Available on: No Pain in Pop EP
At the start of Young Silence the listener is gently whisked into the air. Throughout this record, Echo Lake keep us bouncing about in their gentle wind like an empty plastic bag floating on caressing cross winds. It starts off with a nice palette warmer; a shot of the EP’s base flavor of delay pedal tape warmth guitars suspended in almost clear aspic. Its a nice way to begin, kind of like having a cup of stock before having the full soup. Then the main course arrives; pounding repetition, walls of guitar, delay pedal mastery, garnished and interlaced with gorgeous vocals that tickle the back of the head like feather tips. One must pay attention to the way Echo Lake sequence and segment their tracks. The percussion is surprisingly quantized-sounding, the guitars double punch with the rhythm and the transitions are incredibly tight. Yes though, the edges are all padded and the center is warm and melts in the ear.
Once one enters into the crossing streams of warm and cool strokes of ‘In Dreams’ we begin again to realize that there’s a strong pulse locked away in this haze. Echo Lake have not only succeeded in making arena rock from of the quietness of a sunny countryside living room – each snare, each guitar strum, carries the same force and weight as it would on a more “serious rock” affair – they also know how to deliver the same punch and drive of dance music out of a humid shroud of reverb and tape warmth. It may not be apparent, but inhale more and you will see how Young Silence offers such an enjoyable mix of sheet and point.
Yet, there are also undisturbed areas of soft dunes in this record’s landscape. ‘Everything Is Real’ and ‘Memory Lapses’ are both perfect examples of the band’s talent for the pure cream. The former does contain a bit of prickly guitar work but the vocals and keyboards provide the perfect screen to prevent any scathing or scratching. ‘Memory Lapses’ meanwhile, is a sweet interlude of just keyboard work and nothing else. It’s total restorative vibration and healing frequency work, and its well placed considering it’s proceeded by the EP’s hardest track. ‘Young Silence’ is rich with mid to high range action and propelled by both burst of copious, almost excessive reverb and the somewhat quantized motion of those drums. It’s like the sharp, temporary pain of the needle that injects the morphine. For a second we’re tense with anticipation, then there’s a slight shaking of the body followed by a coursing through the vascular system. Its all over in about two minutes and after that we feel really good. What is she singing about though? We really like that voice.
Young Silence brings us to a certain place so quickly. The way the EP ends is very much like being taken back to wherever one was at before the whole thing started. ‘Buried At Sea’ is probably one of the most fittingly named tracks ever. You get buried at sea and the mood couldn’t be brighter. For the first minute we are taken out from the coast, pulled gently along by pitch-shifted and blurred guitar oars. Then a eulogy is sung by some angel above our body of which the spirit is hovering over. We are rejoiced and then we return to the earth. The EP is over and we are just rubbish on the ground once more. Life starts to suck all over again.
Young Silence is best served on a long journey paired with some high quality painkillers, preferably pharmaceutical, played on repeat until the user fades. It’s great for this setting, there is nothing groundbreaking going on, nothing to jostle your brain. It’s just high quality product made with some of the best organic ingredients. Ingredients we are all very familiar with, ingredients that will pass any customs. Namaste.
Chris Powers
