Label: Nettwerk
Released: 22nd September 2023
Bleach Lab are one of those special bands whose sound just has some sort of ethereal magic – and their long-awaited debut album ‘Lost In A Rush Of Emptiness’, a line taken from Leonard Cohen’s collection ‘The Flame’, is just as beautifully melancholic as its name suggests.
A quintessential mixture of 90s shoegaze, dream pop, and indie rock, ‘Lost In A Rush Of Emptiness’ is the product of Bleach Lab’s journey of experimentation with different genres and sounds – making for a unique and solidified sense of sonic identity on the album. Listening from start to finish, it feels like its own little intimate world. Like a warm but bittersweet embrace, opener ‘All Night’ invites us into the album’s dreamscape – its bright, reverbed guitars taking the melodic lead alongside singer Jenna’s breathy vocals. The guitar is particularly striking and evocative in all the tracks, whether that be the distorted chords that soar in ‘Nothing Left To Lose’, the stunning patterns plucked in ‘Indigo’, or in the heart-wrenchingly beautiful ‘Everything At Once’ – in which harmonics and echoey counter melodies twinkle across a gritty bassline, alongside vocals reminiscent of Wolf Alice.
Despite the record’s dreamy sound, lyrically, it dives into some pretty dark corners of human experience – including toxic relationships, isolation, and in the case of ‘Smile For Me’, sexual harassment. Penultimate track ‘Life Gets Better’ takes a jab at cliched responses to mental health crises; and ‘Counting Empties’ is a poignant exploration of alcoholism. This emotional rawness, existing in tension with the tracks’ melodic beauty, makes for a truly moving and cathartic listening experience.
Indeed, the instrumentals are so bright and expansive that combined with the band’s musical synergy (perhaps amplified by this being the first time they’ve recorded live in the same room together) as well as the record’s crisp production, a soundscape is created that’s so vast it has the effect of making you feel like you’re floating through the air. And if this is how it sounds through headphones, what a treat it’ll be to hear it live.
