Girl Echo Suns Veils collects unreleased recordings – accurately labeled “ephemera” – from 1990-1992, the band’s first three years of existence (plus one song recorded in 2000). Mostly instrumental, the music is even less structured or melodic than on the band’s more formal recordings. But the lack of obvious drive works to the band’s advantage, disallowing easy identification of verbal images and artistic intent. Instead the listener has to discover his/her own poetry inside the undulating drift of the music, create his/her own dream from the wafting fragments of emotion. Music that both challenges and envelopes its audience is a rare thing, and that loveliescrushing hits that mark with outtakes is a pretty remarkable achievement. - Michael Toland

The tracks cover a wide range of dynamic approaches and structures.  In some cases, they are soft, delicate pastiches of beauty:  "Seahorse" places thin, reversed guitar notes with a soft, warm bed of sustained sound to create a song that is alien, yet inviting in its style.  "Kittenmother" is a piece of pure ambient beauty, with a somewhat melancholy, mournful quality to it.  "Winglike" takes this even further, with Arpin-Duimstra's distant voice and echoed guitar over a dense hum giving everything a very sad feel.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are a significant number of songs here that are all about the orgasmic ecstasy of over-driven guitar noise and feedback.  "Spidery Velvet," though melodically a restrained piece is presented with an accompaniment of maxed out guitar feedback from Cortez to the point of pure distortion:  the 4 track it was recorded on couldn’t even come close to keeping up with the volume.  "Elephai" is similar, meshing delicate lullaby vocals with massive guitar noise that becomes the core of the song.

"Feathermouth" even drops the focus on melody, immediately launching into a torrent of feedback and effects that is undeniably harsh, but somehow manages to retain a hint of musicality, which becomes  magnified by its slow sonic decay as the song ends, ripping away the raw sounds slowly.  The closing "Goldenfur" takes the best of both worlds, opening with the delicate, shimmering guitar textures and breathy female vocals, slowly building into heavier and denser layers before reaching a climax of roaring guitar noise that retreats, leaving only the remnants of feedback to end the album.

One of the most striking aspects of these recordings iis how they foretold the sound of many current and prolific artists.  During the harshest moments of over-driven feedback and squeal, I instantly was reminded of some of Jesu and Nadja's best moments: the simple love and indulgence of noise, but harboring a melodic sense that keeps it within the loosest sense of form and structure.  Following the deconstructed sounds released on CRWTH earlier this year, this makes for the perfect compliment in its physical and emotional content. - Creaig Dunton

Girl. Echo. Suns. Veils. was one of those "projects" that kept getting pushed back year after year, a lot of work, time & probably stress went into the making of the album. Lucky for us fans, the wait is FINALLY over and we all have another chance to soak in some more ear bliss. With Lovesliescrushing you tend to always know what you're about to get into, but you never know how hard it's going to hit you when it does. Scott Cortez has a way with making the most unimaginable sounds come out of a guitar while Melissa Arpin's voice is more angelic than the word "angelic" itself. On Girl. Echo. Suns. Veils the duo have once again stunned my ears with palpitating sounds that leave a calming sensation in my ears during the days that follow. The songs are "b-sides" so there is somewhat of a different sound/feel here. To explain; when I listen to LLC I get the sense of being overwhelmed by an underwater current filled with fantastical unseen lifeforms, with Girl. Echo. I get the sense of floating just above said current. The liquidized environments engulf my every sense as usual. However, this time the sounds coming out have a "dryer/less surreal" sense to them. I get the feeling, even though it's apparently there, there are fewer distortion pedals used on some of these tracks. Basically, on Girl. Echo. Scott Cortez has a way of making his signature distortions sound slightly more natural and loose. Maybe you will experience something entirely different when you listen to this, but that's whats special about Lovesliescrushing. Your emotions determine the music. LLC can be just as soul crushing as they are therapeutic. Every sound, every texture, every note, everything that you hear on a Lovesliescrushing album is important. You cannot absorb them all at once, you can take them as a whole, and you will forever experience a new sonic adventure with every listen.

The only thing disappointing about this band is the fact that they aren't immortal. I don't ever want this music to stop. Girl. Echo. Suns. Veils. is no exception to that rule either. Fans of pastoral guitar sounds with dreamy female vocals and/or LLC will love this. The album feels a little more "raw" and, if possible, more "droney", but on par with the rest of their catalogue. Recommended (most definitely). Oh, also LLC just re-released 2007's (EIC's #6 album of that year) "Chorus", make sure to get that too!

Standout Tracks: Better to take in as a whole, but if you like to skip around; Wallflower (Original Version), Seahorse (this song has the mistake of ending too soon), Blurskin (yummm), Sugarglow, Aviatrix (more please?), Kittenmother

Now, my first association with this band was through their second album titled, Xuvetyn. Possibly my favorite album from them, although I might be a little biased considering it was my introductory album. Then I immediately went to the beginning and picked up their first album, Bloweyelashwish, both first and second albums were recorded between 1992 and 1995. These first two albums are similar in their raw and unpolished approach to guitar oriented ambient music. Before I had heard this band I wasn’t a big fan of ambient music, but after, I became obsessed. The intricate way the guitars are layered is one of the most incredible achievements in recording, ever. The third and fourth albums, Voirshn and Glissceule, were recorded through 2000 to 2004, with certain tracks on the latter having been finished around the time of the first two albums. These two albums were more polished than the first two, although the unique sound remains, there is a crispness and smoothness that accompanies the production technique. I love every album equally. I can listen to any of them quietly or extremely loud and I will always interpret it differently each time. I always hear nuances that I haven’t heard before. I hear completely different songs, full songs, going on underneath of the layers of guitars that are bombarding my senses. It’s the most rewarding music I’ve had the pleasure of listening to. The leader of the band, Scott Cortez, only furthers the heralding of his music by recording on a Tascam 4-track! Perfect.

There is too much depth to the music and personal experience for me to continue on about their previous albums. So, that being said, their new release, Girl Echo Suns Veils, is horrible. Just kidding. The same features are back, and I can’t explain in words my elation upon receiving the music. The music did not let me down. Lovesliescrushing has always created foreboding feelings of danger, desperation, indefatigable nostalgia, and a forlorn sense of desolation. With almost twenty years to decide how to record and arrange the music, the final product is a marvel of patient engineering.All of this material was perfected by Scott until he decided the finished product was ready. Believe me, it is.

G.E.S.V. is more akin to the harsher and unforgiving side. It would be useless for me to describe the music. You must listen for yourself. But, if I could describe some of it, the names of the songs seem to resemble what I’m hearing, that is if the names are actually words, or just jumbled letters, as you can tell from some of their album titles. I lose track of time, especially the time it takes for a song to end. A track may be only three or four minutes in length but I perceive it to last infinitely longer. You may be asking yourself, how could there be a downside to a band that sounds so awesome? Well, there isn’t one. Listen to it and then you tell me I’m crazy.

The latest offering by Scott Cortez’s drone/ambient entity, loveliescrushing, is a collection of pieces that have been in stasis for a number of years. If you’re aware of the power and unearthly beauty of drone ambient music, then you have been introduced to unique quality of loveliescrushing. If not, then, to quote a famous line, welcome to the machine. Historically, loveliescrushing’s art is filled with all manner of emotions, many of them with direct pipelines into the areas of the brain (and soul for that matter) that generate thought of a serious manner. You’ll readily recognize the flow of music once it connects. Girl Echo Suns Veil is a collected set of 17 reintroduced tracks from the vaults, 10 years in the making (1990-2000). Cortez has polished (or sharpened) these tone paintings. Notated as rarities and ephemera, these tracks are terrifying, inspiring, and, if you’re a fan of ambient music, especially drone ambient, an entrancing and satisfying blend.

From the chaotic opening track of “baby’s breath” to the urgent melodies of “goldenfur”, the album’s closer, this collected set of constructed soundtracks for the soul are a welcome treat for dedicated fans of drone.

‘Girl Echo Suns Veil’ although subtitled ‘Rarities and Ephemera 1990-2000’ is a selection of 16 pieces culled from three 4-track recording sessions, one per year from 1990 to 1993, with the exception of one additional track from 2000. It follows guitarist Scott Cortez as he moves from North East America (Michigan) to the South West (Arizona), picking up vocalist Melissa Arpin along the way, as he experimented with a fusion of Glenn Branca’s walls of guitar resonance with the then more recent distorted indie pop of My Bloody Valentine.

This compilation showcases Cortez’ soporific sound that lets the FX not just fill in the gaps between simple, repetitive jangly refrains but completely flood the mix setting the sparest of melodies adrift in smooth currents of distorted guitar. This often creates a kind of drowned, occasionally orchestral, sound as amply demonstrated by the opener, ‘Babys Breath’, or later on ‘Lips to Kiss’, where Cortez’ tone clusters provide shimmering backdrops to Arpin’s sugary wisps of song fragments that reluctantly and elusively hover and disappear like fragile leaves briefly carried and consumed by a flowing river. Theirs is a world where fast, percussive manoeuvres are made impossible by an inert atmosphere like that of a snow dome whose graceful falling shapes can never hurry.

The heavily processed and often backwards looped guitar work often sounds like the work of more than one individual - on more than one occasion it reminds of what can be heard of a distant outdoor stage from the campsite of a particularly windy festival. In the main, the seemingly singular approach, deliberately or otherwise lacking in much in the way of dynamics, rhythm or low end frequencies, gets increasingly predictable as the disc wears on, feeling like it was more novel to form - seeing microtunes gain macro properties through processing - than it is to consume.