Album: Airhead DC – Busted Sermon

Another great release from oof records. Here are some words copy-pasted from the press release (oof records have the best press releases in the game.) Just read:

Vishal Narang (aka Airhead DC) is no stranger to self-motivated musicianship, having spent a good deal of his childhood playing guitar, notably avoiding lessons and actively avoiding “the right way” to play, as he puts it. At home in the suburbs of DC, he was surrounded by the sounds of Bollywood movies, leading to a love of vocals drenched in reverb and echo. It seems only natural then that Narang began his foray into lo-fi in college, armed with only his laptop to create dazed and reverby tracks.

As Narang’s musical tastes continued expanding, primarily from deep dives into the Dance section at Other Music (now closed beloved Manhattan record store), he began his first collaborative music project with Greta Kline (of Frankie Cosmos), Milk Ghost. While they only played a handful of shows, the project was a springboard for Narang into his own solo endeavors, leading to an EP release with Danger Collective Records (under the name Nirvanus), an AM radio show with KCHUNG entitled “Greetings from Nirvanus,” and finally, to the adoption of the Airhead DC moniker in 2015. Appropriately, Airhead DC’s first show was opening for Frankie Cosmos and Girlpool at Comet Ping Pong. The following years led to two EP releases, long strings of shows between DC and New York, and Narang’s first LP release as Airhead DC, Crush-Hi, in 2018 (Danger Collective Records).

Busted Sermon serves as something of a departure from Narang’s prior releases. As he describes it, it is “a solitary album with more of a singular focus”. While Crush-Hi employed the skills and talents of a wide range of collaborators (Cherry Glazerr’s Tabor Allen, and former members Devin O’Brien and Sasami Ashworth), Busted Sermon is a largely isolated work. The entire EP was recorded on four-track tape, in either Narang’s apartment in Brooklyn, or back home with his family in Virginia. The only other people to appear in the album’s credits are Max Gowan, who mixed and mastered the album, and Narang’s father, who plays tabla on “Amphora Jam”. This self-imposed seclusion creates an atmosphere akin to being within the eye of a storm, as Narang’s lyrics cycle from the deeply personal on “Chins Out” (“I inherited your mouth and momma’s eyes and a 50/50 snout”) to the abstract yet oddly relatable on “Nominator” (“Silver chirping in the air is the wifi in my ear”).

It is another album mastered/mixed by Max Gowan and he has done just a great job. The album has such a nice and chill atmosphere perfectly suited for this winter vibe. Definitely listen to it in full and get a cassette.

You can find more music from the artist on their Bandcamp or you can check out more music from oof records.