“Red Air Don’t Care” LP from Go to Space Die

The last fifteen years have seen a steady rise in the popularity of post-rock and post-metal, and while much of the aesthetical concepts explored in the album Red Air Don’t Care from Go to Space Die aren’t new ones to those who follow both of these genres, this doesn’t make the atmospheric glow of the music any less spellbinding.

From the immersive, groove-centric pull of “Way Up” to the dizzyingly surreal “Threes Away,” which opens our tracklist, there’s a lot of engrossing substance to the music contained in Red Air Don’t Care, none of which feels steeped in the self-righteousness of the countless progressive acts frequently caught flirting with post-rock themes. Granted, it’s not as heavy as Neurosis, but slowed-down juggernauts like “Jumpinthelake” are sporting as much sonic weight as they are texture, the best of which never sounds like it’s being framed in an overly conceptual song structure. Go to Space Die might be a one-man side band, but if there’s one thing certain about Red Air Don’t Care, it’s that both conventionality and fitting in with the mainstream model are not a part of this project’s grander mission. 

The guitars submit so much texture to the master mix in the slothful “Spring Ahead,” Jawbreaker-reminiscent “Sheets,” and cutting “Rollaway,” but scarcely is there an instance in which physicality is taking the place of genuine melodic substance. Contrarily, the fluidity of the tracklist isn’t reliant on tempo nor tone to remain consistent, but instead the adventurousness of the fretwork in songs like the aforementioned “Way Up” and “Threes Away.”

BANDCAMP: https://gotospacedie.bandcamp.com/album/red-air-dont-care

There are admittedly a few moments in which this feels like a personal project a player who has so much to experiment with creatively but such a limited space in which to do so, but this doesn’t impede the climax of the material in “Queen D” or the concluding “Jumpinthelake” at all – the exact opposite, truth be told. Lyrics would have got in the way of a masterpiece like “Air and Land,” and I don’t think you have to listen to Red Air Don’t Care more than a single time through to appreciate the value of its linguistic-less expressions. 

It’s still early on in the year, but this just might end up being one of the most compelling instrumental works I hear in 2022 unless Go to Space Die’s peers can pull up their game significantly between now and the start of the spring season. With both brawn and brains to be enjoyed in every one of the eight tracks here, there’s really not a dull moment to be observed in Red Air Don’t Care, and that’s not something you can count on hearing a whole lot of when reading music reviews these days.

This is a full-bodied depiction of what a master solo project can produce when insularity is replaced by introspection, and although there’s still a lot of ground left to cover artistically, I think it’s fair to say that Go to Space Die is on the right track in this LP. 

Mindy McCall