Check the Water:Leaf

Artist: Various Artists

Date Released: 2005

Label: Leaf

Produced By:

Tracklisting: Disc 1:
 * Boymerang - The Don (Edit)
 * Luger - Pass Agent
 * The Sons of Silence - A Grain of Sand
 * Susumu Yokota - Mornio Gakudan
 * Four Tet - Field
 * Gripper - Prostate Boogie (Edit)
 * Richard Thomas - Pienso Que
 * Eardrum - Swarm
 * A Small Good Thing - El Mariachi Loco (The Siesta)
 * Beige - The Rhythm! The Message?
 * Faultline - Tiny Consumer
 * Kerion Phelan & David Sheppard - Theme from Cardinal Menthol
 * Rob Ellis - Symphonies of Wind Up Instruments: (II) Chrondine/(III) Parade in Your Palm
 * Gorodisch - Moth to the Flame
 * Caribou - Tits & Ass: The Great Canadian Weekend

Disc 2:
 * Murcof - Mir
 * Boom Bip & Doseone - The Birdcatcher's Return
 * Clue to Kalo - We'll Live Free (In NYC)
 * Colleen - Babies
 * 310 - Shadow Traffic
 * Icarus - Skate Glug
 * Bill Wells, Stefan Schneider, Annie Whitehead & Barbara Morgenstern - The Dust of Months
 * Psapp - Curuncula
 * Efterklang - Step Aside
 * Triosk - Two, Twelve
 * A Hawk and a Hacksaw - Portland Town
 * Hanne Hukkelberg - Ease
 * Sutekh - Alma Hueco
 * Volcano! - Apple or a Gun

Review: The Leaf Label has been whole-heartedly releasing genre-defying music for the last 10 years and converting throves of fans along the way. For a label that highlights such diverse musical stylings, it is amazing how each artist on this life-spanning double disc seems to share a similar vibe, that similar aesthetic that defines Leaf without words. From electronica to jazz to classical to folk to derivitives like IDM, electropop and folktronica, Leaf artists devour it all, only to produce individual recordings that are impossible to define without using the words experimental, post- or combination. The tracklisting is broadly chronological with the first disc spanning from 1995-2001 and the second disc covering 2001 to the present. Disc 1 kicks off with the artist who started it all, Boymerang with the still impressive The Don. Other highlights include the first ever recording from Kieran Hebden under the name Four Tet (Field), a soothing track from PJ Harvey sideman Rob Ellis, and an enthusiatic cut from Caribou. Disc 2 features the now classic experimental rap stylings of Boom Bip & Doseone, a beat-heavy jam from 310, a solemn electropop ballad from Psapp, the jazzy indie-rock of Triosk and even an urgent track from the latest Leaf signee, Chicago's Volcano!. This album really helps give an understanding to how Leaf has remained on its feet over the last 10 years and its influence on the current music scene. If this is your first encounter with the label, then there is no better introduction. Mpardaiolo