where echoes end: my sweet grotesque where echoes end: my sweet grotesque (where echoes end - 2001) Normally such blatantly vocal projects get the shorter overview treatment, but my sweet grotesque earns a closer look because of its artier electronic core. where echoes end transmutes particles of assorted things electronic, industrial and more, though MichelAngela's pop/rock singing voice (in its various guises) definitely dominates the proceedings. With sassy hip-hoptronic beatiness, Make Up Your Mind sets the pace, led by prominent vocals; no doubt those hyper-rippling trills are reminiscent of Gwen Stefani's super-elastic stylings. Soft layers of multi-tracked crooning are underwritten by stuttery beats, beguiling feminine whispers and dark resonance in radio-ready Curse Your Kind. MichelAngela steals P. J. Harvey's voice for dark, phantasmal Jesus Stole My Love, which alternates between moodily burning passages and soaring emotional strains. In the most damnably "pop" piece, rOMANTIC FICTION, the supersweet choruses counterbalance the too-bratty girl-talk, though neither are to my liking. Piano notes float on the spacey grit of instrumental No One I Know, to be occasionally spiked with intoxicating beats, and/or slip into droning two-tone oscillations. Gauzey loveliness abounds when Sa Gloire closes the show with subdued drifts of soft words, synth and downtempo percussives. While my sweet grotesque is decidely slim on ambient content, the effort to blend some into the nicely-produced electro-song structures is appreciated. Lots of impressive work (including the unusually immense 24-panel liner notes fold-out and packaging) gets where echoes end an 8.4 for thinking big and adding some needed artistry to otherwise overly familiar popular sounds. If that sounds good to you, I advise you go the the where echoes end website. This review posted December 5, 2001 AmbiEntrance © 2001-1997 by David J Opdyke (except CD cover art, rights retained by original owners).