Description

Everything with this release pretty much reveals what one is up for in regards of the sonic output. The band name Ancient Sky, the album title T.R.I.P.S, the affiliation with Robotic Empire and not to mention the artwork itself screams of substance (ab)use, long hair and affection for things made forty years ago. Had no idea who this band was, but after a quick google search reveals that none other than members of Majority Rule, City of Caterpillar, Verse En Coma, Darkest Hour, Little Gold and most likely a whole bunch of other bands. Not sure if this got me more or less exited, but these are talented dudes and if someone were to be able to pull something like this off it could very well be these guys.

The 7 songs on this LP is planted with one foot in the 70’s rock territory and the other in the psychedelia that was the 60’s. At times it reminds me a whole lot of bands like Earthless, but there is more pop structure, melody and songs are in general shorter so there is no ‘time’ hammering away on the same riff or idea for minutes and minutes on end. The latter can definitely have an effect in music like this, but the shorter approach of Ancient Sky has it’s clear benefit that ideas and parts of the songs never get boring. They do stumble into less good territory every now and then, especially on the opening off ‘Ray Bradbury’ but as a whole there is a whole lot of greatness here. From the groovy Black Mountain-esque ‘Wooden Ear’, via the laid back floating ‘All Colors at Once’ to the pure atmospheric title track ‘T.R.I.P.S’, Ancient Sky show that they clearly know what they are doing.