Search - Black Sun Ensemble :: Sky Pilot

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Eric Vondy | Phoenix | 12/14/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Very interesting stuff. If you like Calexico or Friends of Dean Martinez you won't be disappointed by this. They're also Meat Puppetesque. This is all good as they are from Tucson (like Calexico and Friends; the Puppets are from Phoenix) and the sound falls neatly into the Sonoran or Tucson or Arizona sound. BSE is Jesus Acedo. The story behind the CD is that Acedo is a schizophrenic. In 1994 during a bout of the disorder he burned (as in set on fire) most of the CDs that had been pressed as well as destroying his music gear. His family intervened and got him help. Several years later Rich Hopkins from San Jacinto records cleaned up remastered that 1994 CD and released it with some new and additional material as Sky Pilot. So as to the sound, it's a mish-mash of Latin and Middle Eastern lashed in with more traditional rock/punk/prog music. In other words, pretty hard to classify. Its mostly instrumental and has acoustic guitar, bass, drums, some clarinet, some electric guitar. The music doesn't follow any sort of traditional verse-chorus-verse structure."

Black Sun Ensemble - 'Sky Pilot' (Camera Obscura)

Mike Reed | USA | 05/16/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"'Sky Pilot' was the neo-psych band's fifth effort.Not quite what I was hoping for.A friend recommended this disc to me.Not saying it isn't any good,just wasn't my cup of tea.A couple of tracks that sort of held my interest were the 22-minute opener "Sky Pilot Suite/Dove Of The Desert/Clear Yellow Days" and "Cherokee Mist".Might appeal to fans of Flaming Lips,Holy River Family Band and maybe Meat Puppets or Julian Cope.See what you think."