Welcome to ‘The Aviation Station’, a 10-stop trip of experimental, psych-rock from Essex-based Twenny Bucks, who had been sitting on these demos for some time and decided to grace the alt-rock community with an official release. Each track is from the most unusual, often very specific, parts of the artist’s brain as he coats genuine feelings in chaos, to blunt the impact and make sure we don’t feel the emotions too much.
Sharing a name with London Oxford Airport’s hearty cafe, which keeps flyers satiated before they head into the skies, the impression is that this album is intended to be its sonic equivalent: psyching up listeners for the feats ahead. ‘Small Green Frog’ opens us up to the curious sounds and themes locked inside the ‘’Station’, with a driving beat from its first seconds. Its lyrics are more nuanced than you might expect from the name; creeping into existentialism and the ease of life that would come with being a small, green frog - cutting between theatrical spoken lines to high-pitched harmonising with the instrument’s upper notes to emphasise the fact, also accompanied by a “brain rot music video”.
‘FIZZY’ takes aim at the surface-level pleasure of having a sweet tooth before distorting, in both its sound and lyrics, to the underside of those cravings being weaponised against him in a heavily guitar-driven, busy soundscape that implies confusion around enjoying food.
Vacillating, grungy riffs on ‘Cherrypicker’ make it one of the most serious, standout tracks of the album, among the disordered energy to prove that there are two sides to Twenny Bucks and adding to this release’s pleasing unpredictability. ‘I’ve Changed My Mind’ matches this heaviness with weighty, metallic tones layered with the cries of an electric guitar.
The album’s title track is layered with the lexicon you’d expect from a departure lounge, with mentions of a “6am beer” and taking aim at extortion: “My nose is bleeding with the price of bottled water”. For all the noise that fills this album, there are many, very valid points made throughout that hint much of its words are derived from the things that piss the musician off - to put it frankly. ‘JBQ’ which stands for Jack Black Quack, is essentially just a tribute (“not the greatest song in the world”.. anyone?) to the erratic half of Tenacious D and acclaimed American actor. Beginning with a speech in the artist’s British accent, it contrasts the Americanism listeners might expect from the name of his musical alias
“Strap in, you won’t forget me” screeches as traversing strings bring a backwards energy on 'Glass Canon’ that sucks you in to its muffled lyrics. ’I’ll Wait’ begins histrionically and distorted, the lyrics not always audible until lines like “I can’t quench my thirst” break through. In its six-minute entirety, its lack of structure is the equivalent of a crash-out, maybe the type that is soothed with “brain rot”.
‘Dandelion’ initially slow keys suggest we're in for a slow track but not before the drums and lightly-autotune vocals kick in: rising around the one-minute mark as the singer wails are muffled and electrified before boiling over into full-blown screams of “I fuck up every day” as the messiness that has distracted from the frustration on the other tracks (but not ‘JBQ’ of course, that’s a happy Jack Black tribute) is fully unleashed. With all the emotion being poured into the other nine tracks, ‘Bleed’ acts as a slow closing credit.
Truthfully, ‘The Aviation Station’ is a wacky 38 minutes spent, but it’s impressive Twenny Bucks cuts this with genuinely memorable tracks and sounds that scratch the itch of an unusual, off-beat rock album.
Kai Palmer
Image: ‘The Aviation Station’ Official Album Cover
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