It would be easy to give Echomantica’s sumptuous debut album a quick spin, label it dream-pop, and move on, as many will probably do, but that would be the lazy way out, and also would be to miss the rich rewards that only comes with spending time with a thing of such rare beauty. It is only when you are dropping the needle for the third or fourth time that the album really reveals its intricacies, that you get an understanding of where it sits in the musical landscape.
If “Breathe” opens the album in an ambient, drifting haze, defining one end of the band’s spectrum, it is “Heartbeat,” which follows, that truly marks its opposite sonic shore. In its heady blend of sharp upbeats and soft contours, energy and euphoria, it isn’t hard to hear the echo of everything from 80’s shoegaze to 90’s trip-hop to 21st century, post-genre music making.
And so, with their field of demarcation loosely drawn, Echomatica adventurously and experimentally ebbs and flows between the two. “Love Isn’t Always” is one of those spacious and emotive songs that is as much about the atmospheres and energies that pool between the notes and words as it is about what is being consciously recorded.
“Technicolour Dreams” wanders into a more conventional pop place, though wielding creative standards and sonic benchmarks far higher than those usually found in such a realm, and “Month of Sundays” blends raw, indie guitars with urgent grooves, chiming motifs with those gorgeously breathy vocals that run throughout the album.
Echomatica is a glorious affair, not only a fantastic forward move to be celebrated by any discerning music fan looking for the next sonic chapter, but also laced with enough nods to the past and poised pathos that those who have been around the block a few times, people like me, that you will be convinced that you already have this album tucked away in your old vinyl collection probably sat rubbing shoulders with the likes of Portishead and The Cocteau Twins.
Great company, great company indeed.
Website
Facebook
SoundCloud
Bandcamp
YouTube
Instagram
