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It's a generalisation but records that sound like this do tend to originate in Glasgow or Chicago. On their debut album, Glasgow trio Aereogramme have nailed the quiet-loud-quiet Mogwai/Shellac aesthetic pretty impressively, adding the lilting cadences you find on label bosses The Delgados' records (particularly on the triumphant Post-tour, pre-Judgement), plus impassioned vocals. Guitarist and Aereogramme founder Craig B cut his teeth with post-rockers Ganger, a band who seemed to confirm all the worst stereotypes of the genre: jerky syncopations, a lack of tunes, no real soul and fire. He formed Aereogramme as an outlet for songs that had outgrown those rigid confines.The result, 'A Story in White' is much more ambitious, a vast step forward, with only a couple of songs betraying those inauspicious beginnings, Shouting for Joey most obviously, sounding out of place and time alongside the bulk of the material. The songs that work the best, Hatred, Sunday 3:52, A meaningful existence, all build slowly with strings before the mayhem kicks in but the real highlight, the defining moment that encapsulates what Aereogramme are about and shows just what they're capable of, is midway through Zionist Timing, when the violent discordant guitar explodes out of nowhere, shattering the calm. Clearly a band to watch, this is another welcome addition to the Chemikal Underground roster.

Stephen Raymond
CWAS #9 - Winter 2002

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