Sky Sunlight Saxon and The Seeds

Album of the day

Flashback

by SKY SAXON'S U.S.A.

Flashback by Sky Saxon's U.S.A. proves that, despite his reputation for sticking doggedly to one narrow type of music his whole career, Sky Saxon in fact released a wide range of music in addition to his better-known garage-punk nuggets. Still, you've never heard Sky Saxon like he is on this anomalous, obscure CD from 1991. Flashback, released on a label called Ocean (ORCD 1-2), consisted mostly of Sky and his friend Dana Smith, who took care of the arrangements, and some guests (such as Mars Bonfire on one track). The songs themselves, like the mixing, are credited to Sky and Dana (except Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender"). Most of Flashback is covered in 1980s-era drum machines and Pointer Sisters-esque synthesizers, an incongruously professional sheen never even hinted at on any Sky project before. Having ridden the late 80s psychedelic revival as far as he could, perhaps Sky was miffed that he hadn't truly reclaimed the limelight as much as he might have hoped. His most recent releases at the time, a pair of albums with his band Dragonslayers in 1989-90, had not made any impact whatsoever on the market. By 1991 he seemed up for anything — even, say, crisp