Quite by chance, whilst making an effort to reconnect with what might be cooking in Melbourne’s live music culture (some 600km away unfortunately), I came across the work of Skye Klein. Didn’t know what to expect quite honestly, as with nervous anticipation the headphones were donned and his Bandcamp site opened.
Music of what might be deemed “this genre”, isn’t something I can confess to being very knowledgeable of, though I’d been enjoying work of boundary-pushing musicians for many years. It was only recently that there was a dreampop special on Rage, which triggered fond memories of distortion, feedback, walls of layering and ethereal melodies. As it happens, Skye’s work is really something else though, challenging and surpassing whatever preconceptions I had before letting these ears feast.
Artful expression abounds, with A Beautiful Machine catching listeners unawares, and solidly crushing them with equal measures of depth, allure and the heaviest kind of wallowing sonic fog. The end result, is quite wonderful. Breaths and the lightest of guitar work, glides above the words of some lost soul, tides of static ebbing in the background. Then silence, a delectable feature all so missing in so much art. Soon enough, the seething waters rise once more, and carry you away to other shade-covered lands.
Here and there, you’ll hear the sounds of a saxophone, the work of one Terry Vainoras. You’re starting to get comfortable in this mind-enshrouding abyss, when a drum joins the waiting spectres, with doomy guitar chords chasing in their wake. There is piano too, and moments of peace within this work which allow the listener to take a ragged breath, and prepare for what is to come.
This is a beautiful and professional work, which I’m thrilled and honored to open this site’s review section with. Thank you, Skye!