Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.
That’s what Ferris Bueller had to say in the movie about the time he took a day off from school. And that’s the kind of attitude Matt Ackerman (moduS ponY) and Adrian Suchowolsky (Suko Pyramid) adopted while crafting their collaborative effort “Echolalia,” a psychedelic pop album that took a year to piece together. Long distances and all. LA and Madrid. Many miles, especially (or even—not sure how this works) as the crow flies.
But Ackerman and Suchowolsky took a moment or two to dig into each other’s work, to wriggle around inside what the other was doing and come up with inventive and unusual melodies to apply to the already inventive and unusual melodies. The result sometimes sounds like a wrestling match for your attention, but more often than not the result hits a sweet spot of ramshackle, homespun electro-indie that aligns quite nicely with one of my favorite semi-recent producers, Nomadic Firs (although wrung through the Haord Records catalog, because “Echolalia” can’t be TOO nice, then it’d be predictable … which it’s not).
What it is is a model for slowing down and examining the details, of parsing the fine print or peering into the pixels. It’s both sour and sweet, a mix occurring at cellular levels and blooming through its DNA. It’s a collaborative gem, a blueprint for rigorous effort dressed up in laid-back presentation. Not unlike Ferris Bueller’s MO at all.
Suko Pyramid
moduS ponY
Strategic Tape Reserve
--Ryan