London label Echochamp, are a bunch of folk who take the DIY ethos quite literally to heart.
Attentively led by George Boorman and Paeris Giles of The Magic Gang, and with alumni spanning from Icehead to Night Vision, they return to our lives at a time of mutual support with a covers compilation in aid of The Trussell Trust food bank; a UK based network striving to end hunger nationwide, by providing emergency food and support to people in poverty whilst bringing an end to food bank dependency permanently.
It takes a collective of souls to orchestrate a body of covers and whilst presently, every damn soul on the face of this planet have cumulatively pulled the Solitude tarot, when Echochamps re-kindled for what can only be described as fourteen little kisses on the tips of your ears, boats were rocked in misty-eyed waves of moored delight, and for its duration, we’d all be well charmed into forgetting we’re not in the same room.
Accompanying and beautifully present, this compilation will tuck your mind, and its own into categories of mood specific comforts likening to unexpected smiles passed on by strangers, a perfectly proportioned shoulder to both cry, and lean on, or the imaginative delights of turning off all the lights, sitting under a table and pretending to be at a festival whilst the dusky strums of George Boorman on La Roux’s ‘Bulletproof’, (throwback, indeed) empower softly from their high-strung orbit above.
It goes without saying that in these reinvented circles of familial delights, the bestowment of track favourites, tend to fall to those croons of which are personally, already adored. Blood Wizard’s rendition of ‘Wildegeeses’ by Michael Hurley is so authentically drawled in introspect, if rumours speculated that it is in fact Kurt Vile pretending, to be some dude under a cloaked moniker posing, as another living legend- the story wouldn’t feel that far-fetched. (‘That’s Life, tho (almost hate to say’)).
What sets a covers compilation apart from a regular accumulation of harmonious content, is an innate confidence in matchmakings you may never have dreamt would work, until hearing Sulky Boy waxing ‘Slow Dancing In The Dark’ lyrical through a shitty home speaker, turns into an excuse to set the clocks forward to midnight and dress up in your finest.
Circumstantially forced to collaborate this entire endeavour online, “A ship without a rudder” serves very little purpose if the sail has no clear direction to strive towards and so we must thank Jack Pulman and Harry Sinclair-Waugh, for not wrecking The Lemonheads and Jack Kaye and Elbe Koe for reminding us to ‘Make It Easy On Yourself’ through a two-minute possession of The Walker Brothers masterpiece.
No covers trip nor indie compilation would ever be complete without a token Beatles croon and so thankfully, Mina Wood and Soph Nathan of The Big Moon and Our Girl recognition, provided gauzy nostalgia before we all attempted renditions of our own.
Whilst ‘The Song Remains the Same’, there’s no denying that every artist on this compilation have wholly embodied their own. This really is something special. All Ecochamp proceeds made via digital purchase on the site, will be donated directly to The Trussell Trust.
