*Review by: Scott Smith
Formed in 1982 in Melbourne Australia, over a career spanning just 3 albums Pseudo Echo certainly left their mark in so many ways. Following the release of debut album “Autumnal Park” in 1984, they were regarded as one of Australia’s hottest bands alongside INXS. Their new wave synth pop sound channelled the likes of Duran Duran and Ultravox and the singles ‘Listening’, ‘Beat For You’, ‘Stranger In Me’ and ‘Dancing Till Midnight’ gave the band a string of hit singles. The song “His Eyes” which was featured in the horror movie “Friday The 13th - A New Beginning” gave them some initial international exposure. With several lineup changes leading into release of 2nd album ‘Love An Adventure’, the band’s sound turned into a more poppy, upbeat vibe with the introduction of a slight rock edge. Their remake of the 70’s dance hit “Funky Town” reached Top 10 in the USA, UK, Canada and Top 20 in Germany and the likes of the title track, ‘Don’t Go’ and ‘Living In A Dream’ dominated the Australia scene.
With the late 80’s resulting in a changing musical landscape to one dominated by big hair, equally big guitars and hard rock, 1988 saw the band release ‘Race’ which mirrored the music landscape at the time. While the album no doubt alienated the majority of the bands fanbase at the time, it equally attracted a new breed of rock loving fans. For lovers of melodic rock and AOR this album is one of those highly regarded underground classics, not just in Australia, but worldwide.
The opening tracks, both singles, ‘Fooled Again’ and ‘Over Tomorrow’ are bona fide keyboard laden rock anthems. About the only thing constant in comparison to the bands previous releases are lot’s of keyboards and awesome songwriting! Speaking of keyboards...check the video for ‘Over Tomorrow’ above for some awesome KEYTAR action courtesy of James Leigh! ‘Caught’ and ‘Don’t You Forget’, are killer pop oriented songs and highlight the band’s irrepressible knack for crafting an infectious melody and keyboard hookline/riff, whilst ‘Imagination’ is pure unadulterated AOR that will have you cranking out some air keytar without question....not to understate the awesome guitar solo from Brian Canham on this track.
For the new wave loving Echo fans, hearing songs like ‘Runaways’ and ‘Eye Of The Storm’ with their thundering guitar riffs must of been like listening to Slayer to their ears! But for those of us who were living a diet of ‘Van Halen’, ‘Def Leppard’ and ‘Bon Jovi’ at the time, to think songs like this were being released out of our hometown Melbourne, Australia was beyond belief. With the album not surprisingly receiving an abundance of critical or commercial acclaim, the band did however win the “Yamaha World Popular Song Contest” with the track ‘Take On The World’, whatever that award means exactly I am not sure, but it sounds impressive.
The band disbanded in 1989, however none of the members have been lost in the wilderness never to be seen or heard of again. The ‘Leigh’ brothers resurface some years later with firstly ‘Vertigo’ and then along with a change in singer they became ‘Invertigo’ achieving some decent chart success in Australia with the pop rock explosion of ‘Desentized’ and ‘Chances Are’. Brian Canham on the other hand has been more than busy in the capacity of songwriter and producer with much of his work being heard all over Australian radio and TV.
For any Australian fan of Pseudo Echo, maybe you have been fortunate enough to catch them performing live (with the lineup of Canham, Leigh, Leigh, Pierre Pierre) as recently as April 2010? If you are lucky you may hear a short interlude in their set which features ‘Over Tomorrow’, but largely the set is made up of the classics...which have stood the test of time I might add in their slightly more rocked up live versions circa 2010!
But importantly....their set features KEYTAR and lot’s of it!!!
