Featured CD : Echolyn : Mei

[Duncan Glenday]

Per SoT dude:

Ah, the concept album, one of progressive rock's most coveted achievements over the years. In 2002 alone we have seen two major releases with the expanded song concept format, the first being Nathan Mahl's Heretik III: The Sentence, and now the latest release from the legendary Echolyn, titled . At just under 50 minutes, Mei is a long, twisting adventure, a story of one man's travels on the road, his lost love, and his struggles with addictions and war.

This is most certainly a piece that takes a few listens to to really appreciate and get into. The early Echolyn sound of quirky, Gentle Giant inspired complex prog is not really in abundance here, but instead the listener is treated to more atmosphere, lots of melodic passages, and many moments of abbreviated aggression. One of Echolyn's strongpoints has always been their vocals, and here is no exception. While the wonderful mulit-part harmonies from albums like Suffocating the Bloom and As the World seem to be missing on Mei, the band instead lets Brett Kull and Ray Weston shine on their own more often than not, with Chris Buzby adding the backing vocals. This formula works, and gives the CD a nice Beatles flavor, although some older fans will no doubt miss the harmonies of old. Instrumentally, Echolyn has never sounded better, but they have scaled back the non-stop complexity a bit in favor of more melody, and longer solo passages. Chris Buzby in particular lays down all sorts of keyboard textures and solos, mainly Hammond, electric piano, and synthesizer, while drummer Paul Ramsey and percussionist Jordan Perlson once again provide a rock solid foundation. It would have been nice to hear some more lead work from guitarist Kull, but he still injects many intriguing little Gary Green inspired passages and a heavier rhythm sound. In fact, I noticed about half-way through the CD, that there is a part where the guitar lick and electric piano is very reminiscant of the Gentle Giant track "Proclamation" from the album The Power and the Glory from 1974. Could be just a coincidence, but it was cool to hear regardless. There is also a nice underpinning of jazz and classical tones on the album, which help highten the sense of drama throughout Mei and give a good variety of sound, which is needed to make a 50 minute track successful.

Chalk up another winner for Echolyn. As I mentioned , don't expect to be blown away by Mei on the first few listens, but give it a chance and you will really begin to appreciate the amount of love and hard work that obviously went into the writing and recording of it. Lyrics for the CD are available on the bands website.

http://seaoftranquility.org/reviews....content&id=306

[rickawakeman]

Love the studio version but tremendously enjoyed the live performance at Nearfest.

[Superfly]

I just played this one yesterday...it seems to get better with age. The guy I work with said he didn't have the attention span to listen to a song this long. I apologized that it wasn't a 30 second sound bite.

[Yves]

I have a hard time listening to this as audio-only but love the version on the Stars & Gardens DVD posted above!

[jgprogbear]

Here's a band, in my opinion, worthy of all the superlatives tossed their way. And Mei is a fine example of why. The dynamics, the song structure, the instrumentation is all so well thought out, and yet the piece never seems "cerebral" or "complex" to the point of obfuscation. Just an outstanding work in every sense of the word. Happy to have witnessed the live performance of it at Nearfest.

[rickawakeman]

I just played this one yesterday...it seems to get better with age. The guy I work with said he didn't have the attention span to listen to a song this long. I apologized that it wasn't a 30 second sound bite.

I forget if it's on a NJ Proghouse or Orion show I have where Brett encourages the attendees to use the facilities before the band launches into the piece.

[ProgArtist]

I saw this live at the only NEARfest I was able to attend. I play it now and again and still don't love it, while there are definitely parts that are quite good. I get the sense that various sections are not as thoughtfully arranged or as creative as they would be if they were part of a smaller song. I by no means have a problem with one long album track, it's just that I don't feel it completely works. I prefer the two previous releases and the one following.

That said, I'll probably listen to this today and see if anything else clicks.

[PotatoSolution]

This has all the beauty and rage I've come to expect from echolyn. Mei is my favorite of their albums.

[100423]

I appreciate the talents of this band and I understand what other people like about them, but I just don't feel drawn to listen to them myself. I do own this album (and the self titled one from 2012), so I've tried.

[undergroundrailroad]

I have a hard time listening to this as audio-only but love the version on the Stars & Gardens DVD posted above!

mei is way, way better on the Stars and Gardens DVD than on the CD. Anybody who loves this album and doesn't have the DVD should go get it now.

I love Echolyn. Their entire output is worthy of acclaim. I like mei a lot, but I have difficulty feeling satisfied after listening to it. About 2/3 of the way through it feels like it keeps starting over again about three times after it should have ended. This album also seems to mark a sharp turn in worldview for the band lyrically. I'm still not sold on the down-in-the-dumps post-Kerouac vibe. But I just have to take it on faith that the raw open wound emotions are for real.

[Svetonio]

Here's a band, in my opinion, worthy of all the superlatives tossed their way. And Mei is a fine example of why. The dynamics, the song structure, the instrumentation is all so well thought out, and yet the piece never seems "cerebral" or "complex" to the point of obfuscation. (...)

What he said.

[ProgArtist]

...This album also seems to mark a sharp turn in worldview for the band lyrically. I'm still not sold on the down-in-the-dumps post-Kerouac vibe. But I just have to take it on faith that the raw open wound emotions are for real.

Yes indeed, and for me this is unfortunate. I find "As the World" to be a very uplifting album, even if it isn't all bright and cheery (see "Uncle"), it is still hopeful and optimistic. I suppose we do still get lyrics such as "how can I tell her the end is beautiful?", but these seem few and far between amidst the anger and bitterness.

[SteveSly]

I like some of their other albums better, although I realize many consider this to be their masterpiece. I think it starts out great, but towards the end kind of gets bogged down a bit as is a little bit long in the tooth. Then again I just turned a friend of mine on to Echolyn a few months ago and this is the one that really blew her away, so who knows. It has been a while since I listened to it. I should probably give it a re-visit.

[Scrotum Scissor]

About 2/3 of the way through it feels like it keeps starting over again about three times after it should have ended.

Sums up my feelings exactly. I'm very fond of Echolyn, although probably not a fan as in "fanatic" - but there was always something slightly forced or contrived about their most overt "proggy-progginess" to my ears, and especially on that lengthy suite on their second album, on As the World and here. Which is possibly why I still actually find Cowboy Poems Free their most satisfying release altogether. I thought their self-titled release from a few years back was excellent, though - and The End Is Beautiful as well.

[Sputnik]

A good album. Like others, I find around the 30 minute mark it starts getting somewhat repetitive. I think they should have ended it around this point, it would have lost nothing and they could have had a couple of shorter songs to round out the album. I think the first 10-15 minutes of the piece are really great. I have the Stars & Gardens and generally agree this performance of Mei is better than the studio version. I've also heard it performed three times, and each time it got better, and shorter. My least favorite performance was actually NEARFest, but I chalk some of that up to not knowing the piece at all.

Mei is the last Echolyn album I own. My favorites are As the World and Suffocating the Bloom. I miss the vertical intricacy of these albums compared with the more recent stuff. Mei has enough elements to keep me engaged, but my interest in them has waned as they have moved away form more intricately composed music.

Bill

[Baribrotzer]

Put me down in the "masterpiece" column.

I think it's straight-up fantastic, and the current bar to aim at for an extended epic. For this one, the "prog" is not so much in the details as in the conception - a single unified 50-minute piece, with elements of a song cycle but enough thematic connection to hang together as a unified statement. There's something of an Aaron Copland influence in the way it faintly but clearly echoes American folk and country music, extending simple diatonic tunes into more open-ended forms, then building the results into grand overarching structures. Yes, it seems to have several false endings, but I wouldn't be surprised if they needed that extra space to work out and finish the themes. And I still don't know how they tied it together on a technical level - Brett Kull once said something about how there was a fairly simple unifying musical concept at the center of it, and while I can sense that intuitively I have no idea what it is.

[Digital_Man]

I've listened to this several times. Not one of my favorites by Echolyn but it has grown on me. It's a very mature work with a lot of dynamics. It's a good one for long trips or lazy Saturday afternoons.

[Digital_Man]

I like some of their other albums better, although I realize many consider this to be their masterpiece. I think it starts out great, but towards the end kind of gets bogged down a bit as is a little bit long in the tooth. Then again I just turned a friend of mine on to Echolyn a few months ago and this is the one that really blew her away, so who knows. It has been a while since I listened to it. I should probably give it a re-visit.

This sort of mirrors my experience as well. I like how everything is tied together and I like the highs and the lows but it can be a bit much to sit through in one sitting. There's one point around the 30 minute mark or so where you think it's going to end and there is this big crescendo but then it just pulls you back and starts up again. I'm not quite sure I would call it a fake ending but it certainly comes close. My personal favorite Echolyn albums are their nineties albums. I haven't heard the very latest one yet but I've heard it's suppose to be very good. The self titled double album was very good though.

[StevegSr]

Repetition is a real prog song killer and I agree that the band doubles back too much at the thirty minute mark, but it's still a fine album.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Repetition is a real prog song killer.

Not at all. Except for some far out radical Zeuhl and RIO bands (notably Vortex, Motor Totemist Guild or Henry Cow at their most extreme, as on "Erk Gah"), some math-rock and some of those wildly esoteric avant-tech-metal acts like Orthrelm and Behold the Arctopus, very few progressive artists have worked in conscious abolition of circular variations on motifs and themes. Even the most advanced "symph rock" ensembles such as The Enid, In Spe or Änglagård operate in those terrains. The "big six" worked with fairly elementary principles of repetition constantly, as did more intricate ones like Gentle Giant and Gryphon.

[Guitarplyrjvb]

It suffers from the lack of Tom Hyatt on bass. Material is good, though!

[mellotron storm]

I never really got into this one, but I'm a big fan of the band especially Cowboy Poems Free, the debut, Suffocating The Bloom and The End Is Beautiful.

[bill g]

I like this album. What I like best are the more melodic, beautiful passages, and some nice instrumental passages. I understand some of the comments about repetition, but there are worse offenders by a pretty fair margin. I probably like 'Mei' at least as much as any of their albums, which are pretty consistent I think. Anyway, talented lads.

[Steve983]

I tried hard to like this album but gave up, sold it on Amazon.

[Oreb]

The only Echolyn album I still regularly listen to - and one for which my admiration grows over time. I agree the material is more effective on Stars and Gardens.