Dead Leaf Echo Seek Truth

Continuing the post shoegazing haze that School of Seven Bells wandered into somewhere around 1993 and never emerged from, is Dead Leaf Echo who seem to have followed them in. This group of New Yorkers has apparently been lost in the same haze for just as long, if not longer, as this is their fourth record. These guys love dream pop so much, that they managed to get John Fryer(Cocteau Twins, Lush, etc) to mix their latest release Truth. While previous efforts have seen them hovering around the Cocteau Twins like a pack of rampant vultures, Truth sees the band zooming in for the shoegazing kill. So rooted is this record in miasmic pop, that the band itself generates its own dry ice cloud and makes John Fryer himself cry out for Elizabeth Frazer.

Truth continues Dead Leaf Echo's sonic experimentation and sees the band further developing into one heck of a three piece and one of the more interesting ones at that. While previous efforts have featured the mixing talents of Ulrich Schnauss, new man on campus, John Fryer lends the band a bit of ethereal pop genius and allows the band to run with it. The result of this is a) their most impressive effort to date and b) a fantastic seven song excursion into inner space where time and music become intertwined and the past becomes the present. With all that temporal distortion it’s really no surprise then that Truth is a dark, slightly dreary, but altogether sumptuous record. Texturally beautiful and sonically sublime, the guitars and vocals that hold this record together whisper in an out like a breeze and the songs that make up Truth seem to float by as if on gossamer wings.

Dead Leaf Echo's spacey, psychedelic, and brooding sound wraps itself around each of the songs like an eerie fog that follows the lyrics wherever they go. This is truly a haunting record with guitar riffs that seem to wonder around for days and get lost while slow plodding drums try to keep track of them and the disembodied vocals stir the inner workings of your soul. From the barely there celestial sounds of, "Act of Truth," to the nearly goth pop of, "Grey Town," Dead Leaf Echo continue to write songs that are chilling, distant, and oh so good. Dead Leaf Echo might be lost in a miasmic cloud but with the songs of Truth to guide them they'll most assuredly continue their journey looking for the light. Impressive and depressing at the same time, Truth is a dark whirlpool of sounds not from this earth.