Echo is Your Love
8 Hours
If Society
A very curious, yet surprisingly delightful disc here. Echo is Your Love is a Finnish noisecore band that combines the noise, feedback, and chaos of early Sonic Youth, with the maturity in song structure of later Sonic Youth; to top it all off, the lead singer for Echo sounds eerily like the lead singer from The Cardigans!
The album opens with a soft meander, full of harmonics, tape loops and other weirdness; the song, entitled “Turn It Off,” reminds me of the lovely Sonic Youth track “Shadow of a Doubt.” Things get heavier and mathier on the next track, “Useless Spells”; this song combines heavily effect laden guitars with big drum beats, peppy with back beat, and the first appearance of the lead singer’s simply wonderful voice!
The next few songs vary in style, from Future Of What-era Unwound, to different eras of Sonic Youth, to even a dabbling of southern California spastic emo. The songs are all quite strong and well done, with a very high quality level of recording production.
“A Song For Sea Scouts” is probably the album’s best song; the chorus is absolutely brutal and simultaneously sing-songy and triumphant. The pure aggression in the female lead singer’s voice is both empowering and terrifying. This track is the kind of song that I can’t wait to put on a tape to give to someone to hear.
Overall, this is a really great art punk album. Fans of Sonic Youth with eat this up. I personally haven’t gone a day without listening to 8 Hours since I got it… really!
If Society Records: http://www.ifsociety.com/echo
