Echelon by Portal Theory is a dense record of menacing tones and spooky, sugary voices challenging even the most hardened miserable git not to be stirred.

Echelon is the sound of tragic, desperate beauty. It's rhythms rattle and pound with menacing precision. It's chords murmur gently in an oppressive gloom. It's aching, sublime voices that are as sweet as they are claustrophobic. This is music for biting nails, burning candles, and touching skin. These are songs for your dark side.

Impacted throughout by a pervasive, aching melancholy, Echelon is not an album for the happy-go-lucky outdoors types. Rather, this dense record of manacing tones and spooky, sugary voices challenges even the most hardened miserable git not to be stirred. Perhaps most directly comparable to trip-hop masterminds Massive Attack, Portal Theory absorb a wash of styles and influences into their music - they owe as much to Goth sensibility as they do to Jamaican dub.

Beneath it all are Thomas Edward Hales's musical soundscapes; dark complex structures that weave delicate melodies through hypnotic bass lines, and drums that snap, crackle, and boom on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Surfacing from beneath an otherwise cold, unforgiving sea is vocalist Lisa Trevorrow: a soft, eerie siren who occasionally reminds one of Bjork or Everything But the Girl's Tracey Thorn. It is Trevorrow's voice, in fact, that sets Echelon apart from other records in the same genre: her ability to convincingly combine sweetness and terror are virtually unparalleled.

The disc opens with the forbidding instrumental Journey Under Lifes Every Soul and then barely remits for its entire 65 minutes. Through Another State of Dreaming and It Comes From There, Trevorrow and Hale skillfully build up the impenetrable, gorgeous gloom to their heart's content. April Rain's pleasant melodies offer a momentary break in the fog, but inevitably, the track segues into the frantic Chronic, with its panicky, skittering snare punctuating Trevorrow's desperate lethargy. The disc continues to sail effortlessly through hopeful reprieve and oppressive menace, reaching its pinnacle at Environ, a tune so lovely that chills still follow hours after the last notes have swept and faded. By all accounts greater than the sum of its parts, Echelon is an intense experience.

This is not to say that it's without some flaws. After 65 minutes, the somber atmosphere is enough to leave the unsuspecting feeling absolutely crippled. And the penultimate track, 6000 miles, is a bit of a red herring - it attempts uplift to the point of absurdity. it's too little too late, and it's not necessary anyway.

Thankfully, the album closes solidly with the wordless India Calling, which, while keeping with the mood of the rest of the material, does perhaps imply that things might be looking up eventually. It's an appropriate curtain call for what has been a willfully unsettling show. All in all, Echelon is an outstanding work - well-recommended for anyone who likes to take the fall and still look pretty. - David Robertson 2000

About the Artists:
Portal Theory are Lisa Trevorrow and Thomas Edward Hale with guest vocalist Victoria Lloyd of Claire Voyant singing on the track Siren.

Lisa Trevorrow, a Detroit native, has been fronting various bands for the past seven years. Since relocating to California in 1997, she has divided her time between her modern rock act the deepfield, and the trip-hop outfit Portal Theory. Beginning with a folk music background and early comparisons to Natalie Merchant, Trevorrow's languid, engaging style is now more reminiscent of Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval, or Tracey Thorn from Everything But The Girl. Equally easy on the eyes as on the ears, Trevorrow looks destined to be a significant presence on the music scene before too long.

Thomas Edward Hale, has melded an acute savvy and love for computers and music related technology with a life-long passion for writing and performing his music. This designer extraordinaire has professionally evolved from creating a recording studio and music video company, to touring the Soviet Union when it was still the Iron Curtain (for a record breaking whirlwind four month, over 80 concert tours all over Russia), then to accepting a recording deal in Japan (along with a green light to record a CD at Peter Gabriel's studio, Real World), to re-enter into the world of technology by creating Imagine Radio (imagineradio.com) and then completing the mission with WiredPlanet.com. - David Robertson 2000