Review Summary: sing a song, moonchild, let your dream go on forever
Eccsame the Photon Band is quite the dreamy affair, a departure from frontman Kurt Heasley’s prior immersion in My Bloody Valentine worship and the resulting
In the Presence of Nothing. Described as “the quick follow-up to
Loveless”, Lilys’ debut record dabbled far into noise pop experiments and serious focus on artistry, resulting in an album that turned out to be relatively acceptable shoegaze, yet far from the quality and achievement of the renowned auteurs of the genre. Three years onward, Heasley seemed to have abandoned the hero-worship aspects that surrounded the aesthetic of
Presence, as well as the more abrasive elements that channeled
Loveless, and ventured into a realm that bordered somewhere between cloud nine-like dream pop and overwhelmingly moody space rock that had more alike with
Nowhere-era Ride than any other of their shoegazing contemporaries. Whereas
Nowhere and its hazy production teased its listeners with vague glimpses of a britpop sensibility,
Eccsame goes in an unpredictable direction, offering its audience something far more brooding and emotive, yet incredibly beautiful in delivery.
Aspects of
Presence-era Lilys are ever present within the blueprint of
Eccsame, if the catchy noise pop standout “The Hermit Crab” is of any indication; however, this time around, Heasley’s intentions are more focused and aimed towards admirable restraint – keeping the boundaries of the ten songs well established, but insuring the composition itself allows the music room to breathe so they may truly come to life amidst all that is going on within the context of the song itself. The languid opening to
Eccsame, “High Writer at Home”, is a prime example of Heasley’s approach to songwriting in the case that instead of making a fierce entrance or referring to outside influences; he instead opts to let the song build itself up until it can’t possibly contain itself no longer, as to not get too ahead of himself perhaps. This formula isn’t definitive of Heasley’s style nor of the music of
Eccsame, yet it marks a change in direction for Lilys, one that has matured but hasn’t lost its edge at all. Songs like “The Turtle Which Died Before Knowing”, “Hubble” and “FBI and Their Toronto Transmitters” all have a lot more in common with the slowcore lineage than it does shoegaze and still manages to have an absurd amount of attention put into detail and vaguer textures that defined the genre entirely.
Peppered by four separate untitled tracks that serve as transitions between songs (or in the case of the final track, an epilogue that can be seen as humorous or entirely unnecessary altogether), the songs of
Eccsame function magnificently within the confines of its framework and out – the untitled pieces, which
should be viewed as mere filler due to their extremely short lengths and nature, somehow manage to become part of the complete experience and essential insight into the creation of the final product at hand. Their importance is not equal to that of the actual songs themselves, but without these little soundbites, the album itself wouldn’t be as charming as it is nor would it allow listeners a
very, very brief reprieve from the increasingly mellowed-out and serious music that these interludes were interspersed with. The snippets of in-studio fiddling and moments of refreshing humor go hand in hand with the two lively cuts on the record, “Radiotricity” and the penultimate “Your Guest and Host”, and bring the record back down to Earth and quell the dreamy little high that persisted for some forty-five minutes beforehand, snapping the listener out of the numbing daze the prior songs left them in.
Eccsame the Photon Band marks a considerable detour from the realms of shoegaze and more into the arena of meandering slowcore and lush, detailed dream pop that confidently shows a band already in clear comfort with what they have at their disposal.
Loveless this is not, but does it deserve to be touted alongside the revered masterwork as one of the great shoegaze records of its time? Sure, why not? The habitually lethargic studio maestro himself, Kevin Shields, would agree in its favor.
