"A Quest for Prog" is a series of 50 Progressive Rock reviews to be written over a year. The band selection is taken from the book in the first post on this blog. And the albums I am reviewing is based on the highest user ratings for each band on Progarchives.com.
Echolyn – Suffocating The Bloom (1992)
Produced by Echolyn
Christopher Buzby – Keyboards, background vocals
Tom Hyatt – Bass
Brett Kull – Guitar, vocals, background vocals
Paul Ramsey – Percussion, drums
Raymond Weston – Bass, vocals, background vocals
Katherine Shenk – Violin
Richard Casimir – Violin
Jeffrey E. Meyers – Violin
Laura Anthony – Flute
Heather Groll – Flute
Jim Dwyer – Marching snares
Tom Kelly – Marching snares
Kimberly Shenk – Cello
Elizabeth C. Detweile – Viola
Dainis Roman – Alto saxophone
Track listing:
01. 21 (5:49)
02. Winterthru (3:45)
03. Memoirs From Between (8:01)
04. Reaping the Harvest (1:41)
05. In Every Garden (4:39)
06. A Little Nonsense (4:20)
07. The Sentimental Chain (1:40)
08. One Voice (5:20)
09. Here I Am (5:21)
10. Cactapus (2:51)
11. A Suite for the Everyman (28:13)
§ Only Twelve (1:17)
§ A Cautious Repose (4:55)
§ Bearing Down (3:49)
§ Cash Flow Shuffle (0:39)
§ Mr. Oxy Moron (3:23)
§ Twelve's Enough (2:21)
§ I Am the Tide (1:15)
§ Cannoning in B Major (1:19)
§ Picture Perfect (0:55)
§ Those That Want to Buy (6:45)
§ Suffocating the Bloom (4:03)
Released in 1992 “Suffocating The Bloom” is the second album by American band Echolyn. The band formed in 1989 by guitarist Brett Kull and drummer Paul Ramsey. Both had played together in a covers band Narcissus which had disbanded and solidified the line up with keyboardist Chris Buzby, vocalist Ray Weston and Bassist Tom Hyatt by the time of their debut album. The band signed a multi album deal with Epic Records in 1993 but disagreements with the label over direction ultimately forced the Echolyn to disband. The band reformed in 2000 and continues to record and tour.
The album begins with “21”. The track has a mix of 70’s rock and medieval instrumentation. There seems to be a strong Yes influence here on this upbeat track. Interesting but a bit to safe and controlled for me.
“Winterthru” follows on and is a classic rock tune with an African feel. There are steel drums and African rhythms. This isn’t a full blown rip off of the sound like Vampire Weekend but a mixture. Unfortunately the track overall is fairly boring and does really go anywhere. This and the next song seem to be Christmas songs or at least Christmas related.
“Memoirs From Between” has an English folk feel to it. The lyrics on this tune are pretty bad and Raymond is giving loads singing them. I did let out a laugh or two through this one. I know that they weren’t probably trying to be funny...
The short intro “Reaping the Harvest” is next. It a pleasant track that shares it’s synthesized violin with “In Every Garden”.
“In Every Garden” is an odd track. It begins with a barber shop intro with something about there being “Too many Weeds” in every garden. The track is a light prog track that is really pretty dull but there certainly is entertainment in the lyrics. I don’t know how a band can muster so much emotion for a song about gardening. I’m probably missing something much deeper here but I was too amused to care.
The aptly titled “A Little Nonsense” is next. I nice little jazzy number the song has some interesting changes and some nice guitar work. Again there are silly lyrics like “We are the music makers and the dreamers”. Really?
The intro “The Sentimental Chain” follows on and is one of my favourite things on this record. A interesting Flute, Guitar and Violin instrumental.
This goes into “One Voice”. This is an Overblown, Syrupy tune which makes me wonder if these guys in anyway affiliated to Hillsong? There is a nice Flute section but apart from that it is a dull track.
“Here I Am” is next. An upbeat acoustic track this has some decent movement. It’s a pretty uninteresting but it seems that the band is try to do something different here.
Following on is “Cactapus” a laidback mid-paced instrumental. It’s pretty loose and lacks some focus or urgency about it which would have made it more interesting. Has some promise but isn't quite there.
The 28 minute “A Suite for the Everyman” ends the record. It is split into 11 sections from quite short pieces to some more significant sections. It has some of the most interesting pieces on this album like “Only Twelve”, “Bearing Down”, “Twelve's Enough” & “Those That Want to Buy”.
“Only Twelve” is like a B Horror soundtrack and is a pretty fun section. “Bearing Down” is getting a little nastier and it’s a welcome change to the sound of the band. The section has a nice groove and some great work from the Guitars and Drums. The playing is less straight up and simply more interesting. “Twelve's Enough” has a darker mood and some interesting changes in tempo and timing but the guitar solo ruins the flow. The longest section “Those That Want to Buy” has some obvious downsides such as being much longer than it needed to be and a amusing 80’s bass sound. Besides that it’s a edger track from the band and features a strong vocal which reminded me of Peter Hammill at points.
As a whole “A Suite for the Everyman” doesn’t seem to have any flow or connection between tracks. It’s really more a number of pieces collected and given the same name. Parts of the track work on some level as mentioned but couldn’t hold your attention for 28 minutes as a single piece.
“Suffocating The Bloom” is not my cup of tea at all and I see a band of competent musicians not really pushing themselves. It also highlights the reason a number of bands have used outside lyricist because the lyrics are average at best and comedic at it’s worst on this album.
3/10
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