PIKE 258 - ECHO

"Reaching" (8:10) mellow clean guitar placidly strolls in from the cold and slowly strums about before a burst of lightning zaps some energy into its ass and it picks up tempo with a bass and drumbeat joining in for the ride. Midtempo melodies parade forth while little outbursts of percussive energy punctuate their development. The melody is recurring as it unfolds and then refolds and then unfolds again. In fact this is one of those tracks that repeats ad nauseam. Yep, the melody plays, recurs and then repeats again with only little breakdowns separating one long run from another. The melody is nice and pleasant and suitable as soothing background lullaby music with a little more zest than similar material but not too overly exciting for an active listener

"Echo" (14:28) hmmm, with a title like this you would expect some Pink Floyd? Dolphin music? Reverb like those no tomorrow? Well, what we get here is an ambient background with nice swishing swirling heavenly synths backing a clean guitar riff. The bass and percussion join in but keep everything nice and easy but then after establishing themselves drop out and let the swirly ambience stuff do little cosmic dances around the guitar. As you could probably guess, the track repeats the theme over and over with periods of speeding up the tempo a bit and then slowing it down all over again. The melody is recurring as if Groundhog Day has set in and this is the soundtrack. Once again, nice background lullaby music if you're in the mood for it, but i'm usually not unless the music has a little more finesse. I simply find it boring and it makes me want to take a nap. If that's the point then this is brilliant

"Table" (6:10) actually has some guitar distortion! Still a slow tempo but has a twangy tone and more bluesy. Picks up a little but sounds like some second rate bar band in Toledo. The blues riff is recurring but never picks up any steam. It just enters the scene and never goes away! Yeah, the bluesy guitar lick gets more intense as the track progresses but this is the type of stuff you'd hear someone playing at Guitar Center :o

This one was hard to get through. I just wasted a half hour of my life. Like all of these types, they are perfectly listenable for passive experiences but if you're seeking something to sink your teeth into, then avoid this one at all costs. Production is excellent though but obviously not enough to make this one the least bit entertaining for yours truly