Hello. This is the keytar of 2005 trying to rekindle a long-lost relationship with you. I know it's been a while since we last spoke. Sure, I was an ass and never called you back after those sweat-soaked nights fifteen-plus years ago. By no means does it indicate that I don't still care about you. Most of my kind suffered horrible fates at the vicious hands of time. Despite this fact, I wanted you to know that I am still thriving personally. Okay, so I'm a little bit of a hybird. Homemade and hand-built. I've been hanging out in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, quite a bit with a band called Eyes to Space. Do not be afraid - it's good stuff.
You know love songs about the Future. No, not the days and weeks ahead, but the capital "F" sort of Future where life has advanced well beyond anything currently known. Well, given that sort of love is present in us all, how could you not be smitten with songs about robot dogs, space-age conveniences and other mysteries of the unknown? As you listen to the songs from Eyes to Space's self-titled EP, two sounds will repeatedly jump out at you - some serious guitar riffing from Andy Spain and all sorts of what can simply be described as space sounds. As for the space sounds, they are courtesy of Jay Cartwright's mastery of the keytar. The best example of all of the parts coming together is from the disc's opener, "In An Unfamiliar Land." Featuring spastic guitar work, a super-steady backbeat from Wendy Spitzer and Dylan Thurston, and Cartwright's vocals mixed with some of his work on the keys, the entire track is a wonderfully tasty pop treat emblazoned with a love of the Future. The remaining three tracks on the EP expand on this theme (some even with oboe!) successfully.
If I've left you intrigued, check out the EP. Man... or Astro-Man? had a lot of the same robotic geekiness that Eyes to Space happily embraces, but they didn't use a keytar. They claimed they loved the future, but this absence has to leave you wondering. You know you've missed the keytar.
