The Third Eye

From the recesses of a long distant memory emerging forward, the sound of nostalgia nuzzled its way into my brain. Remaining forever ingrained in my mind like a tick, but in reverse. Sucking away all of the bad memories. I can vividly feel the sunbaked memories of a smoke-filled summer afternoon by the pool in my deceased grandfather’s backyard yard listening to some obscure old dub reggae whilst filming my friends and I flipping off the roof and into the pool.

This was my introduction to space echo. First introduced by the Roland Corporation in 1974. The first two units introduced were the RE-101 (which I happen to own) and the RE-201 (a unit I regrettably sold almost half a decade ago).

So what brings me back to these antiquated tape units time and time again? Obviously, there are many better and arguably more reliable units on the market in 2023. I mean Boss reissued the 201 in a pedal format in 2007, which I would say still sounds damn good.

Is it nostalgia that keeps bringing me back? I mean, many of the albums that spawned my love for music employed these units in their production. From classic psych rock records like The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips to post-punk classics like Sonic Youth’s Rather Ripped, these units are found in any serious studio around the world.

But are they really that good? I mean, they weren’t designed with a particularly robust preamp like the Echoplex, the tape section can be rather sketchy, unlike a WEM copycat, and they were used by David Gimlour like the Benson Echorec was. So really, what’s the draw? Is it a vibey aesthetic? Maybe. Just another random trend in making bad gear popular and expensive? Could be. Maybe it was Mac DeMarco? Right?

I don’t think it was Mac, though he is a notable owner of these units, his signature guitar sound comes from an often-overlooked Alesis MidiVerb. Ironically enough, I recall this being the only rackmount effect I could afford when I first started recording, long before Mac came onto the scene.

(The above song by Tommy Alpaca uses the Space Echo in the lead guitar).

I remember at the time my childhood friend started attending Full Sail University, and he told me I needed to sell that crap because that’s not what the pros use. Now he owns three of them and pretends to have never said that. And that attitude is exactly what I think has proliferated the rise of units like the space echo rising to prominence.

There is this unspoken attitude in the music production world that if something is bad you can probably get a cool sound out of it that no one else is getting. I think this might be how entire genres are created. A bunch of hipsters saying No one is doing this, let me do it, and perhaps it’s just in line with what you might expect for “Multiple Discovery” Theory. More likely, it’s the power of word of mouth in the music community. 

Ideas can spread like viruses’ – some are good, and some are bad, but the idea that the Space Echo is a studio classic for psych rock is a great idea; it’s given me all of my favorite records.

This essay was written by Austin Roehm, who is a Florida based multi-instrumentalist that goes by the moniker Tommy Alpaca. He fuses soul, lo-if, psychedelic, surf and electronic music. He began his musical journey in 2006, learning guitar, bass, and mandolin from his mentor who honed his chops as the live bassist for Molly Hatchet and various other acts. In high school he started his first band with childhood friends Staphanos Andredis (Jack Irons of RHCP nephew) and Nathan Sindelar (Owner of Magnesium Studios, Orlando). Austin is currently finishing his degree at Berklee College of Music.

Support Tommy Alpaca by finding him on Bandcamp or see all of his links here.

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