Three years ago, the members of Cirrus set the dance floors and the college stations aflame with Back on a Mission, fully fueled with some of the funkiest breakbeat tracks release that entire year. With a new member, Laura Derby on vocals, and a new set of music the group is back on a mission again with Counterfeit, a mixture of a new sophisticated and dewy skin and their tried and true platform stylings that fans have known and loved.
Derby’s vocals bring a sultry finesse to the single Boomerang, where she glides over a modern sonic beat and the twinkling tribal strings of Stephen James Barry’s guitar riffs, and on Half a Cell, where she sings of her inner strength in going it alone as a rhythmic drum and bass undertone bubbles and swirls around her. For previous Cirrus fans, it’s time to turn up the volume and break out the cardboard on Straight Laid Out, where Aaron Carter used a Vocoder to throw down Mr. Roboto vocals to Emcee the show, fused with laser shot effects and turntable twists and scratches. Rear-ending the style of Back on Mission is the aptly named Breakbeat Suckers, where effects range from trumpet blasts to laser tag shots of pure dance energy.
Crunchy peanut butter mixes in with the chocolate on Dragon Lounge, where Barry rips the Shaft stylin’ bass, Carter is rappin’ “… those lazy days cause I ill with it. I chill with it. I take a toke and pass out with it” as Derby’s milking voice pours over the chorus, “take it slow, take it easy.”
They hit an Intermission when a keyboard chorus effect soars lightly around a deep funk foundation and planetary pulsations, followed by a subdued Matter of Time, where Rene Padilla jumps in the capsule’s driver seat to steer his soulful vocals into a rhythmic journey into space.
Cirrus will be gracing our state with their presence when they play the newest, and easily the coolest club to hit downtown Colorado Springs, 32 Bleu, on October 12. As much as I’m a fan of two turntables and a microphone, there’s nothing like the energy of live, organic instrumentation. In the electronic music scene it’s hard to find that type of experience. It does exists in pockets here locally with band such as Motion For Alliance, and internationally with Basement Jaxx or The New Deal, but these dance musicians are few and far between. So when a group like Cirrus is able to fly in from Long Beach just to perform us, ya hear the real thing baby.
