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Faint and decked-out in delay effects, the vocals on Echo Lake’s Young Silence EP cascade gently in the mix, with chiming guitars hard-panned to the left and right of them. This six songer is a mostly a lulling start for the UK act, but in line with the shoegaze well-knowns that shaped the sound of Young Silence, the players’ art rock tendencies lend lots of noise to the record.
While the usual suspects are to blame for Echo Lake’s debut—Jesus and Mary Chain, Slowdive, Ride—there is considerable promise in Young Silence. Shrill guitar feedback is steered back into the wealth of eerie melodies here, with every note positioned meticulously in mixdown for maximum “Wall of Sound” impact. Following the same “Be My Baby” drums that have hijacked more songs in the last ten years than any other rhythm has, the title track suddenly twists and turns, shaking loose of any familiar confines. Echo Lake founding member Linda Jarvis contributes a delirious haze of indistinct vocals over what’s suddenly an earth-shaking assault of drones and cymbals. The guitar lines are bent and frail, with Jarvis’s breathy and breathless call seeping into every jangly corner. Mesmerizing.
Young Silence is out on No Pain in Pop on February 14 (UK) and on February 15 (US).
