The Aerial Maps – In the Blinding Sunlight

In the Blinding Sunlight – The Ariel Maps

By Chris Peken

Adam Gibson has stolen my memories. Or perhaps more correctly, if you take William S Borroughs’ point of view – that though the magic of words, sounds and smells we all time travel back to times and places long gone – Adam Gibson has provided me with my Tardis. In the Blinding Sunlight is eleven Polaroid snapshots into a quintessentially Australian experience of growing up over the last forty-plus years. Hot Milo, custard tarts, Place Without a Postcard, milkshakes on long road-trips, sweaty skin sticking to vinyl car seats, Easts, non-specific coastal roads, the blinding Australian sunlight… these are the memories and experiences that  populate Adam Gibson’s short, spoken-word stories; and The Ariel Maps – featuring musical maestro Simon Holmes (Hummingbirds) and the backing vocals of Lucy Lehmann – colour in his landscape. On the Punt is without doubt the most compelling and touching ode from son to father via a phone-tab account. Adam Gibson looks a bit like Mick Doohan (without the limp), sounds a bit like him too, but that’s neither here nor there. In the Blinding Sunlight is an original and compelling album.

**** 1/2