Ricardo Autobahn - Interrobang

Grand Pacific Skies

Beep Beep

Radiophonic Man

Bouncing Through Life

Moondial

Maniac In A Saab

Dreamy In The Afternoon

Find Me A Lover

Sci Fi Religions

The Midwinter Bonfire

Amaurote

Full Tilt

New York Sunset

Interrobang



Ricardo Autobahn is the man on keyboards with Spray and so much more. Formerly of Cuban Boys and also a musical partner to Daz Sampson, Autobahn has a pedigree in recent synth music (even if we kind of gloss over last year’s Eurovision entry…). He even did a stonking remix of old cartoon favourite Battle of the Planets for a DVD release a couple of years ago that I still play on my iPod. With a new Spray album coming up in the Summer, now’s the time for a solo instrumental album from this producer/musician. And rather good it is too…



The album opens with the lush Grand Pacific Skies that includes some exquisite piano and paints pictures in your mind of lying on a beach in the Pacific and staring at the sky (which probably accounts the title, then...). It’s a gorgeous track that alternates between slow and slightly speeded up with a modern beat. It kind of reminds me of the latest by Ultravox maestro Billy Currie.



Alternating virtually between slower tracks of this ilk and more uptempo light dance tracks, this is a great album to chill to. Spray vocalist Jenny McLaren adds atmostpheric backing vocals wherever required and personally I can’t wait for the new Spray album Children of a Laser God.



The vocal highlight on this album (the only track with a full vocal by the way…) is Find Me A Lover with vocals by Daz Sampson, putting to bed his previous output Teenage Life (although to be fair, that did go Top Ten in the UK). Following that one, well really four tracks later, is the frankly superb Full Tilt which harks back to the age of Glam Rock and features ex-Cuban Boy B.L.Underwood.



It must be said that the overall tone of this album is light overall, whether we’re talking about the slower or more uptempo tracks, but that doesn’t hide the fact that there is some superb musicianship on show here. A lot of modern synthpop is all about programmed beats, but Ricardo proves without a doubt that he can not only write different styles but can play them too.



This album is available either on iTunes or on a no frills CDR from Ricardo’s website. If you insist on having a real disc, it does come with a cardboard sleeve, then you also end up with a couple of bonus remixes that aren’t yet available on iTunes (and maybe never will be…). I won’t spoil your fun by telling you what they are though, just that the quality quotient is kept out even at the last.



Enjoy.

Added:  Thursday, May 17, 2007
Reviewer:  Si_W
Score:
Related web link:  Ricardo Autobahn's homepage
hits: 931
Language: eng