Skip to product information
1 of 1

WOODS - At Echo Lake

Woodsist

Regular price $8.00 USD
Regular price Sale price $8.00 USD
Sale Sold out
Format
"The distance between 2007s At Rear House and 2010s At Echo Lake may at first seem only semantic, but it more properly represents a move from a kind of informal back porch jam ethos to a fully-committed vision of the infinite possibilities of group playing. "Over the past few years, WOODS has established themselves as an anomaly in a world of freaks. They were an odd proposition even in the outre company of vocalist / guitarist / label owner JEREMY EARLs Woodsist roster, perpetually out of time, committed to songsmanship in an age of noise, drone and improvisation, to extended soloing, oblique instrumentals and the usurping use of tapes and F/X in an age of dead-end singer-songwriters. Recent live shows have seen them best confuse the two, playing beautifully constructed songs torn apart by fuzztone jams and odd electronics. At Echo Lake feels like a diamond-sharp distillation of the turbulent power of their live shows, in much the same way that The Grateful Deads "Dark Star" single amplified and engulfed the planetary aspect of their improvised takes. Some of the material here--the opening "Blood Dries Darker," the euphoric "Mornin Time"-is so lush that lesser brains wouldve succumbed to the appeal of strings and horns, but At Echo Lake is more Fifth Dimension than Notorious Byrd Brothers, nowhere more so than on "From the Horn," a track as beautiful in its assault on form as "Eight Miles High" or Swell Maps "Midget Submarines." But despite the instrumental innovation the album heralds-G. LUCAS CRANEs psychedelic tape work on "Suffering Season," guest musician MATTHEW VALENTINEs harmonica and modified banjo / sitar on "Time Fading Lines"-At Echo Lake is all about the vocals. Woods secret weapon is the quality of Earls voice, absorbing the naive style of Jad Fair, Jonathan Richman and Neil Young while rethinking it as a discipline and a tradition. Here he is singing at the peak of his powers, in a high soulful style bolstered by heavenly arrangements of backing vocals. At Echo Lake feels like the transmission point for teenage garage from the past to the future. Deformed by contemporary experiments, bolstered by magical traditions, its the sound of now, right here, At Echo Lake." - David Keenan, Glasgow, March 2010.
View full details