Album Review
SPC ECO – 3-D
Dean Garcia and Rose Berlin have produced an album that is a reboot of a sound once popular in this country that seems to have been sidelined heavily by indie rock. What is great about this little escapade is that it largely serves to remind listeners of an era of music back in the early to mid 90’s that was actually probably a lot better than anyone ever gave credit for. It’s also is worth mentioning on it’s own that this is decent listen. Dean Garcia is no stranger to experimenting with music. His adventures in related genres have usually provided music lovers with something strong and memorable.
3-D begins in a very dream pop fashion. Berlin’s soft and, well “Dreamy” voice echoing in and out of the music. She seems to have the ability to weave her vocals around sounds and chords making for a very angelic experience.
After this however, the album becomes much trickier to pin down. Dream pop aside, Garcia’s predilection for distortion and samples comes to the fore, reminding us of what he has done so well in the past when he was leading the way with Curve. But Spc Eco still remain a separate entity from his previous works (even with the use of several of his past collaborators working on this album), and Berlin makes sure that we are somewhere new each time she opens her mouth.
At 14 tracks it’s also quite a substantial effort. Garcia seems to be brimming with idea after idea. It will be interesting to see if they follow this up with another release. Berlin’s voice is very young and has a whole career to look forward to. So although she has the angelic soft voice down, it will be interesting to see how she manages to develop her style in the future like so many have in the past.
Shoegaze seems at the moment to be given a reboot all over Europe and America with bands like Soundpool and Rumskib (Both recently reviewed) joining the effort. Aptly referred to as Nu-Gaze on the Spc Eco MySpace site, it is a decent call back to an era of music that still has a lot to say and is hard to date, other than perhaps the time when it was last popular. With as many strong efforts as this coming out perhaps it can all come round again. Now is the time, this is the music.
The Europe release is through The Electric Label. The album is released in the US through the Noiseplus independent label run by kaRIN and Statik (of Collide fame) who collaborated with Garcia a few years back with The Secret Meeting album. Further proof that it is just the best independent artists that produce the best material. This version of the album also comes with an extra track!