Skylab's first collective presentation to the music business, #1, takes the listener on a ride of sound effects characterized by chaotic order: Programming was minimized in favor of an open aesthetic of experimentations, intuition, precision, conclusion and spontaneity. The members of Skylab] discovered a mutual love for all things funky, groovy, beautiful, bizarre and psychedelic. Thus in early 1994, the Skylab project was born.
Matt Ducasse, Howie B, Tosh and Kudo -- collectively Skylab -- have created an impressive first work, primarily because of the truly ordered chaos. Skylab #1 is a collection of various sound effects and experimentation, a dreamlike sequence with a general flow and distinctive quality.
Though the consensus that the music could be classifiable as trip-hop exists, Matt Ducasse suggests that #1 is experimental and not necessarily classifiable. In a 1994 interview with The Face, he said, "People are already labelling us trip hop, just because we mix ambience and drum beats, but the album is more of an exploration of sound. Sometime we just sat around banging tin cans or bits of rubbish.
"River of Bass" is something you would expect to hear as the suspense segment of a science fiction film circa the eighties, an exploratory journey into a new dimension. The slow, systematic rhythm of "Seashell" mixes interestingly with the vocals to reinforce Ducasse's statement of unclassifiability.
Like night and day, one further hears "Depart," the ultimate techno-cowboy blues lament, then "Next," a serene contribution to the collection, analagous as the concept of surrealism is to art: distinctive and integral. Similarly, "Electric Blue" tends to evoke images of a mystical, barren and windy landscape.
Skylab #1 is an eclectic walk through an ethereal environment.
