnight - with only the occasional presence of a turbid and rather opaque convection curtain for company; it doesn't take a Lilienthal to identify this as quite the image disaster. In all fairness however, it is worth noting that the record does offer the occasional glimmer - closer "Safety Bars" is a roiling instrumental that, although a bit slow on the uptake, ends with a compendium of rather enchanting timpani beats and chiming rhythms. It is a breath of fresh air after what can best be described as four tracks of dead air space, but ultimately it goes down as a classic case of too little, too late. Shame.
Maybe next time, Glider.
