Sky Cries Mary
This Timeless Turning

Sky Cries Mary are a Boston-based group formed in 1989. Initially, they played primarily live avant-garde compositions that were almost exclusively percussive. Later, their sound began to shape itself as a hybrid of the most mystical space rock and psychedelia, with slight industrial traces. The album in question (1994) is their best work and represents one of the most original and intense experiences of the American indie scene. The vocals are entrusted to the splendid voice of Anisa Romero (who joined three years after the band was formed), capable of reaching almost mystical heights, such is her power and ethereal quality.

The opening "Shipwrecked" mixes orchestral symphonies with a vaguely tribal rhythm with a hypnotic pace, while the following "Vuh" is a marvelous example of hallucinatory expansion for Romero's voice, capable of exploding luminously like a supernova in the majestic chorus of "Don't Forget The Sky," a marvelous example of their "space" music. The anxious progression of "Deep Sunless Sea" scarred by sinister electric guitar phrases, recalls the more esoteric harmonies of gothic groups like Dead Can Dance, ending with a long tail of reverb of clear psychedelic origin. Here, Anisa Romero uses her voice as an instrument, intertwining her warbles with the fluid notes of the guitar. In the splendid "These Old Bones," she instead becomes a bewitching siren, laid on sparkling chimes of crystalline notes, cradled by the breeze of a softly caressed drum.
Sky Cries Mary unleash their experimental desires in the long instrumental suite of "4:00 A.M." (14 minutes), where it seems like listening to Pink Floyd under the influence of ambient temptations, dissolved in vast, infinite spaces, on the edge of the most metaphysical new age.

In short, no doubt about it, this is undoubtedly one of the most successful works of "made in U.S.A." psychedelia, unfortunately (and there's no point in repeatedly lamenting the same refrain) overshadowed by the smoke of much over-promoted garbage and limited by the poor dissemination of independent labels.