"Echo is the latest installment of a project that launched last year with Helium, filled with gorgeous all-acoustic (including double bass, piano, harmonium, auto-harp and violin) psychedelic folk psych prog. This is no placid, meandering hippy folk, however. The drums still hit hard, the bass hits floor-shaking tones, and the guitars have aggressive moments as well as lovely picking. This rocks along the lines of British folky psych prog like Fairfield Parlour, Trees and early Jethro Tull. Based in Detroit, the group is lead by Curvey, who fronted Chicago’s The Luck of Eden Hall for 30 years. In the context of that large, impressive body of work, Custard Flux sees Curvey at the top of his game.  His vocal melodies on “America” evokes one of my all-time favorites, The Pretty Things’ S.F. Sorrow. “Pink Indians” recalls a mix of Yes circa their 1969 debut and Canterbury prog (Soft Machine, Caravan). “Gold” is how I imagine Peter Gabriel might have sounded had he released a psych prog epic shortly after leaving Genesis. Despite the presence of three songs extending past six minutes, the album feels concise at 41 and a half minutes, leaving me breathlessly fluffed and chuffed, ready for more. Fortunately there is more, with the aforementioned Helium, and a bonus disc originally included with the limited edition box set, available digitally on Bandcamp. And if that’s not enough, there’s also The Luck of Eden Hall’s catalog"  Continued...

Curvey is back with a second instalment of Custard Flux goodness. Mick Dillingham catches up with the great man to find out all about it and he gives us a track by track breakdown of Echo.

Another glorious Custard Flux album is upon us and like everything Eden Hall’s Gregory Curvey unleashes it’s a psychedelic treasure chest of wonderful songs, masterfully played and beautifully produced. Let us sit down with the great man and find out all about Echo. So straight off, why Echo?

"I initially intended to name the album after one of the elements, like Helium, and already had permission to use an entirely different painting by Gregory Chamberlin for the cover, but that Echo knob on the cover of the Helium Box Set wouldn’t let me be.  The box did have enough room for another CD, so I went with the idea of making Echo an annex to the Helium Box Set."

This time you brought some other players on board for the sessions.

"Having Tim Prettyman play double bass on the album definitely added a new dimension to the sound.  The acoustic bass I played on the Helium tracks sounded pretty close to an electric bass, even though I didn’t use an amplifier.

America happened to be the first track we recorded .....Continued...

"Custard flux sounds like an extreme form f dairy intolerance, but is in fact the acoustic-based side-project of The Luck of Eden Hall's Gregory Curvey.  There's a sun-kissed, lo-fi vibe to this album, but while the instruments are (mostly) unplugged, it still produces plenty of electricity.  For example, the rootsy, psychedelic reel of opening track Supernatural manages to be forceful and laid-back at the same time, the sprawling violin of Waly Prettyman adding a cosmic dimension to the sound.  There's a sense throughout that this is what the original West coast psych bands might have sounded like if they'd struck out in a more progressive direction rather than getting mired in country rock and AOR.

On saying that, there's an Anglophile hint on some tracks: Cirque d'Enfant switches between classic rock and Beatles-esque melancholy, and while America teases out the difference between dream and reality in the US, and even features a jaw harp, the vocal melody is pure Pretty Things.  Gold feels a little darker, building to the repeated refrain of 'I thought you'd understand.'  But overall, Echo is a charmingly light-footed album, following last year's surprise delight, Helium."