Spectreview: Ends – Leave

-DEEP PINK-

For a guide to the review color rating system, click here.

Surprisingly, even after 20 years surfing the information superhighway, you can stumble across a work that comes out of nowhere and genuinely moves you and still have no idea where it comes from. All we know about Ends is that they come from Seattle and, as of just recently, have only one album to their name: the mononymous Leave, a collection of electro-indie-pop songs that seem to be heavily influenced by acts like The Radio Dept. and The Postal Service, with a apparent tip of the hat to classic television programming. Other than that, virtually no social media, no physical media, no provided context for their work, just a series of tracks catapulted into the binary world. In 2019 that’s baffling, but ultimately refreshing, because it blessedly allows the listener to come into the music sans priming or marketing. 

Ends, whoever you are, your record is lovely. It sticks to a motif and works within that umbrella while maintaining variety, all the while building a captivating atmosphere out of its arpeggiated synths and bouncy bass lines. Electronic albums are all about sequencing, and half of the pleasure of listening to Leave is experiencing its ebb and flow, from the ominous airsick chords of 5/4 opener “Landing” to the classic Aphex Twin bounce of the title track to the Sam Prekop-esque “Left.” Importantly, the record lays down a mood without overexplaining itself, allowing the listener to live inside its world without the presence of a map or a scavenger hunt guide, with or without drawing conclusions. Is it about space travel, or about disconnection, or about the state of humanity? Or about nothing at all? Ends wisely chooses to leave all of this to the listener, and ultimately whether Ends is a one-off project or a continuing dump for inspired electronic music, this listener would love to see more from this enigmatic act.

Recommended for watching the news, preferably on a screen attached to the side of a building.

(Edit: The mystery has been solved! Thanks Gabe Postle, Merry Christmas!)