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Album Reviews
Album Review: Echaskech – Shatterproof (Just Music)
By Marc Samuels | Published on Monday 10 August 2009
Back in the early to mid-90s, one of the most exciting things to come from the nascent dance music boom was the birth and rise of what we now know as electronica, with the likes of Aphex Twin, Black Dog, Autechre, Orbital et al conjuring up glistening, visceral music that often had far more relevance to the mind than the feet. Anyway, years have come and gone since then, but Echaskech’s second album is redolent of the best of the genre and a welcome reminder of what made some of that emergent stuff on Warp, GPR etc all so exciting fifteen years ago. It’s a quietly confident step forward from their debut album ‘Skechbook’, but retains a familiar, richly melodic and warming sound throughout. Moody but accessible, it’s an undulating, futuristic landscape wherein synths bubble and pulse, dreamy female vocal snippets drift in and out, and the beats are subtly imbued with dancefloor dynamics. If there is a (minor) criticism, it’s that similar track lengths and no segueing make the album less of a complete journey than it should be, but (the slightly forced ‘Future Sex’ aside) as a collection of electronic listening music (because, let’s face it, no one will ever dance to this, but it’s far too engaging to be branded just chill out music), ‘Shatterproof’ is a wonderfully atmospheric and at times mesmerising listen. MS
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