2005 Granite Records Official Site

Review by Rob Kern 

I’ll admit it right off the bat, I’m a clueless American.  The only thing I know about Trinidad and Tobago is that they have a port called Man O War Bay (Other Bay’s play, Manowar… sorry I couldn’t resist.)  I had no idea what to expect when I opened up the debut release from Orange Sky, Upstairs.  Would it be full out metal, salsa, island music, reggae or rock?  Actually, it turns out to be a mixture of all those styles, the question is, does it fly? 

Orange Sky formed three years ago in the Trinidad/Port-Of-Spain region and after moving 10,000 units in the Caribbean have decided to hit the shores of Europe and North America.  Upstairs features an upbeat hard rock vibe that contains hints of Living Colour and King’s X mixed into a roots rock-ish groove.  Vocalist/Guitarist Nigel Rojas displays solid vocal and lead chops throughout the disc, especially on numbers such as “Escape” and “It’s Over.”  A spot on rendition of the Cat Stevens tune “Peace Train” suits Nigel’s vocals to a tee.  Long time producer Jeff Glixman capably handles production work, although I feel at times the band comes off as a bit restrained in the studio.  Not to say the band comes off light, listening to the tunes I at times get the feeling of a muscle car being held to the speed limit, you can feel them wanting to break out and kick up the rpms.  Not to worry, one of my favorite bands, Cheap Trick, has suffered from this at times; I’m guessing Orange Sky will smoke these tunes live just like the lads of Rockford, Illinois do when they hit the stage.  

Bottom Line: A solid debut effort that at times feels restrained on cd, let’s hope that Granite Records is serious about breaking them in Europe and North America; here’s to opening up Orange Sky’s throttle live and seeing what they can do. 

GRADE: 74/100