New Artist Highlight: Followers Will Be ‘Agape’ at The Shade of Cyan’s Rock/Ambient Fusion [Video]

Apparently at one time, Chicago-based group The Shade of Cyan have been a extra vox-forward outfit, however the appear to have deigned to wipe previous work from reminiscence. Now the main target is on two issues: pitch-perfect guitars and delightful ambient manufacturing work. The result's their, for all intents and functions, debut album, Agape, and with the extent of mastery displayed on this LP, it’s exhausting to think about they have been doing the rest.

For the reason that Google slate has been wiped of any earlier work, it’s exhausting to take a position what The Shade of Cyan gave the impression of previous to 2020 with with Agape completely bursting with emotive and masterful guitar work, hovering atmospherics and analog drums, there’s a lot to have a look at and admire on this one album. The band say that the change to voxless work was impressed by COVID, each from a sensible and philosophical standpoint. The album was recorded by the varied quarantining band members in Chicago, Mexico Metropolis and Puerto Rico, the band had a lot the identical plight of working remotely as different musical artists. They in fact may have recorded distant vocals as properly, nevertheless it appears the music spoke for itself on this case, and they also simply went with it.

Drawing on shoegaze, post rock and cinematic ambient electronica, The Shade of Cyan targeted on the atmospherics with Agape and appeared, even whereas bodily separated, to search out an emotional path to attach them to one another and the world at giant. This isn't a cheeky, hipstery Ratatat-style guitar/electro album. The guitars are largely steel primarily based, particularly by way of the talent stage of Eduardo Cintron, who additionally did many of the manufacturing. The composition, nonetheless, is way more wall of sound-inspired, so the general impact of the analog work sounds extra shoegazey, particularly when the ambient digital work is utilized. Suppose a hearty steadiness between early and late period Brian Futter from Catherine Wheel with regards to guitars.

With these heavy guitars filling up the employees nearly utterly, the composition of most tracks on Agape was additionally clearly plotted in an identical technique to a classical rating. It was a wise transfer, as this opens up area for the equally masterful and surprisingly jazzy drum work of Henry Cole, the heavy-handed bass of Jorge Santana and the goosebump-inducing strings of Rene Torres.

These Torres strings add to the classical/submit rock really feel of tracks like “Summer season Days,” lead single “The Day We Met” and the epic, eight-minute title observe, as does all of the digital sound design. This is among the major methods The Shade of Cyan will attraction to EDM followers, as they’re clearly all about making a vibe. Guitar music can typically be solely concerning the guitars, however right here in Agape, they’re simply as a lot about creating the emotionally charged environment because the beats, the plush strings and the precise digital atmospherics. The result's a grand, theatrical expertise that’s the sonic equal to the northern lights: breathtaking, evocative, fixed and ever-changing.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7DWa1pCxYE[/embed]

That fixed but ever-changing feeling of Agape appears to be each what impressed the members of The Shade of Cyan and what they need audiences to remove from it. The guitars, atmospherics, grounding beats and hovering melodies are all simply to connote what many people realized throughout these final two years, summed up finest by the band themselves:

Agape is our journey by way of this world. Regardless that the moments are distinctive for every one among us, we're all related by these emotions

Agape is out now and will be steamed on Spotify or bought on Bandcamp. Try extra movies, together with the not too long ago launched “Inception” music video and a recording session with Cintron on The Color of Cyan’s YouTube Channel.