The Skies We Built

The Skies We Built (2006)

Brian Shultz

Upon receiving the Skies We Built's self-titled debut and remembering the band billed itself as ex-Ateriavia, anticipation had immediately set in. So when I popped in the disc and found the first few songs completely void of the frantic, spastic energy that permeated Ateriavia's Regarding the Midwest: Sleeping EP, I ended up shelving the disc for a number of months. But every time I would scour my promo pile for the staff reviewers to send them a package of generally unwanted crap, I'd come across The Skies We Built and put it aside, just in case I'd ever give it another chance. That chance finally occurred recently, and I officially accepted that while the Skies We Built share virtually no similarities with the aforementioned band half their lineup arrived from, they did produce a release that's just as enjoyable.

It's sort of boggling that Lujo Records, who released Aterivia's Regarding EP, didn't handle The Skies We Built too; this full-length would make an ideal companion to the album the Kidcrash released on Lujo, or Look Mexico's forthcoming. You could sort of get a sense of what the Skies We Built sound like just from the opening song's title: "We Build Clouds to Fill Small Skies," which comes across a lot like a more vocal-heavy American Football, and while less obvious from that point on, it's arguably descriptive of the album. The Skies We Built carry that same free-form style of flowing, dreamy arrangements, with more of an indie pop sense bubbling below the surface quite often.

By relying, however, more on the sweet, semi-falsetto of ringleader David Paha, the Skies We Built manage to convey some beautiful moments and a little more of a dynamic. The inclusion of animated piano and Paha's pretty voice on the chorus cause "Arms Around" to favorably sound like a more modestly produced Copeland. Paha has an impressively soaring voice when he tests it, as in "Cells Divide Themselves." However, he doesn't necessarily need to always sing for there to be great times; "We Are Not Machines…" is a layered, instrumental cacophony that moves at a deliberate, compelling pace and abruptly ends perfectly. More activity of this variety occurs in the wandering, six-minute long and somewhat aimless but pleasant-as-background-noise "…We Are But Men."

The Skies We Built is definitely accomplished as one should expect from a group of fairly seasoned musicians, but it also shows just how versatile they can be from one project to the other.