Top 50 Tracks of 2010: Cyan Tablets – Amaretto

9. Cyan Tablets – Amaretto.mp3

Coming from Japan via Finland (at least according to the EP title), Cyan Tablets deploy minor keys and a slightly glitched downtempo beat to devastating effect, creating the perfect sonic palette to accompany this heart breaker of a track. The vocals speak to futile actions and inner ache of missing someone who’s sitting three feet away from you.

It’s perfection, from the opening doomed synth line to the near-breathless vocals to the various impeccably placed drum machine stutters. It feels like it’s borrowing from the ’80s heyday of icy synthpop (Japan, Blancmange, Heaven 17) but there’s nothing you can actually grab and say: “X sounds like Y.” Amaretto is very much its own animal, displaying influences without needing to ape. The only thing truly transparent is the wounded heart on its sleeve.

Start popping Tablets here.

Cyan Myspace: halfway to CMYK.

The rest of the Top 50.

-CLT