The new album from Califone, the band's first in years, is one of the more expansive releases you're going to hear in 2020. Echo Mine, out today via Jealous Butcher Records, is anchored by musicality that encompasses elements of fusion and post-rock, but the tunes here remain accessible and affecting. While designed to accompany a dance performance by Robyn Mineko Williams, Echo Mine holds up on its own thanks to the evenhanded leadership of Tim Rutili. Think of this as almost a jazz record, even if some of the textures will feel familiar to anyone who listened to American indie-rock in the last decade or so.
When site contributor (and my friend) Stan Cierlitsky hipped me to new music from Califone, he pointed me towards "Snow Angel V2", the second version of the tune on Echo Mine. And while Tim Rutili's plaintive vocals lend this a sincere air, the music seems a tiny bit like that of Shudder to Think. While nothing here is as indebted to glam and prog as the music of those D.C. legends, there's loads here on Echo Mine that suggests a similarly expansive view of how far indie can be pushed in new directions. "By The Time the Starlight Reaches Our Eyes", for instance, sees simple instrumental flourishes blended with treatments that wouldn't have sounded out of place on an Eno or Lanois record, even as the title cut on this record mixes subtle percussive effects with electronic elements to conjure up an entire mood.
Echo Mine, perhaps by virtue of its purpose as music for a performance, seems holistic and self-contained. Nothing here is too showy, though "Romans" nearly erupts at times, and little feels unplanned. "Night Gallery / Projector" may roil like a fusion number but the selection never really goes off the rails. Tim Rutili and the players here, notably drummer Ben Massarella and percussionist/drummer/bassist Brian Deck, inject this whole thing with a real earthiness that sits nicely next to the instrumental passages that sound fairly ambient in spots. Echo Mine is a record of genuine warmth, and one which hits at the intersections of multiple genres, while very nearly mapping out its own unique one.
Echo Mine is out today via Jealous Butcher Records.
More details on Califone via the band's official website, or the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: Federico Pedrotti]