May 3, 2009.

Filed under: album review, newly discovered, stream | Tags: dream pop, electronic, Emilie Autumn, ethereal, female vocals, gothic, Siouxsie Sioux, Switchblade Symphony, The Psychic Echo

Hailing from South Wales (like me!) are alternative duo The Psychic Echo. It is quite hard to pin down their actual sound, so I will use their own description which seems to fit nicely: they play ‘a distinctive collision of ethereal dream pop, gothic and emotionally charged electronica with heartfelt lyrics’.

The Psychic Echo, previously known as The Butterfly Effect, formed in 2006 & consists of female vocalist Eva Valentine & instrumentalist DarkStar. They started recording Into The Light in 2006, completed it in February 2008 & released it in January of this year.

The one thing that strikes me most about this album is how open & honest it is. It is clearly a very personal & emotional album, particularly to Eva. In an interview the band did with Mick Mercer recently, Eva revealed that she went through a serious mental & emotional breakdown before working on the album. She said that she really bared her soul through her lyrics & expressing herself in this way finally gave her something to live for. After such a serious breakdown, the music would naturally delve into the dark & disturbing aspects of life, but it is not all doom & gloom. There are some tracks that are uplifting & about recovering; as they said themselves, this album is about ‘coming out of the darkness & into the light’. Haunting & ethereal in places, the music sounds as though Switchblade Symphony, Emilie Autumn & Siouxsie Sioux collaborated.

My favourite track on the album would have to be ‘Dark Angel’, a song about death but also escaping it, battling & overcoming depression & suicidal thoughts. I also like the beautiful piano & strings of ‘Beautiful Broken Butterfly’. Another favourite track is opener, ‘The Butterfly Effect’ which reminds me the most of Switchblade Symphony. As you can probably tell, butterflies is a theme that runs through the album. It is meant to symbolise that every action has a consequence, which the band strongly believes.

Unfortunately, the album isn’t as strong in the second half & I tend to zone out when listening to it. However, this does seem to happen to me when I’m listening to any music of this type at length, regardless of its quality. I (as a shuffle-fiend) will probably listen to the tracks individually rather than as a complete album in future. I am also unsure about the male vocals on ‘Crawl’, I understand what they were attempting with the track but I don’t think it worked quite as well as it could have. Overall, I think it is a good debut, but I’m sure the best is yet to come from this pair.

You can currently stream the full album at Last.FM.