Acid Klaus – Aerodromes Review

After spinning decks and crashing cars on Mediterranean islands, Acid Klaus turns inward. Flickers of terror and face-pulling anguish bled into Aerodromes, the Philly Piper-featuring first single from upcoming EP P.T.S.D. by Proxy. Fortify yourself against the horrors of the outside world. After some cheeky denouncements of freaks on the dancefloor with the exceptional You’re a Freak, it is time to tackle the real world. Acid Klaus holds no punches as they find themselves armed with those usual synth charms and a chance to knock heads in a world demanding attention. We can no longer sit by, idly spinning songs and blotting out the world around us as the presence of trouble inches closer, pillow in hand and aiming to smother. No chance for Aerodromes though, a song set on fighting the horror one groovy, outrun-style track at a time.  

Acid Klaus is not presenting an idle attempt to arm themselves against trouble but an active stance against streaming and scum. Someone had to and who better than the wry club charms of Acid Klaus? They cut through the thick waste and wonder of a world gone wrong, making sense of it all with rising techno charms. Getting it right never mattered so much and in a time where perfection is vital, Aerodromes fits well. It is a chaser to the shot of the world and its well-squeezed robotics is a thrill. Those club classics and the anthemic beat of battered electronics feeding themselves through fuzzed-out speakers feel like a shot of grounded joy and interpret those dark days, deep in the pits of a dancefloor, very well. But this is not just club fodder but an intense, sharp experience of what to do when and if warfare breaks out.  

Tense times indeed for a world which feels like it verges closer to crisis than ever before and cruising the working-class streets is where Acid Klaus and company find themselves. Little has changed in their perspective on the world since Step On My Travelator because little has changed in the world around us. Stagnation has settled in with the expected rot of the world seeing a dwindle in trust and tone. Aerodromes captures the fear, and the crawling suspicions of those quiet days with the descending note structure and whirring beats underscoring it all. Conversation has died. Acid Klaus and Piper are right. You must get it right but the need to get it right has overtaken the desire to do anything else. We dispose of anger at ourselves for not getting it done but the workload we provide, the demand we make for ourselves, overtakes anything close to idle conversation. 

Aerodromes demands you give yourself a chance. The odds are against you and they remain this way for the foreseeable. No major change is coming, and if there is one it’ll be too late to figure out what to do when it comes. Acid Klaus has another pang of anxiety-laden brilliance on their hands and while they may not have answers on what “it” is, just know you need to get it right. Broad enough for a self-insert and specific enough to provide another well-needed rallying cry to the obvious troubles of the modern day. Aerodromes blur timeless materials of significant proportion with a sound which, hopefully, finds itself aiding personal peace. We are only given one swing of the bat and after that, it is over. Get it right, Piper and Acid Klaus warn. What a start to the P.T.S.D. by Proxy days.