Echoberyl - Mother: Remixes
Review By Karl Magi
Overall Album Impressions
Echoberyl’s Mother: Remixes takes already shadowy, twisted music and enhances the icy, threatening and darkly intertwined elements contained within it. The album is full of seething power, emptiness and a miasma of lurking danger as well as driving, throbbing beats and bass,
Even in chopped up, broken form Cecilia Dassonneville’s chilly, austere vocal performance is key to Mother: Remixes’ effectiveness. Her voice is strong, but blows like an icy wind to freeze the heart. The bleakness and hollow feeling in it matches the nature of the song lyrics. The way her vocals move within the remixes complements the album’s atmosphere.
I enjoy the way the remixes capture the sensations and auditory impressions of the original songs while deepening their darkness. The remixers involved have put their own personal spins on the songs, but in a way that keeps their basic integrity intact. I appreciate their skills as they embrace the shadowy, industrial atmosphere that permeate the music and increase the sensations of alienation and cold within it.
The interplay of sonic elements on Mother: Remixes is another strong element on the album. There’s a great deal of deftly layered, intertwining sounds that combine to drench the whole recording in a dark veil. The sheer weight of the drums and bass is a constant along with the balancing of harsh sounds with smooth, adding quick flashes of brighter sound and interspersing haunted musical moments with surging power.
My Favourite Tracks Analyzed
“Mother Solitude (Dissonant Goddess Extended Remix” starts off as thick, pulsating bass throbs into the music with a lone voice crying out in the distance. The bass is dense and oscillating as a slipping sound doubles it to add more motion. Wideband, medium-low synth undulates in time to the pulsating drums and bass, the distorted voice moving as rising strings float through and cut in.
Bright, sharp synth cuts in quick lines and forms a gleaming, hypnotic note pattern falling through the music. Cecilia Dassonneville's distant voice flows in a melancholy melody which effectively radiates painful feelings. The minor key melody is carried on a flashing synth that repeats the tense main melody over the relentlessly throbbing drums and bass.
The string section carries a delicate, gently touching melody before the lead synth flashes again. Cecilia Dassonneville’s distantly floating vocals wander in an ethereal line over the driven rhythm section, As the rough bass oscillates, the angular synth carries a shining melody that increases feelings of progress. Once again, the main melody arcs through the music and we end on trembling strings, the rough-edged bass creaking and throbbing as pounding finally ends.
Hollow, pounding drums that tattoo out an uneven rhythm and twangy bass are joined by a rapidly pulsating synth to open “Au bout de ses forces (La Goutte Remix).” Cecilia Dassonneville’s chilling voice echoes and a steady, elevated synth with a string-like quality vibrates. The unrelenting drum and bass propulsion imbues the track with rapid motion as the icy vocal tones wander above it.
The way in which the cosmically gliding string section swells in enfolding and fragile notes to contrast with Cecilia Dassonneville’s empty feeling voice deepens the music’s emotional power. String sounds shiver and resonate as the charging weight of drums and bass keeps moving.
Vocal sound becomes an accenting element as the strings intertwine and emanate velvety shadows. The beat and bass give the track a continuous feeling, like it could simply go on into eternity. An extra percussion element increases intensity as the vocal fragment moves with a breathy, repeating sound and the drums pound with the oscillating bass.
“Blue Ophélia (Dissonant Remix)” begins as tripping, gentle drums and round-sounding synths bend and together in a rising, glowing pattern that fills the track with a vague, portentous feeling. The drums and bass push on and Cecilia Dassonneville’s vocals are distorted and cool.
An oboe-like instrument carries nasal-sounding notes that call out into the music, carrying a touchingly poignant melody. ice-cold vocal fragments wander and the trembling strings briefly shimmer. The plangent oboe undulates in notes clotted with pained emotion as quick strings flicker. Drums and bass provide a solid underpinning as the nervous string sounds add a worried feeling.
Once again, the oboe’s rounded notes give off an aching timbre as the string section shakes and intertwines with anxiety. Climbing strings shift as a metallic background sound rises and falls and the gruff bass pounds ceaselessly before a windy flow and then silence
Thunderous clashing drums and deep bass are joined by a volleying, high synth flickering back and forth to commence “Medea's Revenge (Steve Object Remix).” The drums provide a shaping throb as wild laughter cackles out. Now the drums and bass become a huge, forward moving surge. Cecilia Dassonneville’s voice echoes out over the oscillating bass, her vocals simultaneously aching and alienating.
Now the heaving drums and dense bass push the track on with a wide sound flowing through below volleying higher sounds. Gasping vocal sounds are incorporated into the music, becoming a distinct sonic element, sounding panicked and hitched. I enjoy the way in which the track oozes tension and stress.
Cecilia Dassonneville’s lost, chilling vocals come in while the drum and bass wall thuds onwards. Seething power emanates from the music while angular, battering synth is underpinned by the ferocious rhythmic pulse that animates the track. Nervous, jittery synth trembles through and the unrelenting drive below rams the music home.
“La Dame en Rouge (Cage Exsanguinated Mix)” kicks off with heavily throbbing bass that’s touched by lighter, airier sounds. A warm, slowly shifting synth pulse shines in contrast to the cooler vocals. Throbbing bass adds strength while a trembling, rapidly moving higher synth pulse adds texture.
Sharp-edged, low synth cuts with gritty growl over the continuous bass heartbeat while Cecilia Dassonneville’s vocals add a superb sense of mystery. Bright synth flashes in high, tightly wound notes over the huge pounding weight underneath it and the drums add more forward motion. Rough, hard-hitting synth slashes and warmer ripples dance through in contrast to the echoing vocals.
The insistent drums and bass are joined by slightly fuzzy, rapidly trickling higher synth and Cecilia Dassonneville’s hollow vocals. Raised synth vibrates though over the unstoppable beat and out into silence along with rounded synth bubbles.
Massive bass pulsates while fat string-like sounds echo out to begin “Overwater.” The drums hit hard to push the music forward while haunted higher sounds float in. Cecilia Dassonneville’s slightly distorted, frozen vocals flow over the aggressive drums and bass.
Clashing, shining synth trumpets out in powerful flashes over the shadowy vocals and underneath it all, the drums and bass heave and surge. Broad guitar twangs briefly and the unrelenting rhythmic pulse shapes the music. Cecilia Dassonneville’s voice feels bereft in a poignant way as the metallic guitar reverberates into open space in mournful lines.
Huge synth chords burst out in thick, shining lines and again the drums and bass drive onwards with muscled energy. The intense synth blocks add gleaming weight and the beat jumps while a twisting rope of medium-low synth winds through before silence falls.
Our narrator speaks of surviving a storm by staying still, commanding the waves and pulling “every rope until blood starts to dry off, but don’t give up.” She says that there’s no other way to pass the storm and “break the winds on your tired face.” She adds that in “just a moment, one last moment” they will remain “overwater.”
The storyteller talks about fighting without winning or losing. She points out that “if you see wonder” the cold will vanish but “you can’t give up, there’s no other way.” The narrator goes on to say that “the salt in your eyes” won’t be painful much longer. Once again, our storyteller talks about one final moment of being “overwater” before the song concludes with one word: drowning.
Conclusion
Mother: Remixes does what all good remix albums manage to do and enhances the existing music. The remixes here take what was good about the original songs and increase the intensity of those elements. The end result is music that fits in well with the source material’s intent while extending it and deepening its power and meaning.
To learn more about Echobery'l’s music, visit them here.