MAHANA BAY LABEL Toires Yasmina 2010 Cd 1 Yasmina 1. Toires – Smoking Gun (Wesh Mix) 2. Toires vs Namgyal – Blue Night 3. Toires – Ma Wal’hob 4. Gravity Co – Crystalline 5. Les Voisins d’En Face – Je Suis Un Apache 6. Toires – Sanati 7. Natacha Atlas – Hayati Inta 8. Toires – Menara 9. Toires – Nabab (Jong Remix) Cd 2 Live 1. Toires – Nafas Al Ayat 2. Toires – Tali 3. Toires – Smoking Gun 4. Toires – Menara 5. Toires – Mk 47 6. Toires – Feeling 7. Toires – Azif Laile (Namgyal Remix) 8. Toires – Gator D. 9. Toires – Market Beach 10. Toires – Kia

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Among the representatives of psybient Toires is already a true classic. Florian Sériot plus some invited friends tore me from the summer slumber with their new two disc album called YASMINA. They tore me out very effectively, while restoring the faith that in this style of music you can create some valuable things, without putting the majority of energy into twisting various types of plugins. Toires is a very human, warm music, despite the large amount of electronics. YASMINA confirmes it, without a doubt. It also contains what I like in psybient the most, namely freedom of balancing between various musical genres, without losing the tempo and the climate.

SMOKING GUN begins like a hundred of others, arabising albums, but after the first few seconds you know that you do not need to worry that it would be banality. A lively, meaty bas and drilling percussion bring anxiety into the ambient-vocal spots of a sound. A subcutaneous tension arises, in turns smoothed and lighted – a great intro arousing curiosity, what will be next.
BLUE NIGHT surprises with a loose, quite a schematic beat, in which after a while weaves a rhythmical, a little bit funky guitar, some negro chants and long time ago forgotten by musicians vocoder, like taken from recordings of Electric Light Orchestra. Amazingly, altogether it sounds lightly, happily and not archaic.
MA WAL’HOB – here it is more dub with some Arabic spice. Bas is brilliant all the time, arousing the impression of power, perfectly entangled with the guitar a little bit like Edge from U2, only better. Supposedly this kind of music is a quiet one, but a man feels more and more charged with energy.
CRYSTALLINE, a remix of a track of Gravity Co – this track just killed me. Apparently Toires is not going to let me fall asleep, and turns up the tempo. A climate became rock, what maybe could disturb someone in this kind of an album. It does not bother me, quite the contrary. The energy stored in the first three tracks finally came to the surface. Why are so few such brave CDs? Only the wind will answer you…
I AM AN APACHE. No problem. The tempo increases again, although I thought it has already been impossible. I do not want to determine he style of this track. I only wanted to say that it woke me up very well during my driving in the night. The lightness, smartness and intelligence, only this I want to say.
SANATI and some Arabic tones, garnished with a strong bas. It was what tigers like the most. A moment of a rest after some Indian antics, but the tempo of the album is upheld very effectively. It appears that the sitar is not necessarily just soothing.
HAYATI INTA – and Natacha Atlas once more, who we have heard in the previous track, this time accompanied by more ethnic instruments and voices. The vibe of this album starts to calm down, dissolve in the primary singing, which gives a very psychedelic atmosphere, if you are still listening to the album in its entirety, in the right place and time…
MENARA – here it has already been known that we are approaching the end, the tempo falls stylishly. But it does not mean that it gets boring. Especially the second half of the track electrifies with a tasty combination of the restless bas and a kind of violin disguised as an Arabic oud.
NABAB – after the initial ambient confusion appears the soothing atmosphere of a jazz cellar with a piano and saxophone. A delicious dessert served by Florian Sériot without any doubts concerning the mixing of styles. A beautiful end of a beautiful album. I am taking my hat off.

The second part of the album YASMINA is a record of some live performances of Toires – here the climate is not varied, it is a dub arabising chill, if I may express it this way. You have to drop to the hammock and listen to it – you can not do it in a different manner.
The whole album made a very good impression to me. It is bold, painfully professional in the myriad of flavors and details. It is also intelligent and creative, even though it often uses a well-proven patterns. I wonder how many listeners can withstand sometimes extremely selected mix of styles, but I am sure of one thing – in this case from the mixing a head is not going to hurt, on the contrary.
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8 / 10
Swen (dzoncy) Stroop