Pete International Airport - It Felt Like The End of the World (Little Cloud Records)

Hailing from the concrete jungle of Portland but seemingly conjured from the shadowy recesses of the artist’s very soul, this marks the third chapter under the banner of Pete International Airport for Dandy Warhols’ maestro, Peter G. Holmström. In this latest sonic odyssey, he treads the enigmatic tightrope between trippy electronica and the shrouded realms of psychedelia, oscillating gracefully between Gothic undertones and the embrace of ambient beauty. His journey is one of finesse and intent, poised on a knife’s edge.

Within these eleven songs – a constant numerical fixture with PIA albums, it seems – a fluid dance unfolds, weaving betwixt structured compositions and more progressive musical forms, a forward-thinking yet oddly familiar tapestry.

These celestial sounds, at once captivating and mysterious, owe their existence in part to Peter’s knack for plunging his fellow creators into uncharted creative territories and then letting them loose to see what emerges from the depths of their creative urges. Fear and freedom, it appears, are catalysts for birthing such unique music. These collaborators hail from the very tapestry of bands in the same scene that Peter’s own Dandy Warhols and their kindred spirits, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, reign supreme. Members from equally exploratory and alternative outfits like Dark Horses, Omniscuro, Sun Atoms, Guiding Light, and Hopewell join the sonic expedition.

As for the songs themselves, they meander from the explosive beat and energy of the alternative death disco dance dirge on “Watermark” to the Shriekback-esque spoken word of “Commercial Eyez.” There’s the hazy, angelic drift of “Tic Tac” and the more conventionally alternative pop vibe of “The Thoughts That You Won’t Think,” a track infused with echoes of Talking Heads.

This marks my inaugural visit to Pete International Airport, and naturally, I’ve got some catching up to do. And catch up, I will. My advice to you? Join me on this electrifying trip through the sonic landscapes that Peter G. Holmström and his cohorts have masterfully charted. And trip is exactly the right word. Trust me, I’m a journalist!

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