♦ The album ‘OHMS’ sounds at times like a tripped out & moody JOHN CARPENTER/GOBLIN/MORRICONE soundtrack that seamlessly segues into propulsive, ‘motorik’ Krautrock instrumentals loaded with fuzzy, hypnotic mellotron, synths and analogue effects, as well as elements of ART ENSEMBLE free jazz, and all at times reaching a kind of post~rave psychedelia. More recent comparisons would include BEAK and GHOST BOX who draw upon similar themes and styles.
♦ Trees Speak are Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz plus musicians from the Tucson, Arizona scene such as Giant Sand, XIXA and James Hunter. ‘Trees Speak’ relates to the idea of future technologies storing information and data in Trees and plants — using them as hard drives — and the idea that Trees communicate collectively.
♦ The album includes an exclusive bonus 45 single (the white label of which sold out so fast) that will only be available with the first order of this amazing and ground~breaking new album.
Location: Tucson, Arizona
Album release: 3 April 2020
Record Label: Soul Jazz Records
Duration:
Tracks:
01. Soul Sequencer
02. Nitrous Cross
03. Shadow Circuit
04. Blame Shifter
05. Spirit Duplicator
06. Nobody Knows
07. Sadness In Wires
08. State Of Clear
09. Sleep Crime
10. Knowing
11. Splendid Sun
12. Ohms
13. Out Of View
14. Psychic Wounds
15. Silicone Emotions
16. Octave Cycle
17. Witch Wound
Review
MICHAEL SUMSION | 30 Mar 2020 | Score: 9
♦ On their inspiring second album, Ohms, Arizona avant~garde collective Trees Speak invoke the best of expansive electronica through motorik repetitions across a sprawling masterwork.
♦ There is an issue with regards attempting to describe the peculiar noise of Trees Speak, as generic shorthand terms like „drone“, „imaginary soundtracks“, and „psychedelia“ appear disingenuous and reductive in the face of music that’s tantalizingly elusive and frequently difficult to pigeon~hole.
♦ Trees Speak are a creative nexus, hailing from Tucson and led by the visual artist Daniel Martin Diaz, who excel at a gloriously dense, giddy, and translucent type of instrumental music. Their sound anchors itself to the meditative glow and vintage mood~scape of prime movers in the orbit of the 1970’s avant~garde whilst illuminating a synthesis between the earth, the cosmos, and the heavens. As serene as it’s spooky, it’s best consumed as one sprawling piece, with your eyes closed.
♦ Their sophomore album, Ohms, is a delicious helping of woozy momentum stitched together from immersion in ominous synth lines, cyclical structures, and spooked psychedelic vibes. Evidently in thrall to art~house horror soundtracks as much as the space~age folk of the 1970s, Ohms spins numerous sonic plates with aplomb. This album is flecked with echoes of Italian Giallo, John Carpenter, Silver Apples, and murky sci~fi as it nods to fellow crate~diggers such as Beak and Emeralds.
♦ „Soul Sequencer“ commences proceedings with its insistent Neu! pulse and droning keyboards. That, in turn, leads to the alluring dream~scape of „Nitrous Cross“, a playful bachelor~pad miniature which carries intimations of the fairytale hauntology of the Ghost Box label. The enveloping analog reverie of „Shadow Circuit“ takes the menacing synths of Fabio Frizzi and imparts the cinematic elan and seething sense of eerie you might hear on the score for Stranger Things. Throughout the record is a resounding and rejoicing marriage of execution and mood, typified by pulsating melody and enthralling post~rock cadences.
♦ It’s not all bucolic awe and bubbling arpeggios, though. The spindly „Sadness in Wires" is propelled by a slinky post~punk groove, and „Nobody Knows“ bludgeons the listener with a visceral assault of abstract musique concrete. „Sleep Crime“ navigates an enticing daydream between free jazz squall and the languid wash of ambient, and „Spirit Duplicator“ approaches the zithering synth clouds of Oneohtrix Point Never.
♦ Ohms opts for a shimmering sky gaze psychedelia which prizes the crepuscular fog of a waking fever dream over strictly linear development and orthodox song structure. That refines and twists the band’s mercurial, incantatory hymns into enterprising and monolithic shapes that snuggle close to monumental hypnagogia.
♦ https://www.popmatters.com/
Website: https://www.treesspeakmusic.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/treesspeakmusic/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treesspeak/
Review
XAVIER OMAR OTERO: https://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2020/01/23/trees-speak-release-ohms