Everpresent 2023
Conjuring up their erstwhile magic, two forward-thinkers cast a loving glance behind their collective shoulder.
Seduce Me
Two decades ago, before this project began to deal in experimental EPs, its mastermind and frontman Matthew Cahoon, who excelled in accompanying clever synthpop from the past to the future, used to secure the natural-sound backing of Ethan Matthews, his Berklee friend and cowriter of those early offerings. But if the former musician took a sabbatical and then revived EVERPRESENT with "Introspekt" in 2015 to make another stop after 2018’s "Parallax" reintroduced psychedelia to the San Diego resident’s oeuvre, the latter intermittently steered ECHO US across prog landscape from the Oregonian ensemble’s self-titled debut to "Inland Empire" which was issued in 2023, and the twain didn’t seem to want to meet, in musical terms, anymore. Until they did – to let Cahoon’s creative vehicle give a new lease of life to a piece designed back at the turn of the century for Matthews’ brainchild.
With refreshed lyrics and Katie Robinette’s emotional voice bouncing off Matthew’s deceptively deadpan vocals and Ethan’s bewitching six-string lines, the artifact’s freshly polished electric glide and suggestive groove will easily locate the G-spot in the listener’s soul. As the singers’ mutual pleas emanate nocturnal brainwaves, there’s no escaping the tranquil wonder of this ullimately not-so-serene number that’s easy to be enchanted by and almost impossible to escape from. especially once the bottom-end pulse and heavy passages expand its dynamic amplitude and rhythmic spectrum to produce blissed-out tumult of one’s anxious, and excited, heartbeat. Retro-reveries and dreams about tomorrow couldn’t attain a better soundtrack.
*****
