- Released: 1998
- Origin: Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA
- Label: Cherry Coated
- Best Track: Mary’s Shadow
I didn’t realise that Oliver Ackermann of the ridiculously loud A Place to Bury Strangers was previously involved an a band called Skywave that put out five or six albums of their own between 1998 and 2004. Their debut, Took the Sun, is hard to get hold of, or at least it would be if someone hadn’t uploaded it on YouTube.
It’s a rough, primitive listen, but enjoyable. As with APTBS, the music is laiden with effects, but the limited recording quality means they sound muffled and compressed. I don’t really mind that though, as you’ve just got to take the record for what it is – a young band on a shoestring budget cutting their teeth as songwriters.
There is a bit of a reliance on their forefathers at times (opener ‘Drive’ borrows pretty heavily from My Bloody Valentine’s ‘You Made Me Realise’), but in other parts, there’s some real songwriting craft. I love the changes of pace and galloping drums of the largely instrumental ‘Mary’s Shadow’.
Not bad at all, and there must have been signs when listening to this in 1998 that Ackermann would go on to bigger things.
366Music 