The Color of Cyan
Agape
(The Color of Cyan)

The swirling, rising, spooky keys that turn quite mournful of “Inception” start us off on The Color of Cyan’s new release, Agape. I’m not sure all the layered swirling gets us anywhere, but it is an excellent musical color-scape of sound to begin this 9-song record.

Chicago’s self-proclaimed “purveyors of tense and atmospheric instrumental post-rock, ambient and metal” certainly have a discordant, deep fire in their four-headed body, as loud trilling guitar and a sure interjection of Rene Torres’ violin get us into the following tune, “Summer Days.” Eduardo Cintron’s guitar slices a deep, simple line from the middle of the six-minute tune while drummer Henry Cole rides out the range with him.

An echoey-picked electric and floaty atmosphere slips us through the sad “Moon in Cancer.” With more of this plaintive guitar picking and soft strumming on “And One Will Fall,” we get about four minutes where Jorge Santana lays a low bed bass, and the band soars in playing a good approximation of modern ambient prog. “Agape,” again employs echo guitar, but things soon roll to a loud beat in what is, for me, the best tune here. It rises as much from the moments of nearly solo studied guitar jangle with backing mournful sounds to big splashy slicing and wonderful drumming (although he is wonderful throughout) from Cole.

The original iteration of The Color of Cyan was formed at the beginning of the century in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Agape, recorded between Puerto Rico, Chicago, California, and Mexico City, is the quartet’s first full-length album.