Leaching – End Themes (Album – Spooky Records)
Genre/Influences: Dark-Wave, Shoegaze.
Format: Digital, Vinyl.
Background/Info: Leaching is an Australian project which once started as an instrumental project driven by the work of John Carpenter. The approach slowly evolved and the result can be heard on “End Themes”.
Content: The album takes off in a pure Dark-Wave style driven by guitar and synth. Quite progressively the songs are moving in between harder cuts and dreamy Shoegaze parts featuring passionate vocals on top.
+ + + : Leaching has achieved a remarkable and efficient, creative, twist between Dark-Wave and Shoegaze. The guitar playing injects the true spirit to the album while electronic arrangements create a more evasive, dreamy, touch. The songs are easily listening pieces with “Octobrain” as highlight.
– – – : The album is missing a few more highlights with some songs ending into flatness.
Conclusion: This is a noticeable work and it feels as if there’s more potential hiding inside this project. So let’s keep an eye on Leaching.
Best songs: “Octobrain”, “Radiate”, “End Theme”.
Rate: 7.
Artist: https://linktr.ee/leachingband
Label: www.spookyrecords.com / www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100048668568503
Listen to “End Themes”:
About Leaching
Leaching is the Melbourne, Australia-based project of musician and recording/mastering engineer Steven Smith. It began during Melbourne’s Covid-19 lockdowns as an instrumental project inspired by John Carpenter, the “Mandy” and “Blade Runner” scores and the “Streets of Rage” game soundtrack, before Smith incorporated stream-of-consciousness vocals. After musician friends joined to perform the material live, Leaching became a full band. The debut album, “End Themes”, was released on Spooky Records in 2023 as a limited purple/black splatter vinyl edition of 150 copies.
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