A self-titled stunner of a debut album, Echomatica finds the New Zealand-based band excelling with a fervent, hooky blend of dreamy synths and memorable rock productions. Their stylish sound immersed on their debut single “Love Isn’t Always” — which we featured in August — and the rest of Echomatica’s album impresses similarly, consistently dazzling in melodic structural ascents and heartfelt vocal emotion.
“Breathe” opens the album in beautiful form, easing in with a gentle glow of keys that find comforting accompaniments in glistening guitar twangs and gentle, nocturnal rhythmic backings. The track is a thorough display in atmosphere, building from lushly understated intrigue into a caressing array of guitar strums and starry-eyed entrancement. “Heartbeat” follows with a more infectious immediacy, infusing pulsing rhythms and post-punk guitar trickling as prancing synths and magnetic vocals emerge alongside. The album’s riveting one-two commencing punch struts the band’s ability to craft both serene atmospherics and — in the case of “Heartbeat” — stirring hooks with upticks in vocal emotion.
Another highlight enamors in “Technicolour Dreams,” embracing fuzzy synths and jangling guitar interplay in its harmonious construction. “When you’re next to me, when we’re worlds apart,” the vocals let out during an especially memorable moment, exuding a palpable yearning as the vibe-y synths and guitars mingle. Album finale “Pretending We’re Human” is also a showcase in its soundscape-heavy unveiling, sounding like a cross of Kate Bush’s vocal theatrics and Siouxsie and the Banshees’s foreboding vigor. Echomatica is an enthralling success of a full-length.
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“Something” is also featured in the genre-based, best-of Spotify compilation Emerging Indie Rock.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
