Wall of Voodoo meets Flock of Seagulls? Gary Numan does Angelo Badalamenti? Or is it the Carpenters on a cliff with Cat Stevens? This oddball, disjointed little UK band can't decide who they are or where they want to be, but they do know what they like: echo, and lots of it.
Each one of these shoe-gazing sonic missives, including "55," "Crocodile Milk," and "Contact," is bathed in reams of echo, reverberating through their music like sonar off a whale's submerged skull. Some Echoboy songs approach a post-rock Tortoise-like consistency, with the loops piling up and droning convincingly. But too many songs, like the "Mexican Radio" sound-alike "Kit and Holly," simply annoy. "Model 352" bubbles and percolates like good mid-ΓÇÖ90s electronica, but even High Llamas and the Orb were just aping Krautrockers Can and Neu!, and back then it was kinda interesting. Surprising acoustic guitars greet the intro of "Walking," then a hollow vocal choir covers them with marshmallows and cream. Bleeccchh.
All recordings courtesy of Mute Records. All songs written by Echoboy; courtesy of Copyright Control Richard Warren 2000.
