Album Review of Bleach Lab - Nothing Feels Real

BY NEAL MARTIN | FEBRUARY 25, 2022

Not that anyone noticed, but I haven’t published an album of the month for a while. In fact, I did pen a review for jazz-singer Lady Blackbird’s awesome Black Acid Soul, but I got distracted and never finished it off. I must stress, the hiatus is nothing to do with falling out of love with new music. On the contrary, the UK is a hotbed of talent at the moment, with countless young bands such as Wet Leg, The Bug Club, Penelope Isles and Lime Garden creating fabulous sounds. The list goes on. Rather I am just a bit over-whelmed with wine-related work and travelling. That includes my long stint in the Côte d’Or last autumn, which entailed plenty of between-visit drives where music was my companion/balm. It was driving up the RN74 artery checking out Spotify’s New Artist playlist, that “Violet Light” by Bleach Lab caught my ear. I’d never heard of them before. Such was my excitement that during a brief pitstop in Gevrey-Chambertin, I searched the group on Bandcamp and immediately ordered Nothing Feels Real. No time to delay! Self-released on transparent yellow vinyl, it was limited to 300 copies, and one of them had to be mine. Of course, in my haste, I failed to realize that ordering from France incurred import tax thanks to bloody Brexit, even though it was being sent from the UK to my address in the UK. Lesson learned. Then, due to delays at pressing plants, no doubt caused by Adele’s album, I didn’t receive the vinyl until early February. Better late than never. It was worth the wait.