My Review: Swirlpool - Distant Echoes

 

Swirlpool - Distant Echoes

The time has come for conjugation, for memory to activate its channels full of intelligence and respect in order to probe the past and give it new possibilities for a more conscious future. 

This is done through a German band, its passion for shoegaze, magically delving into the river of reverberations, of feelings that shake the listener's soul, who finds himself immersed in candelabra, shadows, winds, suspended magic, between black and white and shaded, between sonic thickenings and poignant melodies, where melancholy stamps its passport to bring these songs onto the stage of the most complex and robust emotion one could wish for. 

In the meticulous sifting that sees this genre of music concentrated in its (at least here) thirty-four years of life, everything appears synthesised to perfection and then given a tailspin and loaded with new pulsations, new attitudes, new inclinations, in order to give this nursery of controlled incandescence a throne: it would be important for it to be recognised, as Distant Echoes is one of those works that make history. Within it, clichés are exalted, through the methodology of study, and then a necessary motion of new stars is developed. An attitude that explores, almost secretly, the hunting grounds of lesser-known post-rock, injecting seeds of subtle, almost mystical indie-rock. The whole produces a set of poems that give guitars like magnets, a soft but capable bass that supports the entire sound apparatus, and drumming that traces full-bodied melodies, a vigilant that launches sound and rhythm in the right directions. 

You run, you fly, you chase the centre of gravity of a desire that knows no calculation: the professionalism of Thomas A. Fischer, Markus Kraus and Christian Atzinger produces spells, daisy petals full of ardour and the ability to explore light. They favour the song form, but it is as if each part of their compositions had individual projects, for a puzzle of absolute beauty. Each moment is a bubble that plunges into the rainbow of electric waves that know how to skilfully combine reality and dream, making us touch the notes like an unexpected miracle. An album that seems to be written to be listened to in an attic, with a few glasses of wine, some sweets and a psychology book: there is life to be touched in these rivers, each track becomes a stick that slips into the water of a concept made of vibrations, tensions and caresses, to trigger reflections and emotions. It leads us to crisply perceive a protean layer, causing adoration and disbelief, against the backdrop of the subliminal chaos of shoegaze painted and not shouted, through modes predominantly set to the right rhythm, with a predilection for rhythm changes. Arpeggios with a burning heart, directions that are never random towards a melody that is never found in solitude, with a teamwork that compacts the voice full of reverberation with music swollen with inventiveness, for a global creation that engages the listener in deep attention. 

The production by Mark Gardener (Ride) comforts, amazes, giving the further certainty that this debut was born to be protected with wisdom and intelligence. It flows, and does so well, this magnetic flow of brushes and silks, to envelop the heart in unquestionable ecstasy. 

Right from the start, with the album's title song, we have majesty and shyness, for a combo that hands over the sceptre to the guitars and drumming, and in which post-rock embraces the easiest shoegaze to listen to, in a blaze of intensity and warmth. In Caught In A Dream the band shows how melody and power can be an invincible duo, with the vocals sounding like a rainy day without smiles, while the keyboard paints possible rainbows and the guitars alternate between Dream Pop and shoegaze patterns. When Paranoia arrives, we realise where the style brought to the sky stage by Slowdive is placed: is a sombre procession that does not forgo sweetness with guitars that watch The Cure's Wish album show wrinkles. Immense. The concluding Drowned Voices is an almost mystical farewell, immersed in its slowness that hypnotises, fascinates and shows the future of this musical genre: it is a grazing of the intensity of a sound that is shown with modesty, as if nothing should be ostentatious, and it is at this juncture that the band unleashes solutions with patience and research.             

The whole soundstage deserves a precise study: it will not be the best-loved album of 2024, but certainly among those that will prove that it is the students who teach the world that there is still so much to know...

Prodigiously, while the vibrant artistic forms exhibit their structure, everything seems to become evanescent: one cannot control the beauty of this pelvic carousel of balances, one can only 'suffer' its fascination, in an ever-rising merry-go-round of sounds. And the dirt of guitars trained to contortions produces an unsuspected sense of cleanliness: when sound slides wash the soul and you feel lighter...

Alex Dematteis

Musicshockworld

Salford

20 March 2024

Album out on 22 March 2024

https://swirlpoolmusic.bandcamp.com/album/distant-echoes