eMusic Review 0
When does a revival become a continuation? I ask this because there have been so many announcements of a "shoegaze revival" now — every time an Ulrich Schnauss or a Big Pink, a School Of Seven Bells or an Asobi Seksu arrive on the scene — that it's beginning to feel more like an ongoing genre than something from the past to be "revived." Sure, all these bands undeniably echo that period of the late '80s and early '90s when the Thames Valley in southern England reverberated with guitar distortion and soft, airborne vocals inspired in turn by The Jesus & Mary Chain and The Cocteau Twins, but the sound is starting to feel perennial too.
Echo Lake's most obvious antecedents from back in the day are Slowdive and Lush, with strong hints too of My Bloody Valentine circa Isn't Anything. Soft female vocals don't take the lead, they hover in the middle ground, woven in and out of the fuzz guitars and keyboard sounds — all adding up to something exactly on the mid-point between recognisable indie songs and complete textural abstraction. One can almost appreciate this music more in the manner of techno tracks, where intensity is achieved by… read more »
