[2] The album was directly influenced by Tangerine Dream and Cluster. [10] Writer John Kealy nonetheless notes: "It is hard truly pin it down as it never settles into the easy drones that many Kosmische groups often employ. He felt that the album "cleansed [his ears] in a way rarely achieved by any medical intervention" and felt the album was suitable for "when I need to clear the cobwebs from my mind. Originally released on Groovy in 1980 A pre- Buzzcocks outing from their chief songwriter, Sky Yen is a song-free excursion into raw synthetic oscillation waves, setting the tone for what Groovy could be before those parameters had been established, or even sighted. "[11], In the years after completing Sky Yen, Shelley would listen to it in headphones while lying in the dark and also play it to guests, describing it as "great at clearing parties. [6], Marking Shelley's first foray into electronica,[7] Sky Yen exemplifies Shelley's early taste for Germanic electronic music,[8] and contains his home-made reel of electronic experiments,[1] conducted on the musician's single oscillator as opposed to fully-fledged electronic instruments. [1] He later said: "I became another resistance, and so had a touch-sensitive way of coming up with really weird things. "[16] Sky Yen was re-released by Drag City on 6 December 2011[17] as part of the label's reissues of the full Groovy Records catalogue. He would purchase magazines that contained diagrams of electronic devices buyers could create, one of which he later described as "a simple thing where you could get one of those etch resist pens and a sheet of plastic with copper on one side, and you could draw your circuit on this, then put it in an acid bath to dissolve the copper, except for the bits where you'd drawn this thing, and then you could solder your components in, and you ended up with this thing that made a siren noise. [6] Shelly recalled that, upon release, Sky Yen "sold loads, because people were expecting it to be me singing pop songs and they weren't expecting this noise that came out. Sold by Amazon.com Services LLC. [1] According to Shelley, he would "[play] the tapes just for myself" until, when starting the label, thought, "Why not put this out? He felt Sky Yen was a "real gem for the noise enthusiast," but noted what he felt was the absence of "any true compositions across its two 20-minute tracks. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. Check out Sky Yen by Pete Shelley on Amazon Music. "[15] Critic Dave Thompson described Shelley's oscillator experiments on the album as "sufficient", and counted the record alongside works by The Future, Cabaret Voltaire and Thomas Leer in that all "were all stepping out in one form or another and looking, too, towards an icy electronic future. He added a potentiometer, which he described as "a good resistor," to the device so he could alter the pitch, and purchased a Tandberg two-track stereo recorder which allowed him to "do sound on sound by bouncing from one track to another. Your Amazon Music account is currently associated with a different marketplace. [8] The record features two 20-minute tracks,[4] and is characterised by the usage of drones, oscillations and noise. [11] The album also featured alongside other Groovy albums in Drag City's 2012 box set The Total Groovy. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. [1] Buzzcocks biographer Tony McGartland notes the album was recorded in Shelley's living room, and highlights the influence of krautrock bands like Kraftwerk, Can and Faust. Additional taxes may apply. Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books. Ged Babey of Louder Than War felt that Sky Yen was "hugely noncommercial" given Shelley's recognition as a pop lyricist in a punk band, and described it as "in a way his Metal Machine Music." The album surprised fans expecting pop music, and received a hostile reception. "[4] David Sprague of Spin commented that the "self-indulgent" album "sounded more like a mosquito dive-bombing a cheap tube amp than anything else. [18], Adapted from the liner notes of Sky Yen[19], "Consisting solely of shifting oscillator patterns, this is a far cry from the short, choppy punk he is best known for yet is just as engaging as his more famous efforts. "[2], Recorded on Shelley's purpose-built oscillator in March 1974,[3] Sky Yen was Shelley's first known recording, and predates his time with punk rock band Buzzcocks, his best known project. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1980 Vinyl release of Sky Yen on Discogs. "[8], Sam Adams of The A.V. Stream ad-free or purchase CD's and MP3s now on Amazon.com. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. After developing an interest in electronic music, Shelley created a single electronic oscillator with an added potentiometer, and recorded the album on the device in his living room while utilising a two-track stereo recorder. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Sky Yen is the first album recorded by English musician Pete Shelley, recorded in March 1974 and released by his label Groovy Records in April 1980. Although recorded in 1974, Sky Yen went unreleased for six years until after Shelley had earned recognition in the punk rock band Buzzcocks. [12] The album's release came after Buzzcocks' control over the production of their music ensured Shelley could launch his own record label. ", "I Hate Finishing Things When I Don't Have To: Pete Shelley Interviewed", "PETE SHELLEY Cinema Music and Wallpaper Sounds", "Pete Shelley: Cinema Music & Wallpaper Sounds – Album Review", "AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sky_Yen&oldid=981278882, Experimental music albums by English artists, Short description is different from Wikidata, Album articles lacking alt text for covers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 1 October 2020, at 10:36. 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