High Ceiling

Illusions

"The energy of the band kept everyone asking for more. High Ceiling jams with high intensity throughout their whole performance and has a sound of their own that excites all genres and ages." - Ron Childers - Campus Booking Agent, Olympic College

As a staple of the Northwestern music scene, Washington’s High Ceiling has played hundreds of shows alongside some of the biggest names in Jam-Rock and Reggae, including JOHN BROWN’S BODY and GARAJ MAHAL. The group even organizes its own festival, the Skok Valley Music Rally. This weekend long festival takes place in August near Shelton, WA and features many of the best bands in the region in a cool outdoor setting. While the band is known for long improvised sections that make each live show unique, they have managed to capture their energetic live show complete with jams on their second full length studio album, Illusions.

High Ceiling fuses the classic Roots, Rock and Reggae sound of groups like EASY STAR ALLSTARS or UB40 with unpredictable instrumental tangents similar to bands like TEA LEAF GREEN. The opening track “Illlusions” begins with a rather unassuming Hammond organ, but soon hits hard with a heavy dose of deep bass and percussive reggae grooves. Some tracks like “High and Lifted” or ”The Golden Rule” stay within the confines of reggae while some like “A Fire” and “Ubuntu” mix improvisational bits with odd time signatures and face-melting solos over the straight dub vamps. The lyrics are generally true to the genre, lush with the political and social commentary of classic Jamaican music. Some songs even abandon the style completely such as the R&B vibe of “Don’t Hesitate” or the mellow piano of “My Girl.” The album concludes with the ironically titled and fantastically epic jam “Reality.”