Leaf is Steve Wick (or just WICK, as he seems to prefer to be called) from Dallas Texas, and members of Biogliphic, 32nd Kalpa, Blunt Force, and other area producers, a melding of dirty hip hop rhythm, crystalline melodies, insane sampling, and smooth organic instrumentation. Or so the website info states. Influences admittedly are abstract trip hop/ hip-hop artists like DJ Shadow, DJ Spooky, DJ Signify, Subtle and Tricky. Although Leaf flirts with the dark side, the music never really gets in deep. The problem is that most of the compositions seem to lack development. It’s as if they could have really been something if the ideas were a little more expanded. Still, there are a number of strange motifs and atmospheres that make for good uneasy listening. One track, "Prism" had male and (mostly) female vocals that had a bluesy Portishead feel. That track could have gone on a little longer. Perhaps the best track on this CD is "Even Holy Things Die". The female vocals here aren’t dissimilar to Heather’s from Tapping the Vein, although I think Leaf may have had Mezzanine-era Massive Attack in mind. It ends with a rather long sample from some movie I’ve never seen, so I can’t identify it, but there are a number of spoken word/dialogue samples peppered throughout the tracks. Some of them work okay, some don’t. Even though "Made Into Self" is an uneven effort, it still might be worth checking out. You can sample most all the tracks off the Suspicious Records website, which is a pretty cool thing. That way, you don’t have to take my word for it. I’d be interested in hearing future releases from this artist. I feel like they have the potential to do some amazing stuff.