Jerry Lucky

The Skys have actually been around since the mid-nineties. Hard to believe we’ve only heard of them recently. Colours of the Desert is only their second CD release but let me just say at the outset it’s quite a musical statement. The band, from Lithuania, is currently made up of Jonas Ciurlionis (guitars, vocals), Aleksandr Liutvinskij (guitars), Bozena Buinicka (keyboards, vocals) and Justinas Tamasevicius (bass). What’s also quite interesting is the assortment of guests who they’ve managed to incorporate into their music such as; Martin ‘Frosty’ Beedle (drums), David Kilminster [Roger Waters] (guitar), John Young [Bonnie Tyler, Scorpions, Fish] (keyboards), Snake Davis [Eurythmics, Ray Charles, Paul McCartney] (saxophone), Tony Spada [Holding Pattern] (guitar), Anne-Marie Helder [Mostly Autumn, Panic Room] (vocals). Colours of the Desert is made up of nine tracks, six of them over the six-minute mark, the longest being just under ten-minutes. On one hand describing the music of The Skys is quite easy; it’s a blend of Pink Floyd and European bands such as Eloy. But as in all cases it’s what they do with their influences that really matters. And here the band’s musicianship and arranging skills really shine, as does their ability write a catchy riff and hummable melody without getting lost in fancy noodling, just for the sake of playing a lot of notes. The band will take a riff or musical motif and work it, massage it into a longer piece or they’ll take a kind of bolero approach, adding and building to a riff of great intensity before shifting to another musical direction. The song “Calling out Your Name” [8:19] does this to great effect where the last half of the song simply repeats the pattern getting more and more dense. This song has become one of my all-time favorites. The mix of male and female vocals is a great touch as well especially on the track “The Pyramid” [7:26] with its hypnotic rhythm and Grace Slick-like vocals. Very trippy. Then in other places you have a nice Floyd feel but the female vocals take it in another direction. Long droning synth passages are intersected with soft and dreamy guitar lines and the tune slowly weaves around a couple melody lines, going from major to minor keys. It’s a very modern sound with a very seventies feel. It’s never very complex, but the whole disc is loaded with a nice vibe and scores of catchy chorus lines. Colours of the Desert is one of those discs or perhaps better stated, The Skys are one of those bands who manage to sound thoroughly modern and yet totally nostalgic. The influences are there and yet they take those bits and make them their own. I sure hope these guys get noticed by a label and get some solid distribution. They deserve to be heard by a much larger crowd. Nice job – loved every minute of it.