Most bands don’t have a début release which is the instrumental soundtrack to a documentary film (Welcome Mister Zimmermann), but that is precisely what Jupiter Forest did. Putting out a soundtrack feels like something you do maybe five or six releases into your career, after you’ve established yourself. Jupiter Forest seem to be taking a round about route and have now made their sophomore EP, ‘Echoes From The Future’ as a standalone piece.

The ‘Echoes From The Future’ EP is where we truly find out what Jupiter Forest’s sound is like. While the band describe themselves as neo-psychedelic but that’s not immediately apparent though. Opening track The Odyssey is propulsive and lays down a strong marker. The muscular rhythm is graced by a catchy as hell chorus where Andrew Lacey sings “It feels like another scene/where I’m never mean’t to be“.  From here on in you would naturally expect the remainder of the EP to continue in the same tone.  And this is where ‘Echoes From The Future’ falls down.

Individual tracks sound competent but when placed side by side the overall tone of the EP is inconsistent. Señorita Diablo feels too run of the mill and lacks the edge to really engage or hook. The reflective tone of the vocals feels out of sync with the lyrics. It’s then disconcerting to jump to the sprightly World Between Us which has blemishes of jangle-pop before moving to the shoegazey guitar dirge of Eclipsed. It’s rounded by the stadium rock of Beautiful One which captures the big production and anthemic sing a long choruses of U2. You’re never quite sure what is Jupiter Forest’s true sound. Jupiter Forest display glimpses of what they are capable of but in terms of the overall EP, they can’t separate the forest from the trees.