(2022) Melody's Echo Chamber - Unfold


Review:
Culled from sessions for a never-released second album, Unfold serves as a wonderfully hypnotic and spacey bridge between Melody Prochet's debut LP and her later work like the near-perfect psychedelic epic Bon Voyage. She wrote the album while on tour during 2012, then began recording it in Australia, once again with the help of Tame Impala's Kevin Parker; sessions continued in France once Prochet relocated there. The music was born during a tumultuous time in her life, and the warped melodies and uneasy undercurrents bear that out, as does the fact that she abandoned the record, going so far as to delete and destroy much of it. Unfold is a reconstructed version of the album, half-finished but enthralling just the same. Much of the territory is similar to that of the first Melody's Echo Chamber album -- gentle psychedelia with a murky mix dominated by overloaded guitars and Prochet's falling-out-of-a-dream vocals. "Norfolk Hotel" is a fine example of how the record was both a continuation of that sound and a harbinger of what was to come. Her vocal exhortations and gymnastics are a new element, as are the acrobatic bass and dramatic shifts in the arrangement. Bon Voyage would make greater use of both of these; it's nice to hear the early stages of Prochet's growth here and on songs like the title track, where she indulges in some dreamy vocal jazz flights of fancy. While she and Parker made a good team, it's clear she had some exploring to do on her own, and this was an important first step. Even better for fans of the band and Prochet, it solves the mystery of what happened after her debut and sounds like glittering, priceless lost treasure.


   


Track List:
01. Pêcheuse De Lune
02. Ocean Road
03. Norfolk Hotel
04. Unfold
05. From Pink They Fell Into Blue
06. Pieces of Sound
07. The Cure


Media Report:
Genre: dream-pop, indie-rock
Country: France
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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