“The more I listen Spyra, the more I discover an interesting artist that is not afraid to melt contemporary EM with retro Berlin School”
1 Shirogane 9:32
2 Rantum Random 10:26
3 Operation PPG 16:30
4 Treskow Bridge 7:10
5 Below 20 19:09
Bonus Track:
6 Future Of The Past EleKtriK 3:50
(CD/DDL 66:41) (V.F.)
(EDM, Berlin School)
The more I listen to Spyra, the more I discover an interesting artist who’s not afraid to melt contemporary EM with retro Berlin School and a zest of jazz lounge. Inspired by his many travels during his concerts tour, GASOLINE-91 OCTANE is a fine mixture of electronic music genres. We have some charming ambient and soft techno, while passing by the subtle modulations of a progressive electronic music which ravels with an absolute charm. This is some quite superb music that we have here.
Wind-borne pulsations introduce Shirogane limpid keys which sway nervously beneath a delicate groovy bass line. A soft fluid, sensual and minimalism tempo which is quietly dressing of a floating mellotron and fine percussions, Shirogane catches the ear with its synth that jazzes with a soft celestial voice and ear-catching breezes. Rantum Random has a lighter intro which espouses a style closer to modern electronica. Always so crystal-clear, arpeggios are supported by more pronounced percussions on a heavier structure and a synth that still stays so jazzy. Spyra puts the ease of access besides with Operation PPG, a track which borrows all paths of modern EM with its vaporous intro encircled of a serpentine collar which scintillates of a prism to thousand reflections. The beat increases vaguely its intensity using cymbals which turn into slightly spasmodic percussions. A weighty mellotron is processing along this rhythm, leaving nice fluty passages on a dance music structure which is slowly crumbling in the hazards of a progressive Berlin School; galactic eddies with stray percussions which try to restructured the rhythm, apocalyptic sirens which surround the movement without really animated it that much and superb analog zests which adorn a fading away structure which reborn of its rhythm with a final that nail ears on ear-phones.
Treskow Bridge is a superb melancholic ode which deploys his nostalgia on a beautiful piano and wandering percussions that knock themselves into a harmony built upon ecjho effects. It's a nice music piece that guides us up to the delicious Below 20, a Berlin School flavoured of contemporary oils with its soft sequenced pulsations in a metallic universe. Below 20 progresses like in a dream with its dark choirs and a soft hypnotic tempo whipped of paradisiacal synth solos. Another great Spyra track that lives on a progressive and creative structure that the German synthesist exploits all of its 19:09 minutes with dexterity, plunging us in short ambient moments, before astonishing us with a rhythmic final shadowing the moments of Schulze-Namlook tandem. It's simply quite exquisite, as the whole of GASOLINE-91 OCTANE.
Sylvain Lupari (November 28th, 2008) *****
Available on Manikin Bandcamp shop