Echo Movement
Encyclopedia
Echo Movement is an American alternative-reggae band based in New Jersey
. As of summer, 2011, they are a seven-piece band.
In 2006, Drum Corps International
veteran Colin Bell joined the band. Among the three, plus a series of guest musicians, Echo Movement independently released their second full-length album in June 2006, On My Way.
With the addition of a horn trio, Echo Movement expanded to an eight-piece band in 2008. The band released their third independent album in June 2009, In The Ocean. The album includes a track with guest musician Chris Thatcher, drummer for the rock/ska band Streetlight Manifesto
, and a track introduction taken from a public lecture by theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking
.
In The Ocean was met with immense popular growth and a debut national tour, including a leg of the Warped Tour 2009
. The tour, "Echo Movement In The Ocean Tour '09" was funded by a series of sponsors, including clothing, surf and wellness companies. This proved a breakthrough tour for Echo Movement, even receiving accolades from Warped Tour owner Kevin Lyman
, who mentioned the band as "great" in a Fuel TV interview.
In The Ocean's album cover was painted by surf artist Jay Alders
. According to various resources, including Alders' website, it was painted while the album was recorded. The original artwork is called Burning Inspiration.
Over the Winter 2010-2011, Echo Movement recorded another album called "Music Played On," scheduled for release on September 13, 2011. The seven track, full-length album consists of remakes from Echo Movement's first two albums, which were discontinued in June 2011 and no longer available. The cover artwork for Music Played On features a stencil from a vintage Roland RE-301, cousin of the classic Roland RE-201
. This analog effects unit was instrumental in the production of the album, according to a May 2011 press release from the band. The press release also names Music Played On as the first known contemporary album to intentionally use binaural beats
.
According to the band's website, the name "Echo Movement" is a reference to Generation Y
, also called the "Echo Generation."
.
In Fall 2009, Echo Movement joined Streetlight Manifesto
as support for the first leg of their US tour.
Over the Winter 2009-2010, member and principal songwriter David Fowler performed on Streetlight Manifesto
's 2010 release 99 Songs of Revolution
. The performance was an organ solo on Streetlight's cover of the Bad Religion
song "Skyscraper." The album consists of covers of various artists' songs, including Paul Simon
, NOFX
and The Postal Service
.
The June 2010 issue of Keyboard Magazine
features an article by David Fowler explaining the "reggae bubble," a rhythmic keyboard pattern widely used in reggae.
In Summer 2010, Echo Movement took its second consecutive run as part of Warped Tour 2010
, joining the tour in early August and taking it to the end. This was part of a six-week US tour sponsored by artist Jay Alders
, longboard giants Original Skateboards and one of the world's leading vaporizer
companies Silver Surfer Vaporizers (SSV).
In Summer 2011, the band linked up with SSV again for the "Silver Surfer Vaporizers Presents: Echo Movement Summer 2011 Tour." The six-week US tour also includes parts of Canada.
, surf rock, world music
and several other influences. Other bands in this genre include Bedouin Soundclash
, John Brown's Body
, Sublime (band)
, No Doubt
, Slightly Stoopid
, Pepper (band)
and even music legends The Police
and Paul Simon
.
In a June 2011 press release released by the band's publicist, Echo Movement identified their style as "new reggae."
Five percent of In The Ocean sales are contributed to SurfAid International
, a humanitarian organization dedicated to helping isolated coastal communities in Indonesia
.
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. As of summer, 2011, they are a seven-piece band.
History
The band was originally formed in 2004 by brothers Stephen and David Fowler. They recorded and released a self-titled album in June 2005. The album generated regional cult success.In 2006, Drum Corps International
Drum Corps International
Drum Corps International , formed in 1972, is the non-profit governing body operating the North American drum and bugle corps circuit for junior corps, whose members are between the ages of 14 and 21. It is the counterpart of Drum Corps Associates which governs senior or all-age drum corps...
veteran Colin Bell joined the band. Among the three, plus a series of guest musicians, Echo Movement independently released their second full-length album in June 2006, On My Way.
With the addition of a horn trio, Echo Movement expanded to an eight-piece band in 2008. The band released their third independent album in June 2009, In The Ocean. The album includes a track with guest musician Chris Thatcher, drummer for the rock/ska band Streetlight Manifesto
Streetlight Manifesto
Streetlight Manifesto is an American punk band with many influences from different genres including ska, from New Brunswick, New Jersey fronted by Tomas Kalnoky....
, and a track introduction taken from a public lecture by theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking
Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity...
.
In The Ocean was met with immense popular growth and a debut national tour, including a leg of the Warped Tour 2009
Warped Tour 2009
Warped Tour 2009 was the 15th installment of the annual Summer Warped Tour festival. Vans Shoes was again the tour's primary sponsor. Tour founder/organizer Kevin Lyman announced that this year's tour would feature only one main stage with bands playing 40 minutes each instead of two main stages...
. The tour, "Echo Movement In The Ocean Tour '09" was funded by a series of sponsors, including clothing, surf and wellness companies. This proved a breakthrough tour for Echo Movement, even receiving accolades from Warped Tour owner Kevin Lyman
Kevin Lyman
Kevin Lyman is creator of a touring music and extreme sports festival called the Warped Tour, the Taste of Chaos, and the Mayhem tours. He also is a partner at SideOneDummy Records. He owns 4FINI which annually produces the above-mentioned tours as well as produced past tours such as the Down From...
, who mentioned the band as "great" in a Fuel TV interview.
In The Ocean's album cover was painted by surf artist Jay Alders
Jay Alders
Jay Alders is an American fine artist, photographer and graphic designer. He is best known for his original surf art paintings, and is a well-known profile in surf culture for his work with musicians, artists and cause organizations.-Background:...
. According to various resources, including Alders' website, it was painted while the album was recorded. The original artwork is called Burning Inspiration.
Over the Winter 2010-2011, Echo Movement recorded another album called "Music Played On," scheduled for release on September 13, 2011. The seven track, full-length album consists of remakes from Echo Movement's first two albums, which were discontinued in June 2011 and no longer available. The cover artwork for Music Played On features a stencil from a vintage Roland RE-301, cousin of the classic Roland RE-201
Roland RE-201
The Roland RE-201, commonly known as the Space Echo, is an audio analog delay effects unit produced by the Roland Corporation.A tape echo device records incoming audio to a loop of magnetic tape, then replays the audio over a series of several playback heads before it is erased again by new...
. This analog effects unit was instrumental in the production of the album, according to a May 2011 press release from the band. The press release also names Music Played On as the first known contemporary album to intentionally use binaural beats
Binaural beats
Binaural beats or binaural tones are auditory processing artifacts, or apparent sounds, the perception of which arises in the brain for specific physical stimuli...
.
According to the band's website, the name "Echo Movement" is a reference to Generation Y
Generation Y
Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation , Generation Next, Net Generation, or Echo Boomers, describes the demographic cohort following Generation X. There are no precise dates for when the Millennial generation starts and ends, and commentators have used birth dates ranging somewhere...
, also called the "Echo Generation."
Major Tours and Other Works
Echo Movement's trumpet player Nick Afflitto was part of the original lineup for BOTAR, a project headed by Streetlight Manifesto frontman Tomas KalnokyTomas Kalnoky
Tomas Kalnoky is a Czech-born American musician. He is the lead singer/guitarist and songwriter of the bands Streetlight Manifesto and Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution, and goes by the pseudonym Toh Kay as a solo performer...
.
In Fall 2009, Echo Movement joined Streetlight Manifesto
Streetlight Manifesto
Streetlight Manifesto is an American punk band with many influences from different genres including ska, from New Brunswick, New Jersey fronted by Tomas Kalnoky....
as support for the first leg of their US tour.
Over the Winter 2009-2010, member and principal songwriter David Fowler performed on Streetlight Manifesto
Streetlight Manifesto
Streetlight Manifesto is an American punk band with many influences from different genres including ska, from New Brunswick, New Jersey fronted by Tomas Kalnoky....
's 2010 release 99 Songs of Revolution
99 Songs of Revolution
99 Songs of Revolution: Vol. 1 is the fourth studio album by the American ska punk band Streetlight Manifesto, released March 16, 2010. It is part of a multi-album cover songs project by several associated acts including Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution....
. The performance was an organ solo on Streetlight's cover of the Bad Religion
Bad Religion
Bad Religion is a punk rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1979. Their current line-up consists of Greg Graffin , Brett Gurewitz , Jay Bentley , Greg Hetson , Brian Baker and Brooks Wackerman . Gurewitz is also the founder of the label Epitaph Records, which has released almost all of the...
song "Skyscraper." The album consists of covers of various artists' songs, including Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
, NOFX
NOFX
NOFX is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California .The band was formed in 1983 by vocalist/bassist Fat Mike and guitarist Eric Melvin. Drummer Erik Sandin joined NOFX shortly after. In 1991 El Hefe joined to play lead guitar and trumpet, rounding out the current line-up...
and The Postal Service
The Postal Service
The Postal Service is an American electronic indie pop band composed of vocalist Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and producer Jimmy Tamborello of Dntel and Headset.-Background:...
.
The June 2010 issue of Keyboard Magazine
Keyboard Magazine
Keyboard Magazine is a magazine that originally covered electronic keyboard instruments and keyboardists, though with the advent of computer based recording and audio technology, they have added digital music technology to their regular coverage, including those not strictly pertaining to the...
features an article by David Fowler explaining the "reggae bubble," a rhythmic keyboard pattern widely used in reggae.
In Summer 2010, Echo Movement took its second consecutive run as part of Warped Tour 2010
Warped Tour 2010
Warped Tour 2010 is the 16th installment of the annual Summer Warped Tour festival. Vans Shoes was again the tour's primary sponsor. The first bands were announced on December 18. The 43-date tour kicks off on June 25, 2010 in Carson, California and ends August 15, 2010 in Hillsboro, Oregon.On...
, joining the tour in early August and taking it to the end. This was part of a six-week US tour sponsored by artist Jay Alders
Jay Alders
Jay Alders is an American fine artist, photographer and graphic designer. He is best known for his original surf art paintings, and is a well-known profile in surf culture for his work with musicians, artists and cause organizations.-Background:...
, longboard giants Original Skateboards and one of the world's leading vaporizer
Vaporizer
A vaporizer or vapouriser is a device used to extract for inhalation the active ingredients of plant material, commonly cannabis, tobacco, or other herbs or blends....
companies Silver Surfer Vaporizers (SSV).
In Summer 2011, the band linked up with SSV again for the "Silver Surfer Vaporizers Presents: Echo Movement Summer 2011 Tour." The six-week US tour also includes parts of Canada.
Genre
Echo Movement belongs to an alternative-reggae cross-music genre that includes alternative music, reggaeReggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, surf rock, world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
and several other influences. Other bands in this genre include Bedouin Soundclash
Bedouin Soundclash
Bedouin Soundclash is a Canadian band currently based in Toronto. Their sound can be described as reggae and ska.-History:The band's current lineup consists of vocalist and guitarist Jay Malinowski, and bassist Eon Sinclair with Sekou Lumumba on drums. Their debut album, Root Fire, released in 2001...
, John Brown's Body
John Brown's Body
"John Brown's Body" is an American marching song about the abolitionist John Brown. The song was popular in the Union during the American Civil War. The tune arose out of the folk hymn tradition of the American camp meeting movement of the 19th century...
, Sublime (band)
Sublime (band)
Sublime was an American ska punk band from Long Beach, California, formed in 1988. The band's line-up, unchanged until their breakup, consisted of Bradley Nowell , Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh . Michael "Miguel" Happoldt also contributed on a few Sublime songs, such as "New Thrash." Lou Dog, Nowell's...
, No Doubt
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California that formed in 1986. The ska-pop sound of their first album No Doubt , failed to make an impact...
, Slightly Stoopid
Slightly Stoopid
Slightly Stoopid is an American band based in Ocean Beach, San Diego, California, who describe their music as "a fusion of acoustic rock and blues with reggae, hip-hop, and punk". As a band, they have released eight albums with their sixth studio album, entitled Slightly Not Stoned Enough To Eat...
, Pepper (band)
Pepper (band)
Pepper is a rock band originally from Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. The band's music is often classified as a combination of reggae, dub and rock. The band consists of vocalist/guitarist Kaleo Wassman, vocalist/bassist Bret Bollinger, and drummer Yesod Williams...
and even music legends The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
and Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
.
In a June 2011 press release released by the band's publicist, Echo Movement identified their style as "new reggae."
Content, Sociopolitical and Cultural Contributions
Echo Movement has been outspoken about certain social and political subjects. Among the band's strongest support and contributions have been to the National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws (NORML). The band has released two controversial songs about marijuana law and culture: "Ganja" (2005) takes a historical perspective on prohibition in the United States while citing Harry Anslinger, and "I Think God Smokes Weed" (2009) has a creative approach to the ethical implications behind marijuana. Both have been featured on the NORML Daily Audio Stash, an online podcast, as well as in various other media outlets.Five percent of In The Ocean sales are contributed to SurfAid International
SurfAid International
SurfAid International is an international charitable organization working in the Mentawai Islands of Indonesia. It was founded by Dr. Dave Jenkins of New Zealand in 2000. In 1999 he was on a surfing trip in the area and saw the health problems of the local people...
, a humanitarian organization dedicated to helping isolated coastal communities in Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
.
Discography
- Echo Movement - 2005
- On My Way - 2006
- In The Ocean - 2009
- Music Played On- 2011