TIME SILENT RADIO II

I've loved Echolyn's music for many years, but their later albums have been a bit hit and miss. I didn't really like 'I Heard you Listening' so I signed up to the Kickstarter campaign with a bit of trepidation, but I figured that, regardless of the likeability of the music, it's supporting a great and creative band anyway.

I have found the two Time Silent Radio albums quite hard to get into; I have listened to them many times since they dropped on 1 January. They didn't immediately land, but as I have listened over the past couple of weeks, they have grown on me. It's complex music with many parts. 'Water in our Hands' for example is a bit like 'Mei' (which I have also struggled to like). However, I think that Echolyn is like the classical music of Prog Rock in that repeated listening reveals more and more genius writing and playing. It's taken a while for the melodies to land where I can find myself recalling them without listening to the music itself, but it's getting there - they are taking hold.

I think this is actually a good thing because when you like something immediately, perhaps it's not the deep and may even get boring with repeated listening - this is not the case with this music. There's plenty to savour here and repeated listening is more and more rewarding. The beauty of the music becomes more powerful and moving with greater familiarity.

I now think that these two albums are wonderful. I originally gave these albums a three star rating, but as I've been listening, I have increased the rating and I now feel this is among the best of their work. 4.5 stars.

Echolyn's nine-year hiatus has not diminished them in any way. Maybe a few of us wondered if we would ever get more music, but now it's here I'm very happy to say, 'thank you Echolyn, welcome back, you've been missed and thank you for the wonderful new music.'