3 out of 5

Label: un-je-ne-sais-quoi

Produced by: Thackery Earwicket

Man, so close to being badass creepy, but despite a couple tracks making it to definitive full-length – 4+ minutes, 6 minutes – only opener Who Goes There? really feels like it nails a mood from beginning to end.  That mood is a synthwave one, creaking through back hallways at night at pausing while the noises you’re making settle into the darkness.  This sensation flows between haunting and playful (Heart In Atlantis, track two, has some lighter themes dotted in it), but besides the opener, the songs just appear and disappear.  While they’re there, the impression is downright moody – in a good way – but for whatever reason, Earwicket doesn’t seem impassioned enough to push that moodiness to make it stick.  This might be due to the fact that this is actually a ‘soundtrack’ to, I believe, an art exhibition, so mayhaps we’re hearing things that are intended as loops, or intended not to distract from a visual piece.  Nonetheless, it’s presented, here, as a standalone cassette, and so that’s how that review goes.