Skyjelly is a Boston four-piece consisting of Skyjelly Jones, Scott “Sheik” Levesque, Dave Melanson and Eric Hudson. Their latest release, Blank Panthers, was released this month and continues from the experimental, eclectic sound of 2014’s Skyjelly & SUN.
Quite how to describe Blank Panthers is definitely a challenge. Taking elements of ambient, drone, shoegaze, psychedelica and indie rock, the release consists of looped, hallucinatory soundscapes which rip up the rulebook and defy any clear label. As if not wanting to encourage too much though on the matter, opener ‘Sixes’ throws you in at the deep end. While the temptation is to grasp for threads of familiarity amidst the novel sound, the listener quickly finds that if they stop thrashing and submit to the flow, they are taken up by the current and carried along.
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‘Acosta’ is more laid back, sounding like a combination of The Stone Roses and Aero Flynn, while ‘Seamagnet’ occupies the trippy end of the spectrum and ‘Krilltastica’ inches forward with a pervasive oddness, building towards a climax which only half arrives, confounding the sense of eccentricity. Closer ‘Can’t Take My Mind’ is perhaps the most accessible track on the release, with echoes of Low, Yo La Tengo and Nathan Amundson’s Rivulets.
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With little respect for contemporary crazes and conventions, Skyjelly are the antidote to the saturated music scene where every semi-successful band comes with a thousand clones. Plug in your headphones, sit back and get lost in their peculiar world.
You can buy Blank Panthers now from the Skyjelly Bandcamp page.