WHEN THE SWEET TURNS SOUR

What started as a dream for Echolyn, ended up to be a nightmare and led to the demise of the group.''As the world'' was warmly received by the worldwide press, but Sony refused to support them on their upcoming tour, which included a performance at Progfest 95' as headliners.Upon returning on their basis, Echolyn were dumbed by Sony and the dissapointed Chris Buzby and Thomas Hyatt left the band.Echolyn's first phase came to an end at the fall of 95', followed by a 1996 posthumous album, ''When the sweet turns sour'', released both on Cyclops and Kinesis and containing unreleased and live material.

So, most of the songs on this album are working attempts by Echolyn on new compositions, mostly recorded during the last few weeks of their existence, and, despite containing the unmet, quirky sound of the band, they sound a bit flat and uninspired as a whole.Additionally parts of the album appear as Echolyn going towards Prog Pop and some keyboard passages are certainly a bit forced and weak.Unexpected rhythm and mood changes and multi-vocal harmonies are still in the menu, it's just that most of the tracks do not sound like good, old Echolyn anymore.The symphonic elements and light, jazzy overtones have given their place to a style close to mid- to late-70's GENTLE GIANT minus the funky vibes, plus a rockier enviroment, an expression of Prog, Fusion and Pop with questionable results.The album's title refers to an attempt by the band to cover Genesis' ''Where the sour turns to sweet'', the guys certainly added their own naughty vibes, but the choice of the track would be a best fit for groups close to MAGELLAN (which they recall a little bit too much on this work) than for Echloyn.The live tracks, representing the band on stage, are ''A little nonsense'' and ''As the world'', two well-known cuts from Echolyn's repertoire, coming as a pair of impressive Prog Rock in the bunch of average recollections from the band's fading days.I want to be fair with them, parts of the unreleased pieces are trully efficient and definitely on par with Echolyn's personal musical approach, but the average production and lack of passion are more than evident throughout.

The least interesting of all Echolyn albums.Documentary recordings from the act's last days before disbanding, showcasing Echolyn at their most Fusion side with a bit of advanced Pop aesthetics.Not bad, but if you're a fan of the band you will definitely find this one lacking the absolute nerve of other releases...2.5 stars.