TIME SILENT RADIO II

People will have their own experiences. Some projects are divisive for the same reason they are magnificent.

I'm happy to admit I'm an echolyn fan. There's a unique chemistry and aesthetic to these guys; they are about as prog as one could want, and yet they sound like no other prog group (unless there's the now very infrequent nod to the fact that they have loved Gentle Giant). These are distinctly modern rock songs in several respects - the dynamics, instrumentation, some of the vocal stylizations, the normal lineup for a rock band. You have two bona fide epics - a semi (Time Has No Place) and an extra (Water In Our Hands). You have a sophistication and spirit of exploration on some tracks which takes their usual harmonic and structural gifts to another level - and sometimes one beyond that one. These are rich, deep compositions, as lovingly and skillfully composed as anything you will hear in progressive rock. And the lyrics amount to some devastating and gorgeous poetry - with a prominent theme of love and time and our ways of wasting, trying to preserve, and reclaim them, in a world growing steadily tired of our presence. The poetry dips into apocalyptic themes, personal as much as societal, but Hope and the chance of redemption are always present, and never in a cliché way.

And on Time Silent Radio vii, the companion album of seven shorter but still-substantial songs, you have a broad and mature mix of the dissonant-yet-earworm-quality echolyn could always achieve due to some very disciplined and innovative harmonic and rhythmic ideas, and also of some gentle lyrical, even dreamy passages which lovers of the transcendent moments in the Prog Masterworks look forward to. The songwriting has grown, deepened, taken on new dimensions and flavors, with some major chances taken, a repeated reaching for what exceeds the grasp... except these guys often reach it, the way one would expect of mature composers writing from a place of depth and wisdom... not to mention the technique and restraint which make it possible. Masterpiece-level stuff.

Yes, newcomers to the band can get a rich sampling of what this band excels at, but there are so many more layers to each piece, compositionally and production-wise, and in messaging, than even the always-high standard of this band has ever quite reached. This is the fulfillment of what this band does. And there's no reason to think there won't be more progression. no reason except that time to make art in as uncompromising a way as this is always hard to come by.

There are things here that no "modern rock" or classic prog band would have thought of. There's an (to me) cliche-free songwriting ethic here. In this album as much as any other they've done, there are hooks galore, sometimes separated by some brief overture or interlude, or a sudden surprise timed perfectly so that it is bracing but never jarring. Often it will be an odd-time gem consisting of some deliciously weird harmonic movements (Time Has No Place - a beautiful two-part "what makes you weep in the minutes left behind... for what you'll never find", leading into what hits home as a brilliantly demented video-game-car-chase passage just my association? Tell me what comes to mind when you listen to that early portion of "time has no place". Highlight of that passage is Brett Kull's wobbly guitar commentary following "ne-ver Find...", seamlessly tranistioning into a military-toned nightmare....from there in turn leading into one of the most plaintively beautiful, soul-shaking passages I can remember, in a simple acoustic, choral melody - "they'll be waiting, but please don't hurry - just hold in the air of Ivy Hill; everythings been giving, all these days that I'm re-living", just holding in the air of Ivy Hill." Weston's - and sometimes, I think, Brett Kull's - exquisitely sensitive empathy for the urge to hold onto the life which we fail to care for, appreciate, try to hold onto even as the sense of loss - personal and cultural - is devastating'.

I don't always know when a passage has been penned by Brett or Ray. But the lyrics simply never sound like simple words to plug into the melody; there are motives here as one would find with any poet, personal angels and Demons, a sort of personal metaphysics. From the last album,"I heard you listening", there's the song Carried Home", with the following passage:

_________________________ Soon the water will rise And soon it carries them home Always circles around itself Blooming, returning to itself Back and forth, it never ends When anything is everything again We're carried home, we're carried to the sea --------------------------- From "Time Has No Place":

They'll be waiting, but please don't hurry Just hold in the air of Ivy Hill Everything's been given All these days that I'm reliving Still holding in the air of Ivy Hill

He brushes up against her As they wait in line Knowing nothing's better than that moment in time

They sing under the boughs And gaze up towards some half-hidden face Calling from some emerald garden Where time has no place. ---------------------------- Ray works with the elderly and dying in nursing care, as I did for many years; I can only assume that some of what he writes is informed by the experience of helping people who are fading away, their deepest memories filling the present and evaporating. Witnessing the life passing by, and away, was a beautiful and terrible part of that job, something I am priviliged to have done, but after which it becomes very difficult to be casual about life, love, and time. Set to music of such depth, "the end is beautiful". No surprise that the closing passages of the song for which the album is titled is a quote from Stravinsky's "Firebird", which sets to music and dance the tale of the magic bird who brings redemption and hope, but at the price of great sacrifice.

I couldn't help but share that the "Ivy Hill section (section B of a four part movement always has the impact of making me wistfully nostalgic for a time I cannot name, which I know I've never been part of....best I could describe the spiritual quality of it is that there is something universal which hits us in the gut, or the soul, something in the ocean we've all been born from, something which feels deep and a little beyond words. The ocean, the air, the place we leave and find our way back to? These are concerns which run through so much of their work, returning, following a trace of lost memory. It's something felt much more than understood.

If you haven't figured it out, I'm really pleased with this album. I find it a solid notch and three-quarters above anything they've done in cohesion, mixing delicious hooks and surprises, woking in some of the most purely unprecedented and sophisticated compositional and harmonic ideas; first rate complex and deeply affecting vocal harmonies. Jordan Person is a seamless replacement for his old teacher, Paul Ramsay, who left after their last album (IHYL). Perlson is a crispier, slightly funkier, driving, drummer, articulating more crisply, on the beat, straightforwardly but confident and flowing in the many odd-time passages. Instead of the flashier Tom Hyatt on bass, we have Ray Weston, melodic, perfectly adept and tasteful, his playing a fine complement to his extremely emotionally-evocative and relatable voice and lyrics.

Each is a powerful album, another level in the song craft, the sophistication of the composing, harmonically, thematically.... it FEELS like they spent many years creating and polishing their magnum opus. I love their music - but never before have I listened to an album as compulsively right after release. I listened to the whole album every night for two weeks after New Years Eve, and I'm only just starting to slow down. There's so friggin' much music here, crafted immaculately. It rocks. It is musically challenging while being anywhere from relatable to gorgeous to jaw-droppingly strange and evocative. You folks who didn't get the early release have a lot to look forward to.

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