AMG Review of From the Sky

Rick Anderson
All Music Guide

Composer Ryan Farish is heard most widely by those who consult The Weather Channel on a regular basis; his talents have also been utilized for in-house purposes by such major corporations as IBM and Sun Microsystems. These two facts may lead you to expect numbingly pleasant, utterly boring music with a professional sheen and a saccharin-sweet favor. You'd be only about one-third right. It's true that Farish's music is about as intellectually challenging as ~People magazine. But that's not to say that it's either boring or syrupy. Remember the Ramones: intellectually speaking, their music wasn't even up to ~People standards (it was more like ~The Weekly World News), but that doesn't mean their songs weren't spectacular. While Farish is no Joey Ramone, his ability to mix luscious, piano-driven chord progressions with funky breakbeats and faux-ethnic vocals (a vaguely African-sounding children's choir here, a vaguely Celtic-sounding female singer there) makes his most simplistic compositions both genuinely listenable and even, at times, downright fascinating. Not all of them, mind you -- "Legacy" is pretty embarrassing -- but many of them. Note the artfully wielded vocal samples on "Miles Away," for example, and the subtle trip-hop intimations in the gently swinging title track. Recommended to those who are embarrassed to admit that they like new age music.