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Few labels have fed the shoegaze/dream-pop hydra as regularly as Oakland-based Slumberland. Wild Peace is the label's latest offering, the debut from London duo Echo Lake. Guitarist Thom Hill never met an effects pedal he didn't like. The melodies in "Last Song of the Year" are like soft ash caught in a swirling updraft. On "Further Down," Linda Jarvis's vocals are so heavy with reverb that it sounds like she's singing at the edge of a massive crater. The pair doesn't blush when glorifying idols: label-mates Black Tambourine; the sometimes cute/sometimes melancholic schoolgirl approach of Amelia Fletcher; and Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser's use of her voice as an instrument. When the final two minutes of "Just Kids" deviates into one of those melodic, break-it-down codas that Galaxie 500 perfected, you might wonder if Echo Lake are merely a caricature of every previous shoegaze and dream-pop outfit. What saves the duo is how splendidly their iridescent sounds can evoke a moment, allowing listeners to lose themselves in the music. When "Monday 5AM" plays, you can picture either standing underneath a Texas-sized spaceship as it slowly descends or watching a butterfly land on a blade of grass. I see a Volkswagen commercial in their future.
