Cybertoyz
- Undo.Exit |self-released, 2014| 5/5 metal/electronic
01. Enter: A Fistful Of
Dust, 02. Absolutely Identifiable, 03. Battery Operated pt 1, 04.
i:Romance, 05. Bleed Your God, 06. Battery Operated pt 2, 07.
Survival Type, 08. The Dead Drive Fast, 09. Heavenly, 10. Exit: A
Handful Of Stars
Cybertoyz
is the
solo project of Zyggie (Alexander Korpusov; guitars, programming,
sampling) - a guitar player armed with his favourite Framus Diablo
7-string and Ibanez JS1000 guitars.
Undo.Exit
is the sophomore
release of the Moscow-based project founded in 2004,
coming 8 years after the debut Chaos
Theory
album.
The
newest album brings
a mix of two main sound themes - guitar driven and electronica,
matched
together successfully so far. As Zyggie admits, he managed to
incorporate catchy riffs on odd chord progressions and Satriani-like
legato shredding into industrial and electro tunes. He
was inspired by highly influential
rock artists such as Led Zeppelin, Rush, Steve Vai, Buckethead and
Jeff Beck as well as electronic acts: Aphex Twin, The Young Gods,
Nine Inch Nails, Gravity Kills, Switchkicker/MM9, Pitchshifter and
Die Krupps.
The technique called 'shredding' is quite
important for the majority of metal guitarists - either for their
own finger training, best guitarist contests or just showing off. It
is always entertaining to watch or listen to, but when included in
several songs on an album, it must be well arranged and mixed to
avoid sticking out. Undo.Exit
is an example of production done
right.
You'll have
a taste of shredding
in the very first track, "Enter: A Fistful Of Dust",
which would
suit
an action video game perfectly.
In fact, it reminds me of a
theme from Quake
III.
However, aside of the guitar soloing, there are electro synths and a
symphonic female voice in the background. The composition is pretty
short but rhythmic with somewhat an epic motif.
The
following track, "Absolutely Identifiable" begins with a
high-pitched looped guitar
riff, later
altered by a small spattering
of
electronica. The mix grows potent when dense drums and bass join in
next.
The guitar returns with a memorable, spiritual solo further
along the
track. The arrangements
change quite often in this purely instrumental track, and probably
only the rhythm remains solid throughout.
If you're craving modern electronic music, listen
to "Battery
Operated pt 1". It is not deprived of guitars, reminiscent of
how Robert Fripp (King Crimson) uses his instrument quite often.
Think of spirals drawn with high-pitched sounds and expressed with
the
entire scale. There are
also a contrasting groovy bass and fundamental drums in the
background so in all, there's some good
fodder
for your ears.
The moods
on this album do come in different
shades,
but they don’t change too
often. You can already sense differences in the song titles, e.g.
"Battery Operated pt 1" sounds technical and sophisticated
when compared to "i:Romance" which brings the style of the
80s rock songs through a warm and melodic vibe. There are upbeat
dynamics and classical guitar solos
that go
well with tiny electronic add-ons. Balance
in the track has a strong focus,
certainly
helping listeners keep
a healthy, steady heartbeat. If this
track is about
a romance, it's about a spirit-opening experience.
After that you get exotic,
nostalgic, stretched and singular
tone
guitar passages wrapped
around a rather
cold and 'windy' composition. "Bleed
Your God" sounds like
typical Middle East music but performed on
an
electronic guitar instead of traditional Eastern instruments. It is a
very short instrumental track, that
might as well have been used as the
intro to the album. Here, it gives
you a breather
before you dive into the complex arrangements written for "Battery
Operated pt 2".
This
composition, built upon improvisation and performed on guitars, drums
and bass is even shorter
than the previous track, so you won't get too
deep into musical confusion.
Think that you've just jumped into a malfunctioning electronic
device, where some lines of code are still working well, but others
loop like a damaged
vinyl record.
"Survival
Type" begins with a KMFDM-like electronic
passage, but
then turns into a prog-rock or even a prog-metal composition, thanks
to dualistic guitars vs synths arrangements. There are symphonic
metal elements smuggled in as well, with an additional dose of
beat-driven electronica, which fits in very well. The guitars seem
to have an argument with
the bass regarding
leadership. Both however, stitch interesting arrangements
individually as well as
together,
so they do complement each other like lovers
in
a passionate relationship.
"The
Dead Drive Fast" brings a bit of an iconic Depeche Mode-esque
motif but then falls
into rock'n'blues & rock'n'roll. Not entirely though, if
you recall the
main goal of the album - to reconcile guitar driven arrangements with
modern electronic music. There are far more variegated influences
coming from different genres (metal as well!), thus only you can
decide if Ziggy succeeded.
Linking
tracks within an album to make changes
in the
tracklist smooth is a good move - check out how "The Dead Drive
Fast" slides into
"Heavenly". The latter is a rock ballad, but you should
forget about nostalgic
boredom you may find in
trendy songs by Chris Isaak, for example.
You'll find a bit more of Clapton's guitar mastery instead, but still
altered with clean, chillout electronica
in
some spots.
All this
leads us
unto the final track, "Exit: A Handful Of Stars". A sad
(but not melancholic) mood permeates
this song. Female background vocals appear rarely, just enough to
give the track a slightly
heroic
feel. This instrumental ending of the
album
should leave listeners
in contemplation.
All compositions
on Undo.Exit
flow
smoothly, instead of possibly interrupting each other when groovy
electronica extends what guitars only kick
off. This
speaks perfectly
for Zyggie's expert songwriting -
after all he studied
jazz theory in a college,
but also spent around 15 years on self-mastering his
guitar techniques.
The guest musicians
on this
album are: Anna Lyapina (vocals), Sergey Timofeyev (bass), Alexander
Karpukhin (drums), Dmitry Oslyakov (drums) and Ruslan Dzhigkaity
(drums).
It's also worth
adding that
mastering and production are very well done (by
Nickolay
Vengrzhanovich at Light Temple Records, Moscow, Russia). Both styles
of music that meet on this album
need a
different mastering approach, and it
turned out successful on Cybertoyz' Undo.Exit.
Neither
guitars nor electronica take up all
the bandwidth.
The excellent,
cyber-punkesque blue cover artwork was designed by Eugene "Jonny"
Postebaylo and looking at it while
listening to the music feels just right.
Watch out for Cybertoyz
in your area - they do
play live gigs. Zyggie
also had
an endorsement contract with Framus/Warwick and AMT Electronics
between 2009-2010. You should
not miss this release if you're looking for innovative guitar driven
compositions.
(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz, Fabryka Music Magazine, June 23rd,
2014. Proofreading: Mike 'Vesper' Dziewoński)
This review on Fabryka Magazine:
http://industrialrock.net/php-files_en/articles.php?article_id=542
Buy on: Bandcamp
Reviewed by Fabryka Music Magazine