City of Echoes differs from past Pelican recordings, eschewing lengthy intergalactic jams for shorter compositions. Drummer Larry Herweg steps up his style and finesse, implementing unpredictably brilliant time signatures, and guitar players Trevor DeBrauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec fully understand the value in contrast. DeBrauw's rubbing against the grain of Schroeder-Lebec’s anchored rhythms brings out a third harmonic that blends well with Bryan Herweg’s heavy meat-and-potatoes bass lines. The two guitar players best exemplify their musical relationship and versatility on the darkly alluring “Winds With Hands,” a mostly acoustic piece where the rhythm section is replaced with soft piano and distantly atmospheric electric guitar drone. But the bass and drums return with a vengeance on “Lost In The Headlights” as they coax the guitars to dance and fight on a tightrope of tension before downshifting half-song to recall ‘90s Chicago post-rock. City of Echoes celebrates change and experimentation while retaining Pelican’s thunderous riffs that serve to remind us to bring earplugs to their shows.