“There is another sky, serene and fair; And there is another sunshine, though it be darkness there”
Fiction Records have long been home to a staggering throng of unique talents and their newest comes in the shape of London’s newest experimental outfit, Another Sky.
After releasing their first single, ‘Forget Yourself‘, at the year’s waking, Another Sky’s presence has remained cloaked in mystery and the trend continues with the release of their debut EP.
Where lies extensive enigma, there are things they cannot hide from their curious audience; gorgeous production, cinematic musicality, sage and poetic permeations in every lyric and a voice so luxuriant, it could soothe the cacophonous roars of thunder.
We were reading about sang culture; the beauty of finding happiness in the small things, our expectations versus reality, questioning the apathy of it.
Title track, ‘Forget Yourself‘, opens this enchanting collection and cements the tone with it’s filmic and progressive journey. A humble musing; ‘Forget Yourself’ speaks of the generational need to forget individualism and regain a sense of hope and community. A gentle heartbeat of electronic glitches play guide to this delicately deceiving number while it prowls through its majestic journey; as it continues to rise toward it’s August crescendo like an immaculately sculpted story.
A nighttime tale, lit by the romantic warmth of moonlight – ‘Fighting Bulls’ is the track to bare the most teeth.
While the guitar, awash in a lunar glow, drapes itself over the song’s limitless skies, the vocals form a pristine marriage in an almost-call-and-response manner with their monumental growth. Where the guitar remains constant in its powerful tones, the vocals provide the soft-spoken narrative before building to a heavenly finish of sonic grandeur.
Equally as deceptive as the calm of ‘Forget Yourself’, ‘All That We Do Create’ opens with Wolf Alice esq punk rock guitars before retreating behind stuttering beats and bass to make way for the lead vocalist’s entrancing falsetto during the chorus. An unexpected star in this song, is the piano; as the vocals retreat, an hypnotic melody enters in a most graceful dance among the racing beats and create a brand new foundation as the song holds onto this glorious tone that allows for the incoming celestial apex.
“If you make sure you stay low, it will never feel like you’re sinking”
The band speaks of this song:
It’s a conversation with someone at the point of a mental breakdown. The lyrics are trying to comfort them as they question the point of being an artist. They’re pointing out the ironic futility of worrying about anything at all. You may as well just find happiness in whatever it is you create.
Finally, ‘The Water Below‘ brings the EP to a delicate close. The band arrangement dwindles down to it’s the sparsest incarnation; silken vocals encircled by reverberating space, soft piano and submerged percussion all held together by elysian ambient textures.
As a collective, “Forget Yourself” demonstrates a band with plenty of skill and synchronicity as they effortlessly thread the worlds of Electronica, Prog-Rock and Ambient music together; like an intricately designed, yet slightly off-kilter fusion of Ludovico Einaudi, Radiohead and Mogwai.
Though their first release finds them hidden in the shadows, I can guarantee the course of 2018 will bring them into the light with more exciting projects. Stay tuned, buy the “Forget Yourself” EP and listen to ‘All That We Do Create’ below.