ECHO STREET

Still the old hackneyed label of the most under-rated band in the UK. This is a return to the best of the early albums. Having said that this is definitely a "floats your boat" album. It either does or it doesn't. Mine's planing on a tsunami. This is exactly what I want from a prog album. It's now one of my DIDs (Desert Island Disks).

So the real question: what is it like? (I can't write that without thinking of the Blackadder spanish infanta: "But, what does he like"). Is this classic unmistakable Amplifier?: yes.

Well the next obvious question is: "If I haven't listened to Amplifier before what does it sound like: what am i getting myself in for?" OK, no band likes being compared to another but it's a review so I'll indulge you.

Right we have smatterings of Porcupine Tree (without the miserable "music to slash your wrists to vibe"), a sprinkling of Kings X in their Out of the Silent Planet/Gretchen/Faith Hope Love prime; and a hint of piquant Oceansize. But these are merely

Matmos is typical Amplifier, but the The Wheel is simply majestic. Layer upon layer: test your hi- fi: but not over produced.If I had a criticism it would be that the guitar tone lacks a harsher bite.

Extra Vehicular fades in, clean separated elements: guitar arpeggios, bass, drums. Maybe the bass is a bit too flabby & rounded. I liked the character of the Warwick that came through on the earlier albums.

I love the guitar tone throughout the album. it's clear that there has been considerable personal tweaking to get it just so. The acoustic has a lovely tone, it's not Andy McKee but hey.

Where the river Goes' vocals will instantly chime with Kings X fans

****** The Album cover

the first prog album I bought was Yes Songs the only reason I bought it was that it was a triple fold out and the album art was cool. Took it home & loved the music. For me that's always been a part of the prog scene. The slow demise of LPs has cut down that sense of pop art in your hands as you listen to prog but Echo Street is a marvellous piece of kit to own: it's a small hardback book. **** So a fab album to add to the collection. I think this is an important album as it helps define Brit prog at the time of PT's demise.

If spacerock is your bag this is an excellent must have. Otherwise it's good but not essential.

A band at the top of their game (8.5/10)

Amplifier are at the top of their game, and their new album "Echo Street" shows this very clearly. As the band confessed in press interviews, Echo Street is primarily an album born out of necessity. With the planned follow-up to The Octopus, Mystoria, being still in the making and a long way from being ready for release, and with their finances wearing thin, in 2012 the band realized they needed a new album out. Soon. So in just about 2 months, they wrote and recorded "Echo Street", which was then quickly released on Kscope in early 2013. With such premises, I have to admit that I was somewhat skeptical when I ordered my copy of Echo Street.

How wrong was I. Echo Street is a fantastic record. The music is typical Amplifier: pulsating basses and effected guitars conjure to create dream-like, spacey textures for the delicate, never banal, melodies sung by Sel Balamir's distinctive voice. The first three songs are a great demonstration of Amplifier's unique brand of dark yet lively space rock. But there are surprises too, like the mellower ballad "Where the River Goes" (but watch out for the interstellar instrumental crescendo in the middle of the song), or the acoustic "Between Today and Yesterday", which hints to early 70s pastoral folk. Despite the limited span of time that the band has devoted to the writing of this album, it's difficult to find a weak spot: all songs are excellent, have a great structure, a great sound, and great melodies. I truly enjoy the album from start to finish."Paris in the Spring" is perhaps the only piece that fails to impress as much as the other songs do.

Overall, I highly recommend this album. If you are already an Amplifier fan , this album won't disappoint you. While the moods and atmospheres may be different and perhaps lighter than those on "The Octopus", "Echo Street" is a collection of great, 100% Amplifier tunes. If you have never heard of Amplifier, then I would recommend this too, as a good place to start to get to know the band. The spontaneity and diversity of the songs on "Echo Street" constitutes an excellent showcase of the band's talent and breadth.

***** songs: Extra Vehicular, Matmos; **** songs: The Wheel, Between Today & Yesterday, Echo Street, Mary Rose, Where the River Goes; *** songs: Paris In The Spring

Amplifier have created a wonderful album with "Echo Street", completely different to THE OCTOPUS, which sounds more powerful. Echo Street is more melodic, it contains more progressive elements in the sense of psychedelic or folk sounds. The songs have a lower pace in contrast to The Octopus, but effective, my favorite track is "Mary Rose", which has a wonderful bass line at the beginning along with the voice and then it has a good change of mood. I think this album is one that grows little by little as soon as you listen to it over and over, and definitely you don't get bored with it.

4.0 Stars. Echoes of the space rock past

Echo Street is Amplifier's 4th studio album and their first release with KScope. This album also shows a noticeable change in the band's sound, as it contains significantly more Space Rock. The heavy Alternative Rock sound is still there, but it no longer takes centre stage which should please most people on this site. The title track (which happens to be my favourite song on the album) could be described as pure space rock and is full of distortion and walls of noise that swirl around your head.

Despite the noise of the title-track the overall trend is that the band have toned down the "noisy rock" assault that has up until now been part of their trademark sound. It's not that it has disappeared completely from most songs, but now the listener has to be a bit more patient before things really get going. For example "Matmos" starts incredibly slowly with a minute of drone sounds and then another 4-5 minutes of steady (but enjoyable) build up before they let loose. This may be a problem for some people, but for me it shows a sign of maturity as they have dropped the quick frills and are trying to broaden their horizons.

There are some teething problems to be found with their quieter songs. "Paris in the spring" has some interesting atmospheric sections, but they are poorly joint together which ruins the flow of the song. "Mary Rose" has a similar structure to "Matmos", but the slower section at the beginning has no build-up and so stagnates.

The best written song on Echo Street has to be the 12 min epic "Extra Vehicular" which has excellent flow and all of the sub-sections fit together perfectly. Oh, and the last 3-4 minutes is one long space-metal instrumental that packs one hell of a punch! So they can still rock hard when they want to, but they now know when the time is right.

This is a great all round album and well worth 4 stars. Recommended to all Porcupine Tree fans and those who like Alternative and Space rock. Keep it up!

3.5/5

Amplifier is a band I have always found mildly frustrating, because their intricate space-prog sound is one that I feel I should like...but I seem to have difficulty doing so. I tended to love a few selected tracks over their discography, but could never manage to get through entire albums. Indeed, with the exception of about three tracks, I find The Octopus pretty much unlistenable.

Echo Street turned out to be a pleasant surprise; it is much more to my taste than earlier albums. Perhaps the addition of the two former Oceansize guys on bass and guitar has influenced this, but I find the new album more purely song-driven than earlier albums, beautifully melodic with a great mix of acoustic guitar and nicely dense and heavy electric. The epic track "Extra Vehicular" kicks major ass. The outstanding feature for me though, besides the beautifully structured songs, is the vocal work: Sel Balamir has a lovely, soothing voice, and the harmonies in "Between Today and Yesterday" are outstanding. Echo Street is probably my Number 1 singalong album.

Alas for all its qualities, the album simply did not have staying power. I played it a ton when I first got it, it really hooked me, but after a couple of months of heavy rotation, the interest in it wore off. As well, the last two tracks are not as strong as the rest and the album does peter out with rather a whimper. I still like it better than any of the other Amplifier efforts, but it is not an album I will return to very often, and then only to play a few selected tracks. So I guess Amplifier continues to be a band I find mildly frustrating?.

Solid album!

Several months ago I went through a few week stretch of listening everything Amplifier had released (and available to me). It's one of those bands that is very consistent in the quality of their output.

Amplifier's signature sound and style is present in all of their albums and, if you like it, you will like each album to varying degrees. Their use of guitars instead of keys to create excellent soundscapes and their somewhat unique style of vocals and song structures result and something a little different than anything else out there. "Unique" is tough to achieve, and Amplifier pulls it off, repeatedly.

Echo Street may be my favourite from a prog perspective. It's a little darker overall than their other albums and the music is top notch. It's also a little more palpable at 60 minutes versus the 120 minutes of the excellent, Octopus. When I am more interested in something "a more rock", I'll put on their first two albums.

Echo Street opens with a 5 star tune called Mantos. Guitar with delay and light vibrato creates a wonderful wall of soundscape for the opening verses. You know you are in for an interesting listening experience quite quickly

I have mixed feeling for the next track, The Wheel. While a very good song, the repetitive, and a little cliché, chorus is a little off-putting to me. Extra Vehicular launches us back into the similar vibe of the opening track.

Where the River Goes is a very good tune that's just smooth and enjoyable with some nice, rock hooks, breaking into heaviness at 4:20 or so, expanding on the dominant chord progression of the chorus. Pure classic rock feel on this one.

Paris in the Spring?.what a nice tune! A very simple, done-a-million-time chord progression begins the track, but then a vocal theme that shows again several times in the tune come up and make it interesting, before the switch to a very nice new, dark melody, soft percussion with gentle ride symbol and wonderful vocals. At 8:30, this song keeps the listener's attention throughout, all with a very good flow between the various parts.

Between Today and Yesterday is another amazing tune with a nice folk music feel with acoustic guitar, nice melodies and great harmonies. The guitar work reminds me of Mikael Åkerfeldt's acoustic work. Very nice.

The title track is a little dreamy, with delayed guitars, accompanied by bass and drums and layers of sound and muted vocals. Psychedelic in the Amplifier way. The vocal build progressively over top all the zone-out repetition.

Mary Rose concludes the album with a repetitive note bass guitar in an eastern style in the signature style of the band. The vocals follow the notes of the bass. The song then kicks into a nice new melody with some catchy motif's. Rinse, repeat. Nice, more upbeat conclusion to a fine album. "Come on, let's catch the wind by its tail." "Come on, catch the wind in your sail!"

If you've never listened to Amplifier and want to give them spin, this is as good a place as any. They have managed to create a sound of their own, and that deserves some attention.

I'm such a huge fan of this band and have been since hearing their 2004 debut back in the day. The complaint has always been that they're not proggy enough but I have no issues with that at all. They are a four piece with two guitarists, bass and drums playing a heavy brand of Psychedelia and Alternative music but they do mix things up beyond that. We get eight songs and an hour's worth of music. Top three please...

The opener "Matmos" at 8 minutes gets us off on the right foot. It's so quiet to start with spacey sounds for a minute then strummed guitar almost baritone sounding joins in with vocal melodies. Reserved vocals just before 2 minutes. How uplifting is this after 3 minutes as the sound changes including the vocals. Oh my! Check it out after 3 1/2 minutes. Back to the mellow sound after 4 minutes as contrasts continue. Man they hit such highs on this one. Drums to the fore after 7 minutes during a killer instrumental section then it ends like it began.

"Extra Vehicular" is top three number two. Twelve minutes long and the longest piece on here. Sounds build beautifully as reserved vocals join in. The sound is rich with plenty of depth as it moves along in a relaxed way. Vocals just before 2 minutes and it all gets kicked up a notch a minute later. A heavy instrumental section starts around 4 1/2 minutes with guitar over top. Themes are repeated and how good is this? How about the guitar after 7 minutes and later after 9 minutes. Final top three is "Echo Street" for being this unique sounding song with distant sounding vocals crying out the lyrics. So much atmosphere that we're drowning in it. Those vocals arrive after 2 minutes along with vocal melodies later. Check out the guitar very late.

Tracks 5 and 6 are my least favourites but this is still a very solid 4 star album in my world.