[Albums] Dead Leaf Echo - Faint Violet Whiff

Dead Leaf Echo
Faint Violet Whiff
2006 | Year Of The Gallon Records

From the opening track of this six song EP, Dead Leaf Echo charges forward with the droning-rock sound made enormously popular by Interpol a couple of years back (along with some healthy dosings of Morissey and U2), but like a lot of Interpol's material, it seems to lack the hooks I think you need to get away with that.

Because the music isn't exactly in your face (the exception being the heavily reverbed drum kit), the vocals are bright and on top of the mix, and because the vocals become that which my interest hinges upon, I guess I'm feeling a little more demanding than I usually would. The singing isn't off-pitch, but I want to hear less breathy Morrisey crooning, my ear keeps looking for something to cut like a knife through the dreamy texture of these songs and the laden production.

"Poison Lips" really goes head-first into the Morrisey memorializing. Really some pretty stuff, but it's just not for me. On the other hand, "Walking Away" seems to do a much better job of channeling the various evident influences into a working formula, the first track on the disk where this two-piece writing team (plus friends) bears its teeth. Suddenly you hear a lot more U2. I'm wondering if perhaps these songs wouldn't benefit from production that was less slick? The really pretty, dreamy and delayed guitars sound far away, even when there's a musical interlude.

"Shell of Love" is honestly very pretty. "Ooooooh, what in the world have you become?" It's so sad and beautiful. It's on this track that sheer sincerity makes it through the monstrously difficult task of recording what is honestly an active and living expression (a performance) of an emotion, and making it easily replicable. Recording music is heinously difficult because you're trying to freeze that which is essentially motion. "Shell of Love" is one of those amazing moments immortalized, the perfect take, the perfect sound, the perfect mix, and you couldn't ever do it the same way again if you tried.

"Denial" continues in this vein, but it's running time of nearly 8 minutes is a bit more than I can stand in the particular format. Back are the blurred swirling droning sounds and a vocal line that has the right amount of passion but lacks the hook it needs to cut through. Some really interesting things take place wherein ambient / environment noises are mixed in and panned hard stereo right to left (like sirens on the street).

The last track is a remix of "Shell of Love" by Invisible Kid (I think this is his link), an interesting take on what is easily this record's single, but I have to say I don't think the beats and added ambient workings add much to the tune, I really prefer the cleared space of the original where the singer is able to reach through all the heavy production and chorus effect and into your heart.

There's really a lot of potential in this group and its song writing, and I would imagine catching the singer alone with his guitar somewhere would be one of the most intimate and enjoyable performances you could ask for. Faint Violet Whiff takes a bit of a beating with effects processing when it needs to have a real warm-blooded energy if these songs are going to make it inside you like "Shell of Love" does. I'm not saying it needs to rock. But you want the listener to feel the heat of those tears.

Dead Leaf Echo: Thanks very much for sending this in, I appreciate it. I'm sure this record was a lot of hard work, and I hope that my criticism here is constructive.

Billy Gray
billy@tankcrash.com