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Album Details

• Artist: Surface of Eceyon
• Album: Dragyyn
• Label: Strange Attractors
• Year of Release: 2003
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: jparker on 2003-09-04

When I was very young, I would take my little green AM radio to bed with me. I would listen through the pillow with the volume low so my parents wouldn't hear, and slowly dial the tuner. I didn't really care about the music itself - I was enthralled with the sounds of stations gradually coming into tune, the fuzzy shhhoooo-weeessshhh surrounding every song, the high-pitched interference and fuzzy static phasing in and out, sending my 6-year-old brain into dreamy happyland (and waking up with a dead battery). As I grew older and started to recognize songs, then learned what instruments were and what they sounded like, the magic of that radio was gone. Which brings me to the new Surface of Eceyon album. My stiff grown-up brain listened to the first track in music critic mode, noting the swelling crescendo of drums, the wash of electric guitars and effects pedals, the bending, prog-rock lead guitar. I made a mental note of influences to mention: Amon Duul, 'driftcore' bands like Labradford, Windy & Carl, and Bardo Pond, Julian Cope's ambient stuff, obscure hippy bands like T2 and Emtidi. Then I decided I'd review it later. It's later. I'm playing this record while I read a book. I'm sitting in a tiny cottage on a lake in the middle of nowhere (Lumsden Beach, Saskatchewan - yup, the middle of nowhere). I'm trying to read but I end up staring into space, lost in thought. It strikes me I've been reviewing this record all wrong. So ignore my previous descriptions and references, because Dragyyn will anaesthetize the analytical left side of your brain. What you really need to know about these six long instrumentals is stuff like this: "Stolen Wind" is ominous and threatening. "Council Is Called" is a drone-float. "Over Land, Over Ice" is an incoming tide of three-note waves. "Freeing The Wind" is a 19-minute antidepressant. This song, and the whole of Dragyyn will take you back to happyland. If you want to know the right-brain details of this record, like who's playing what, where they're from, and some other bands they're affiliated with, go to www.thevessyl.org. In the meantime, I'll be here reliving my childhood.

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