equape: “Around Forever” – achingly beautiful melodies and soothing but never precious vocals

Capturing many varied ears within its breezy, hazy musical web, guitars wash in and out like waves, drums, bass and keyboards creep slowly along, as Pablo intones the beautifully insightful lyrics over the wondrously droning sea of sound. “Around Forever”, the latest album by equape possesses a moving, understated emotional punch, ranging from the drearily melancholic to the overflowingly redemptive. Powerful, resonant, and fleeting, this is an astonishing listen.

What puts equape many fathoms ahead of their counterparts is that they have achingly beautiful melodies and soothing but never precious vocals. You will find flange-like and careful superposition of guitars instead of overt virtuosity.

This album’s sonic soundscapes create almost an entire dream world, especially when listening with headphones. The shimmery guitars just tickle some part of the brain, creating an extremely euphoric experience, if you let yourself go and just drift away to wherever it happens to take you. There’s nary a weak spot on the entire album, it all just flows so well.

Washes of guitar and keyboards seem to ebb and flow throughout the tracks, rising to magnificent crescendos and fading to nebulous atmospherics. When listening to equape you are not merely an observer, you become one with the music. There’s no way you can listen to any one song on the album and not feel some kind of immense emotion building inside of you.

No matter what emotion, happy, sad, confused, maybe love, but it definitely makes you feel something deep inside, and that’s very hard for music to do. And this happens right from track one, “Back To The Womb”, and it just gets more captivating as you go along.

Favorite songs are “Fool Under Attack”, the melodically mesmerizing “Around Forever”, “W.M.D.”, the crunchy “Fall For Your Nature”, the eclectic and percussive “Close Them Close”, the ethereal and echoey “Silhouette And All Those Secrets” as well as the galloping “Amber’s Matisse”, Although, you can’t go wrong with the whole album. Let it seep into your brain for a while.

Most of these songs will take a couple of listens for you to really enjoy them.  Just sit and listen, preferably on headphones, the songs will lure you in and after some time it becomes a part of you – dense, stunning, and significant. Like “Melt the Moon” which was inspired by the death of David Bowie and “Doubt About Me” which was inspired by the death of Robin Williams.

This album combines the talents of Pablo (voice, piano, acoustic guitar), Ray (electric guitars), Dylan (guitars, backing vocals), Nader (keys, programming), Desmond (bass), and Sasha (drums, percussion, backing vocals). The excellent production allows for a full, rich sound that bursts at all the right times.

The sound of the album is incredibly drenched in dream pop, shoegaze and lo-fi sounds, as well as space and psychedelic rock. But to label this album just with those styles would be selling it short. The guitar work is a cascade of sonic embraces. At times it’s subtle and at times it is desperately crunchy.

Underneath is some extremely solid bass work, while the vocal mix actually comes off beautifully unlike many similar efforts. The result is a beautiful wash of sonic spirit that will sweep you into a strange and beautiful place. “Around Forever” is highly recommended for serious music lovers.

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