The Bleak Assembly – Strangers Among Strangers (EP – The Bleak Assembly)

Genre/Influences: Wave-Pop, Dark-Wave.
Format: Digital.
Background/Info: One year after their debut-EP “We Become Strangers” Kimberly Kornmeier of Bow Ever Down and Michael Smith of Fiction8 are back on track unleashing their second EP -which looks like a mini-album format.
Content: The EP features 6 songs including the previously released single “Alibi”. Sound-wise the band reveals 80s influences reminding me of Electro-Wave/Pop and Dark-Wave. Guitar and synth lines create an evasive sound with Kimberly’s vocals on top.
+ + + : I especially like the debut-song “A Night Like This” which is driven by a Depeche Mode-touch. Another attention grabber is the totally vintage -80s, like “Homesick”. This duo clearly has found a true chemistry composing a darker but evasive Electro-Pop style carried by 80s influences.
– – – : The previously released single “Alibi” isn’t the best track while the second part of the EP is a little bit too dreamy for my taste.
Conclusion: The Bleak Assembly is a band with a true potential which isn’t still totally coming through.
Best songs: “A Night Like This”, “Homesick”.
Rate: 7.
Artist: www.facebook.com/TheBleakAssembly
About The Bleak Assembly
The Bleak Assembly formed in August 2022 as a collaboration between Kimberly Kornmeier of Bow Ever Down and Michael Smith of Fiction8. The duo connected through the Sounds & Shadows social media group and works entirely remotely, with Kornmeier writing and recording from Kurdistan and Smith from Denver, Colorado. Both were previously on the Nilaihah Records label with their respective projects, and the two also continue to collaborate as the current lineup of Bow Ever Down. The name loosely references the Charles Dickens novel “Bleak House”.
The Bleak Assembly released its debut EP “We Become Strangers” in 2022, followed by “Strangers Among Strangers” in November 2023 and the album “Until The World Stops Hurting” in 2024.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

