Pop quiz: what is one of the best ways to find out about new artists? Pay attention to who your favorite ones talk about. I found out about ECHO through Geoff Castellucci of VoicePlay. As it happens, some of the guys from ECHO have filled in for VoicePlay as needed and that already starts them off on the right foot, in my book. Anyway, my point was to always check out the artists that people you like talk about. Always. It might lead you to great acts that you may not have heard about otherwise.
As soon as I saw this, I knew I had to see if they had any music out and they do. They released a self-titled album earlier this year and it's really good, so definitely check that out and see what you think. They're another a cappella group based out of Orlando - I seem to be developing quite a weakness for those. This aca-addiction is getting more serious all the time, but I'm good with it. ECHO is made up of Bryce Larsen, Antonio Fernandez, E.J. Cardona, Erik Winger, Deejay Young and Dan Reynolds.
As soon as I saw this, I knew I had to see if they had any music out and they do. They released a self-titled album earlier this year and it's really good, so definitely check that out and see what you think. They're another a cappella group based out of Orlando - I seem to be developing quite a weakness for those. This aca-addiction is getting more serious all the time, but I'm good with it. ECHO is made up of Bryce Larsen, Antonio Fernandez, E.J. Cardona, Erik Winger, Deejay Young and Dan Reynolds.
Now, if you've been hanging around here this month than you already know that I've declared this to be the month of Disney. Everything I write about this month has, and will, be somehow related to Disney. So far, we've have some of the princess songs, some of the love songs, a medley honoring the Disney musicals and a few instrumental covers. But you know what we haven't had too much of? The villains, There was a snippet of this song in Todrick Hall's "Evolution of Disney" (write up about that one here), but I think that's been it for the villains and I decided that that had to change. Because there's some great villain songs and some great covers of those songs. And so, I've decided to dedicate a week to the bad guys. I mean, what would a Disney movie be without the villains? Boring, that's what.
So to kick it off, here's ECHO doing their rendition of "I Put A Spell On You" from Hocus Pocus. You're going to like this one.
They weren't kidding around when they sang about putting a spell of you. I think they definitely put one on me. I've watched and listened to this an insane amount of times since I first saw it last month. They released it last October and it deserves so much more views, in my opinion. So in saying that, if you like it, share it.
So many things to appreciate about this one. I like that the video starts off with the introduction of the original version of this song by Screamin' Jay Hawkins. That was a nice touch. Then the way it fades out and into the ECHO version. The song was, of course, updated and the lyrics tweaked to fit Hocus Pocus. I think that this is now my absolute favorite version of this song. As I always say, it all starts with the arrangement and kudos to Erik Winger for coming up with a great one. There's a crazy amount of energy in this that makes it a lot of fun to listen to. Some of the energy comes from the arrangement and the rest from the actual performance.
This brings us to the man on lead: E.J. Cardona. What's interesting is that I really didn't think about it when I decided that this video would be next, but he was one of the singers from my last post about the beautiful "Disney Love Medley" by Voctave that featured Kirstin Maldonado and Jeremy Michael Lewis. As it happens, this is actually a good way to highlight one thing that I love about a cappella singers. There's singers out there whose egos won't let them blend with other singers; they're always trying to outsing the others. That drives me insane. A cappella singers - at least the ones I've listened to - are pretty much always willing to do whatever the song requires. Whether it's singing lead or supporting it. In the "Disney Love Medley", E.J. was contributing to the gorgeous harmonies behind the lead vocals. But as you just observed, he is more than capable of singing lead. He gives such a great vocal in this. One of those magical instance where a song suits a voice like a glove.
What sends this over the top by the tight harmonies and vocal percussion coming from the others. There's some cool harmonies going on back there which is why I always recommend listening with headphones on. You can't hear them as well without. You just can't. Antonio gets an A+ for the evil laugh. It's great visually as well. If this hadn't of been enough to win me over, if you go to their YouTube channel (which'll be linked below) you'll see that they have an outtake video that I think is worth watching. It gave me a couple of solid laughs, so check it out. I'm going to add that it's been a little while since they've uploaded a video, but here's hoping that another one is coming at some point. I like these guys a lot and hope to see more from them in the future.
Some links:
Website
Facebook
YouTube
Where to buy their album:
iTunes
Amazon
So many things to appreciate about this one. I like that the video starts off with the introduction of the original version of this song by Screamin' Jay Hawkins. That was a nice touch. Then the way it fades out and into the ECHO version. The song was, of course, updated and the lyrics tweaked to fit Hocus Pocus. I think that this is now my absolute favorite version of this song. As I always say, it all starts with the arrangement and kudos to Erik Winger for coming up with a great one. There's a crazy amount of energy in this that makes it a lot of fun to listen to. Some of the energy comes from the arrangement and the rest from the actual performance.
This brings us to the man on lead: E.J. Cardona. What's interesting is that I really didn't think about it when I decided that this video would be next, but he was one of the singers from my last post about the beautiful "Disney Love Medley" by Voctave that featured Kirstin Maldonado and Jeremy Michael Lewis. As it happens, this is actually a good way to highlight one thing that I love about a cappella singers. There's singers out there whose egos won't let them blend with other singers; they're always trying to outsing the others. That drives me insane. A cappella singers - at least the ones I've listened to - are pretty much always willing to do whatever the song requires. Whether it's singing lead or supporting it. In the "Disney Love Medley", E.J. was contributing to the gorgeous harmonies behind the lead vocals. But as you just observed, he is more than capable of singing lead. He gives such a great vocal in this. One of those magical instance where a song suits a voice like a glove.
What sends this over the top by the tight harmonies and vocal percussion coming from the others. There's some cool harmonies going on back there which is why I always recommend listening with headphones on. You can't hear them as well without. You just can't. Antonio gets an A+ for the evil laugh. It's great visually as well. If this hadn't of been enough to win me over, if you go to their YouTube channel (which'll be linked below) you'll see that they have an outtake video that I think is worth watching. It gave me a couple of solid laughs, so check it out. I'm going to add that it's been a little while since they've uploaded a video, but here's hoping that another one is coming at some point. I like these guys a lot and hope to see more from them in the future.
Some links:
Website
YouTube
Where to buy their album:
iTunes
Amazon
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