Summer is here in all its blazing glory, and in honor of the summer solstice The Sky Drops released a five-track EP, ‘Making Mountains.’ This Delaware duo provides a powerfully enveloping sound with guitar, drums, and vocals in a manner described as ‘gaze-grunge goodness.’
Together since 2006, Rob Montejo and Monika Bullette each bring a richness of previous experience, Montejo from his days in one of the original American shoegaze bands Smashing Orange, and Bullette from her time singing with NERO and drumming for Licorice Roots. A solidly DIY band, The Sky Drops have self-mananged and self-booked their way into sharing a stage with Cold War Kids, Chairlift, Lights, The Dirty Projectors, and others while touring throughout the United States and the UK. They performed at the Ambient/Psych Rock Fest in Boston, as well as the Austin Psych Fest this past April.
From the first squeal of feedback, Making Mountains sends you on a trip a la 70s psychedelic melodies, 90s shoegaze grooves, and second-millennium guitar fuzz. Walls undulate and colors swirl when hearing this music.
“Explain It to Me” sets the mood of bewilderment perfectly, singing of dark and light storms raging. The song is not so much catchy as completely captivating. Next up, the increasing drums and swelling vocal echoes of “Cut That Corner” can be likened to the calls of ominous angels, warning, “Anyway you cut that corner, it’s gonna hurt come hell or high water.”
Centering the album, “Keeper” combines a prominent rock beat and revving guitar to propel the dreamy soundscape. The Sky Drops accompany these entrancing sequences with the challenge to “Keep on trying to keep awake.” Reality beckons at the door, but enthralled with the music, you will likely refuse to answer.
Orchestral vibrations arise from “Out the Window” like a curling ocean wave set to fold into a bubbling foamy flood. The Sky Drops allows the waves to retreat however with the scaled down finishing song, “Together-ing.” Deep rumbles emphasize that “the songs of heaven are weathering truth.” The timeless simplicity of electro-acoustic guitar and pure vocal harmonies leaves a lingering sweetness in the final notes.
The Sky Drops proves that the combination of the right two people can create incredibly powerful music. Similarly, with a mere handful of tracks, ‘Making Mountains’ is thoroughly awe-inspiring.
Rating: 4.5/5
Listen to Making Mountains at theskydrops.bandcamp.com. For a limited time, The Sky Drops are giving free copies of their 2008 full length album Bourgeois Beat. Listen to and buy Making Mountains and get a free download of Bourgeois Beat.
Tour Dates
Friday 26 August 2011 – Baltimore Independent Music
& Arts Festival @ Joe Squared
The Sky Drops with Free Electric State, Gray Young, and Solar Temple Suicides
Resonance 