Review from the Scottish music magazine 'Is This Music', it appeared in the July issue.....

Skyless - "On The Verge" (Starbar Records)

Most people's musical tastes are, in part, a reaction against the music their Dad likes. But, what if your Dad listened to Joy Division, the Clash, Bowie? Where is there to go from there? Here's the answer - Led Zeppelin.

The debut LP by Edinburgh band Skyless, formerly Omerta, sounds like a best of Led Zeppelin. Each track sounds as if it was taken from a different Zep album - 'Lay Me Down's "Houses of the Holy" bonk (sounding not a thousand miles from Soundgarden), nestles alongside the "Zep I" boogie of 'Platinum Girl', right through to the title track's "In Through The Out Door" rock with synths. Stretching it further, penultimate track "Hip Flask Honk" could've been on Page & Plant's "Unledded", dangerous elements of world music entering the fray. Alarmingly, album closer "Devil May Care" descends from Robert Plant's new solo LP (think Zep with a machine groove) into avant garde electronica; haunting violin, Four Tet-style reversed organ, glitchy guitar stabs and a skittering, sequenced drum pattern - early sampler pioneers nicked John Bonham's skyscraping breaks, and here's Zep copyists stealing their techniques and reintegrating it, squaring the circle.

And the absurd thing is, it's not half bad. You could convince yourself you were listening to the originals, such is the technical precision and musicianship on display here. Maybe I'll have a rummage through my Dad's dusty old LPs.....

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