British born Nigerian Eckoes is both a sharp-sighted futurist and a nostalgic sentimentalist. In her music and her listening habits (she’s an avowed fan of both James Blake and Lionel Richie) she straddles the line between cutting edge textures and soulful pop hooks. A prolific songwriter outside of her solo project, she’s penned tracks for Tara Sutaria (The Disney Channel) and co-written and performed on releases with Danny Darko, Alex Banks, Space Jump Salute and Le Visiteur. Her debut single ‘Valentine’ garnered support from the MOBO Awards, AFROPUNK and Fame Magazine, shooting up the digital Hype Machine charts, and she even played to Kevin Spacey at the 24 Hour Play after party along the way. As a writer and singer ECKOES constantly tests the water, fusing styles she likes with effortless grace.
By turns alternative R&B, swelling soul, urban electronica, and ambient, ECKOES’ project finds itself in the hinterlands of pop. Like FKA Twigs, ECKOES isn’t beholden to reliving the past by simply repackaging it. Atop her distinctive sound are her vocals, unique, inimitable, but with a sharp ear for classic hooks. Inside those vocals she pours her feelings and her experiences. ECKOES is one of the most intriguing and emotive new outpourings to emerge from the London circuit. At the helm of her project she stands, a six foot weaver of hypnotic sounds ever refining her craft. On the one hand familiar, relatable, on the other, a statuesque artist with an aura that’s all her own.
Eckoes: Human
“Human is a celebration & a warning & a promise. The world is in a mental place at the moment; Nina Simone said “It’s an artist’s duty to reflect the times” – I didn’t consciously set out to write something so incredibly relevant right now, but your creative brain is a crafty beast, a step ahead of you sometimes.”
Restlessly inventive, experimental, colourful, and gloriously spontaneous, ‘Human’ is the exhilarating new single from London’s ECKOES. More of a feeling than a pop song, ‘Human’ is as indefinable as it is moving. FKA Twigs raised the standards for artsy inventive music three years ago and in the transcendent strains of ‘Human’, co-written and produced by Dee Adams, these standards are upheld in the tightest possible way. Altogether cut from a different cloth though, it’s a seamless patchwork of styles, channelling the positivity and irresistible melodic sensibilities of Chaka Khan and classic feel-good music of the past into its futuristic production. From the undulating synths and tribal bass to the subtle reggae rhythms and shifting textures, ‘Human’ is a celebration of life and melody. The centrepiece of the song is a sample of Maya Angelou reading her poem ‘I Am Human’. After getting permission from the Angelou estate to use the sample, ECKOES learned that the audio is now owned by Oprah Winfrey. On contacting The Oprah Winfrey Network to play them the song and ask for support she was green-lighted with the message “we have no doubt the song will be loved by many.” All this affirms its timeless message, ‘Human’ is a conversation through history: no matter how dangerous the times get there is always the simple unabashed joy of music to connect us.
Eckoes: Human Lyrics: