Deepchord presents: Echospace - The Coldest Season Vols. 1-3

With the over-cooked Pirates of The Caribbean franchise being shamelessly flogged about the place, it seems everyone's trying their hand at a little high seas robbery. Under the Echospace alias, Detroit's Rod Modell and Steve Hitchell have rammed Moritz V. Oswald's Chain Reaction ship, looting the bassline booty of Fluxion, Hallucinator and Porter Ricks. First Point of Aries, the premier cut from Echospace, is a proficient recreation of washed out static and dubby bass, but veers too much close to onanistic fanboy posturing to be truly successful. The second volume sees experimentation with this template though, and Abraxas sketches ethereal, shadowy reconstructions of classic Quadrant dubs, whilst Empyrean ups the tempo and unleashes a skankin' dreadlocked monster. Based in analogue organ sounds and reeking of ganja, the low-swung two-step bass of Empyrean is brilliantly catchy and proves Echospace are more than mere pretenders. The same African Roots can be seen on Vol. 3's Elysian, and as Echospace kick back and enjoy the spoils on a Caribbean beach, Sunset enters with soft tones, deep melodies and a sense of warmth long missing from this type of minimalist reduction. The fourth and final volume is due in July, and a CD of all four volumes will be released later this year. As Johnny Depp has shown, there's something very attractive about piracy. [Liam Arnold]