Entry 933 - Echochamber - I'm Real, I'm Here

Style: Ambient, ambient techno

Primary Emotions/Themes: Lost in a dream, trying to wake up from a nightmare, striving for self realization

Thoughts: This was one of the very first records that I purchased in the dreampunk field of music. I remember looking for everything and anything that sounded like the style. I don't even think I was aware of the genre that this was part of before picking it up, I just knew that I liked this type of vaporwave. 

Echochamber play a drawn out yet highly emotive style of ambient music that is littered with techno beats from time to time. The songs range anywhere from thirty seconds to nearly eighteen minutes in length (though sadly the epic title track is excluded from the record). 

The record does an outstanding job of creating a thick and murky atmosphere that resonates deeply with my  emotions when I get stuck in a darker place. I'm Real, I'm Here is the perfect album title for this as the music has a consistent feeling of trying to self actualize... to justify it's existence.

The music goes through many twists and turns trying to settle in  on a definitive style. Starting out with seven short tracks the album comes into self actualization. From here it weaves and turns from ambient music to techno to a combination of the two. 

The real tragedy here is that the extended version of the title track is excluded. This track acts as the final realization for the album, all of the individual styles represented here are recapped in the eighteen minutes of the song. It's a wonderful ending to a journey of exploration and discovery and I feel the album is a bit less as a whole without it's inclusion.

All that said, Echochamber produced quite an interesting album with I'm Real, I'm Here. As diverse as it is, it does not feel disjointed or too far out of bounds. There are some songs that feel like they are a bit off from what the album is trying to do as a whole, but that can be forgiven as the album's full experience far outweighs these minor blips.

Written September 3rd 2024