Abie Toiber
Lotus
Toca 75

Behind a delicate cover sleeve Mexican born Canadian Abie Toiber unveils his Lotus - an album of quite colorful chilled and smooth electro-pop. 10 tracks mostly recorded on laptop, and mixed in Philip Glass' studio in NYC. Abie Toiber, formerly of the band Coma, claims his influences to come from some of the classic rock and lightly prog elements of the 70s such as Pink Floyd, Yes, Mike Oldfield, Rush as well as 80s bands as the Cure and Depeche Mode. Mike Oldfield is quite clearly a name to compare with. Add a few exotic and oriental touches and you're somewhere near.

Lotus starts with the ambient goes rhythmic (a bit like french duo Air) "Anima Blue", turning into the fresh sounding, somewhat darker "Stars" which could've almost been a pop single choice. Toiber plays almost everything himself except some contributions on vocals, drums, tablas and bass. He's no doubt a skilled guitarist, but he tends to skate off on thin ice when it comes to electric guitars sounding like...sticky marshmallows.

I must say some parts of the album sounds way too slick for my ears (I find "Espera Continua" to be real horrorshow bad taste), but a couple of the tracks - the poppy "Stars" and "Hadas: Lo que es" (which makes me recall my younger days when I had this Oldfield period) - makes it quite a comfortable listening. Without making it a great album.

Copyright © 2005 Håvard Oppøyen