By Cory Zechmann | August 21st, 2010
Air 2 A Bird was born out of an unfortunate incident, to put it kindly. Gabriel Teodros was beginning his world tour in London when he was stopped by border patrol. He was subsequently sent back to New York and the tour was cancelled. Fortunately, though, this is what sparked Gabriel to team up with Amos Miller and collaborate as Air 2 A Bird.
The band’s first LP, Crow Hill, has an interesting theme to it. Along with their group/album name, the instrumentals center around birds. It took some time to get my head around it, but I’m getting use to the sounds of nature in a lot of different music these days, and I like it. Birds aren’t the sole theme on Crow Hill, however, there seems to be an underlining topic in the lyrics as well.
From the start, the two make their issue with Heathrow’s border security clear – it was partly the reason for Crow Hilll‘s creation. But other than that, there’s nothing but love in this album. It’s painted with that soulful flavor I’ve grown to love with these two, considering they also worked on Gabriel’s Lovework together. Crow Hill may not have stacked up to Lovework‘s consistency, but it definitely had its moments.
“Let’s Ride” caught my attention first with its smooth beat and soulful chorus. The duo, however, didn’t flow on this one nearly as well as they did on the next track, “We Gon Get It”. Both were as fluid as the air is fine, especially with that fun-loving beat reminiscent of an Abyssinian Creole joint – another one of Gabriel’s previous projects. If you want to check out the rest of their album head over to Air 2 A Bird’s Bandcamp for a listen.
It’s good to hear the last word wasn’t that of a foolish misconception, but of a certain humility that could only be told by ’2 songbirds from the 206′.