after a few days off in my small hometown visiting family and friends, a package containing two new records was waiting for me back home. again it wasn't anything recently released which i ordered from kingsroad merch europe, at least no recently written music. but from the start, i actually was browsing the kingsroad shop for some converge vinyl but then came across a pelican re-issue of "city of echoes". i saw the name pelican thrown around several times on other blogs i follow but never actually listened to them.
in hindsight i find this pretty strange because the band totally fits my taste in instrumental music, anyway, with this re-issue up for grabs and the vague idea that they might be cool i gave the album a listen via the tube. the first two songs "bliss in concrete" and the title track"city of echoes" were all i needed to be convinced that this record was a must have for me. i always thought that when it comes to this instrumental, progressive, post-rock, whatever metal european bands like toundra or terraformer were second to none. to me u.s. bands like russian circles or even red sparowes, which i really like, never had the drive of their european counterparts. but pelican is different.
they don't seem to lose thereselves in lengthy, progressive melodies without giving the listener a sludgy kick to the head. pelican delivers just the right dosage of heaviness, at least on "city of echoes". the presentation by hydra head records is really neat. the record comes in a gatefold sleeve with some invisible ink here and there to highlight the overall minimalistic artwork. i really like that, it gives the package a special touch. this re-issue is a double lp affair and, as some of you might already have noticed, the original press was a single lp release. for the re-press hydra head didn't spread the album across two 12" platters, but included a live session instead.
the second lp contains seven songs of a set the band played in wroclaw, poland in november of 2007 on their tour with high on fire on the printed dust sleeve of the second lp, the band gives the interested listener some liner notes as to how this idea came to be and some memories to the live set cut into the vinyl grooves. nice gimmick, although i won't be reaching to it very often. on the other hand the first lp will be put on quite often, i imagine, as "city of echoes" is a great record. lovely re-issue. white vinyl. don't know how many were made. hydra head records. 2007/2016.
