Echostar | fr

This is another project of Martha Schwendener, formerly of the lauded New York indie-electronic band Bowery Electric. The project debuted in 2003, with the release of Sola. Echostar creates a new space and sound for herself which is simultaneously lo-fi and hi-tech. Less break-beat driven than BE, "Sola" is a lush combination of breathy vocals, atmospheric sounds, and deep four-on-the-floor beats--an exercise in laptop soul that builds upon the soothing, spaced-out canvas of her previous band.

In the mid-to-late '90s Bowery Electric straddled the divide between electronic music and indie rock, mainly by leavening the former with dollops of My Bloody Valentine-flavored guitar. But with Echostar, Schwendener has left the rock elements entirely behind, trading them for the coolly melodic laptop techno associated with Cologne's Pluramon and Microstoria--although her affectless alto singing distinguishes her from that largely instrumental crowd. In Bowery Electric, that voice reinforced the aesthetic connection with the British shoegazer bands; but in the more purely electronic context of Echostar, it recalls the group Broadcast (minus the latter's more overt Stereolab similarities)... .