Artist: Broadcast
Title: Echo's Answer
Format: 7" single
Label: Warp
Catalogue Number: 7WAP125
Year of Release: 1999
Tracklisting:
A Echo's Answer (3:11)
B Test Area (5:53)
I got into Broadcast early on, as a house-mate had a copy of 1997's Living Room single, which he played very loudly twice a day for a considerable period of time. It's a great song, and he did this during the day, so nobody minded much. It made me go out and buy the Work and Non Work compilation that Warp put out later the same year. I still rate that album very highly, every track is a beautifully crafted pop gem.
Much like Echo's Answer, he seamlessly linked. In tone and tune very similar to According To No Plan from Work And Non Work, and their first single for Warp after putting that collection out. Over a sparse synthesizer loop - so sparse it sometimes falls completely silent - vocalist Trish Keenan intones:
Oh, the wind will come
Blow, answer echo's answer
Which is the chorus around which a strange tale of mountains, messages, wind and 'the invisibles' is told. It's a lovely little number, and it turns up on the album The Noise Made By People, released in 2000.
Given that the B-side is a pretty forgettable instrumental, I'd recommend getting that album to hear Echo's Answer, and not this single. Test Area even turns up on the recent compilation The Future Crayon, giving you even less reason to hunt this 7" down.
