Although composition of the music had already begun, it wasn't until Synergy founder Larry Fast came upon a book titled "New York 1900" that the Metropolitan Suite really began to take form. The book, a history of New York's varied influential architectural styles, gave shape to what would become a musical tale of the American city from the early industrial age until the hippie generation.

Musically optimistic, the tone and variation is reminiscent of contemporaries Mannheim Steamroller, but heavy enough on the cheesy analog keyboard sounds to do credit to its name by mimicking the re-invented soundtrack for the movie "Metropolis." Indeed, the entire theme of the album is the observation of the evolution of a metropolis, through technical and social evolution, and despair and love.

Broken down into nine tracks that are meant to represent distinct historical moments, there's an underlying theme to each composition that's played upon and varied for each time period. The march and passage of a generation seeing their sons and daughters prepare for World War I is then replicated in the pace of a song about the great depression, the constant being the habitation of a city structure by melodies of people. The disc later ends with an electronic interpretive homage to the music of the 1960s, which bears no resemblance to the music of that time at all.

Larry Fast is known for having contributed defining electronics to the music of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush, amongst others, but has almost always fallen somewhat short of making anything truly memorable on his own. Metropolitan Suite is something that probably is often left on shelves, being passed over for lack of name recognition, but is actually worth a listen. You'll probably be faced with few other chances to hear a 1980s electronic musical interpretation of life in the city in the 1920s.

-Skaht Hansen

"City Goes To War"

[Real Audio Stream]