It's not every day that we feature a band that's been singled out for praise my music industry mega-mogul Seymour Stein (Sire/Warner Bros.), but upon witnessing Hampshire's Echotape performing live he was impressed enough to request a copy of their album and duly report back with much praise. This is a bit of a puzzler, especially listening to 'Awakening'. It's nice enough as commercial indie music goes but it doesn't exactly knock your socks off, it'd make a decent enough album track. What you can hear on this particular track is the sound of a band who have the capabilities to launch an assault on the mainstream. It's polished, professional and doesn't have a hair out of place. Except the public don't really need another Keane or Coldplay, in fact they've been getting a touch bored with the ones they have. Thankfully there's a little more to Echotape than that song, and it should certainly take second billing to the far superior 'Spinning'.
It's not every day that we feature a band whose latest video has been used as part of an art installation at the Tate Modern, but the flashing, colourful and psychedelic footage that accompanies 'Spinning' did just that. As for the song, well it's a great piece krautrock-influenced indie/rock that pounds in a semi-drone, lit up by a simple but brilliantly effective guitar solo and nifty work with repetition. The two halves of this single don't quite match up. 'Awakening' is sterile, overproduced and would be a nice way to introduce your mum to modern 'indie' music, and 'Spinning' is a dazzling, galloping psych/pop wonder. I guess we'll discover which side of the band will prevail when we hear the album, and if it lives up to the standard of the better song of this pair it could be cracking listen. Either way, when we hear more we'll find out whether or not Mr Stein is still on the ball.
Echotape's website
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