Sky Furrows

November 07, 2020

Sky Furrows - s/t

Poetry across crystalline music. The rhythm of guitar, bass and drums driving emotions into the depths of mind and body. Words describing dreams and a surreal splintered reality. Together, vocal reciting and tightly played music are both soothing and penetrating. Everything like lying on the acupuncture table, the intensity of pins piercing the skin is offset by the pinpoint pressure relaxing the nerves. Sky Furrows balances many attributes with beautiful agility. Beatnik origins escorted with exponential gracefulness into modern times. Poetry beyond its hours. Sonic process weighting absorbing thoughts.

Four artists, Karen Schoemer using voice, Mike Griffin playing guitar, Eric Hardiman picking the bass and Phil Donnelly behind the drums. For all the music that is new and fresh, creativity is fueled by love and inspiration from the past. These five selections are clear and beautiful. Production and style allowing each artist to equal each other in pure discernible impact. A progressive rock vibe throwing back to the timbre of the mid nineties. Karen's vocals hang in the indescribable region just between spoken word and song. From start to finish each track seams to pick up just a little bit of steam. The first track "Alyohsa" uncovering the bones of No Trend's Teen Love. This is followed by the longest track titled "Ensenada", a slower paced storm finding connections with Ann Magnuson's work on Bongwater's Double Bummer album. The entire musical tone sending thoughts back to Double Nickels on the Dime, gorgeously controlled power. Sky Furrows plays like a snowball growing as it tumbles down the mountain. The last two tracks are faster paced with the final "Foreign Cities" selection accumulating musical raw energy and poetry, all harnessed in mesmerizing ways. This brings the last take away to a favorite from the northeast, Hamill on Trial, who needed to be mentioned when listening to Sky Furrows.

Released on vinyl in joint efforts by the labels Tape Drift Records, Skell Records & Philthy Rex Records. You can pick this up from the bandcamp page or email Eric Hardiman from his Tape Drift page. For a debut composition, it will be difficult to get better than this. These artists can probably do it though. Really good!