2007-03-16
"Faint violet whiff", Dead leaf echo's debut EP, has been waiting a long time for you to hear it. This is basically the opening sentence in the biography found in their website. After this line, you can read the long story of how singer\songwriter of the group has recorded 3 songs on a 4- track recorder in his room and how it evolved into this EP. A familiar journey to every new artist trying to make it big, only in oppose to most artist with the same broken dream, it's only a matter of time before these guys will make it. And they will.
The EP has five tracks and a remix track on it; Pretty much balanced in their quality, but definitely style consolidated. Using mostly guitar-bass-drums and keyboards, they mix influences of U2,
The Cure and
Echo and the Bunnyman, only that the result sounds much better in sound then on theory. Dark alternative is the chosen genre that has been pinned it.
The first track, "Clean", already starts off the right way, clean cutting guitars with an overall messy feeling, made me think of
The Jesus and Mary Chain. "Shell of love" is one of those that could have only happened once- the right time, the right feeling, the tight guitar work, and the beautiful heart braking harmony between Liza Baker and bands vocalist LG. At the end of it you don't know if it deserves standing ovation or simply a tear roll.
"Danielle", the closing track, leans towards the slow ambiance rock, with a great guitar role by Mike Dilalla, drumwork that will fit straight into a post-rock band and a morbid keyboard sound that helps this track close the EP in great success.
You can tell how serious these guys are only by the names of the guys they worked with: Jeff Thall (worked with John Cale,
Bryan Ferry) mixed the album, and Fred Kevorkian (worked with
Iggy Pop,
The White Stripes) has mastered it.
"Faint violet whiff" is only a starting point for these guys, they will have to keep marching in this right direction and it will only be a matter of time before a well-based label will pick them out and fulfill their full potential. Don't be surprised if next time you'll hear of them, there will be a familiar label name next to it.
Roy Povarchik
