Echoboy – Elektrik Soul Psymphonie

After excellent 'Giraffe' and somewhat silent breakup with Mute, Echoboy surprises us with 'Elektrik Soul Psymphonie' - unlike 'Giraffe' which showed first fruits of Echoboy's compromise to pop charts, 'Elektrik' returns to more familiar territory - that of bizarre sound excursions where nightmarrish dream does its best to sound just as beautiful; to some this might be a slight step back for Echoboy, using his already established forms and blueprints; 'Lovesick Antelopes' in particular, does sound a bit over the top without particularly getting anywhere, borrowing from past years... but to a whole, it certainly fits in, although it is clearly one of the merely few song-structured pieces here.

The beautiful, cool opening with 'Mary from San Francisco' on the other hand brings that necessary dose of freshness into Echoboy's otherwise merciless sound butchery - despite some very interesting references on the album (This Mortal Coil, Tuxedomoon, Simon Turner, Eno, Krautrock in general), Echoboy always treated such sounds with gratitude, rewriting any familiar tunes into his own with great skill.

Piano climax on 'Jet Brown' confronting obscure drumming and sound repetition, makes one such example; ... Albeit sounding more like work in progress, 'ESP' still sounds sincere enough to say it is typically Echoboy-ish. It will not win over new fans expceting to dance, but If you liked his early catalogue, this should be playing louder than bombs, from your room out into the open. 4/5