One of the most diverse albums I ever had the privilege of listening to. Switching from danceable, psychedelic raves to quiet but exquisite ballads to gargantuan gospel numbers. Damn, I'm having a blast with these types of albums. 😁 _________________
I don't adore every moment of the album but when it hits it hits really hard, and it just has a really lovely sound overall. I mean, the overt sexuality makes a shy boy like me nervous, but still...I enjoy this quite a bit. Has quite a lovely range of tunes. And it feels like it has staying power. We'll see though!
A gem for fans of early psych/prog-rock. Happy to stumble upon it today. 😄
"When I hear the opening crashes of In Circles, I get a thrill and it barely lets up throughout the course of this excellent album as the power prog-trio expand on the psychedelic and jazz-rock tendencies of Cream (with liberal splashes of orchestrated symphonic prog) to create that rare and beautiful object ... a masterpiece of progressive rock. The aching tone of Dunton's limited vocals work perfectly with the compositions (he is after all credited with having written all the songs!), although T2 can really mix it with the best of them. T2's remarkable gift is that their songs sound so fresh that one almost takes them for impromptu jams, and yet they are way too skillfully executed and structured to have been (although Keith Cross does actually play the odd "bum-note" or two on No More White Horses!).
In Circles in particular is an example of T2 applying the restraints on its own fury and then eventually letting Cross' abundant talent loose. His fiery playing puts in the Paul Kossoff bracket of special guitarist who shone brightest in their mid teens. The piano-led J.L.T introduces Dunton's propensity for writing unforgetabble melancholy melodies and its outstanding, orchestrated deceptively-timedoutro is one of my favourite "subtle" moments in all of prog...
All in all, this is one intoxicating, seamless album that is classic progressive rock at its least pretentious. ... 90% on the MPV scale." (progarchives) _________________ "And can’t you see you’re in on it?
You were born though you need not
And is that not some cause
For worship, being born among these trees?"
At first, I thought it wasn't up to par with Loveless, or m b v for that matter. But, holy shit, give this album time to sink in and it's like your driving at full speed in a waterfall of feeling and this is why I love shoegaze so much! _________________
Because sometimes you just need a perfect and flawless album. _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
NickVolosSegnahc Reve4Profile Land of the Argonauts, Centaurs and other such creatures
Am I so glad to stumble upon this gem! Music can be so beautiful.
It is not just my album of the day; it makes my day. 😁
"Discipline, structure, and focus. If that's what you adore about progressive rock, run like hell from A. R. & Machines. If, however, you prize prog's ability to wash over you with waves of weirdness until your astral form winds up light years away from your physical body -- perhaps having forgotten that said body ever existed, you know man, in the really real sense -- then Echo may be the lost classic that you've been waiting for.
This is especially true if your soul happens to respond to the unique conjunction of cosmic forces that resulted in a seemingly infinite universe of obscure vinyl treasures between roughly 1966 and 1977. Germany didn't have a monopoly on spacey pagan psychedelia by any means, but there's enough of a concentration of unrestrained genius in that extended circle to assure that most of us are still rediscovering the many facets of Krautrock at this late date -- and, it must be said, the same probably goes for many of those who made the music to begin with.
I don't know that Achim Reichel (let alone Herr Schultze) ever takes a spare hour and a half to revisit Echo. He may (like the vast majority of my esteemed prog contemporaries and probably the world at large) only think of Echo to dismiss the album as an incoherent and self-indulgent soup of delay effects and cryptobabble. Fair enough, but I've tasted a lot of bad soup, and even more bland soup, and this is neither of those recipes.
For one thing, the music is genuinely but non-specifically evocative -- one of the essential keys to the gate of transcendence, so to speak. It'll put you on the road without really suggesting a direction, but this is no spineless New Age ambient wallpaper; Echo will assert itself on a regular basis to give your mind something unexpected to work with.
The minimalist, minor-key repetitions have the same moody trance-inducing quality of Cluster and Eno, but with an acid rock foundation rather than an ambient synth framework. Einladung (Invitation) is all about guitars and drums.. and water, and drawn-out flange sweeps. If I say the word 'cave', am I forcing my authority on the chaotic freedom of your mind's drift, man?
It's sometimes hauntingly beautiful, too, and surprisingly powerful." (progarchives) _________________ "And can’t you see you’re in on it?
You were born though you need not
And is that not some cause
For worship, being born among these trees?"
Very bittersweet album. It's an album for the rainy days when you feel you could really improve your life. Maybe do one little thing differently, but you can't be bothered. You want to put plans into action, but the thought processes never stop. And it prevents you from getting any benefit from these plans. It prevents you from perhaps getting out of the endless cycle of disappointment that you call life. Maybe this is what the Manics meant by 'everlasting nothingness' all those years back. _________________
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HazeyTwilight
NickVolos
Norman Bates
Romanelli
