TURBULENCE

Definitely a much harder to find album than its predecessor, but it proves worth the search. Lancaster had left prior to the recording of this album, leaving Aviator a guitar/bass/drums trio. Musically, it's anything but your typical power-trio album. In fact, it's in the same basic jazz-tinged prog-rock style as the first Aviator album. Only minus the sax. There's even some synth here and there, some of it patently Perry's pedals, but the spacey effects at the beginning of "Strange Worlds" suggest something more. Perhaps a guitar synth? It's possible, what with all that woodwind synth all over their previous album.

The short songs aren't as strong this time round (I admit I balked a bit when I first heard "Way Of The World"), but the album improves quickly, with some excellent exploratory tracks taking you to bold new places that most guitar/based/drums configurations never dared to go. "Fallen Star" and "Strange Worlds" are both superb, but it's the title song, with it's dynamite 7/4 rhythm, that most appeals to me from this one. A worthy follow-up on their great debut disc.