Cyrus – Manhatten Blues review

Cyrus, aka Jason Flynn – one of the current scene’s slightly underrated stalwarts – made his debut on Pinch’s label Tectonic in 2006, which was swiftly followed by the release of his album From The Shadows in 2007. After this, there was a slew of strong 12”s across such imprints as Eight:FX, Chestplate, Blackbox and Deep Medi Musik, and, more recently, his high profile collaboration with N-Type “Dark Frequency” has thrust him even further into the limelight.

His next release on Mala’s revered Deep Medi imprint displays the classic Cyrus sound with great aplomb. In “Manhatten Blues” Cyrus builds a serene and thoughtful piece of music from quivering chords, a deep, dark bassline, swaggering beats and that wonderful sense of woozy, meditative slowness that defines the more ‘intelligent’ side of dubstep these days. Tribal, pattering drums pepper the piece with a hint of the exotic before you are caught up once again in the insistent pull of the bass and beats alone.

Flipping over for “Decisions”, Cyrus shakes things up with a more rambunctious offering. Still maintaining a classy, understated style, the beats bounce jauntily with a dollop of grizzled synth work adding some grit to the glamour. Superb.

Belinda Rowse