{"id":22784,"date":"2022-04-15T05:30:10","date_gmt":"2022-04-15T09:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22784"},"modified":"2022-04-14T13:12:43","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T17:12:43","slug":"album-review-trees-speak-vertigo-of-flaws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/15\/album-review-trees-speak-vertigo-of-flaws\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Trees Speak — Vertigo of Flaws"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Musoscribe\u2019s latest \u201cvinyl week\u201d wraps up today with a real stunner.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I first heard Trees Speak’s album Ohms<\/i><\/a> back in 2020 I was knocked out; the group\u2019s knowing embrace and execution of krautrock was a stunning tour-de-force. Even though the duo is based in Arizona(!), Ohms<\/em> displayed a deep and thorough understanding of what made krautrock special.<\/p>\n

Trees Speak returned within a year with PostHuman<\/i><\/a>, and that record once again took my breath away. They seemed to improve in leaps and bounds, making a record that was even more fascinating and fully-realized. I wouldn\u2019t have thought that possible, much less likely. Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz hit it out of the park, as it were, with PostHuman<\/i>. I named at as one of my Best of 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here we are in 2022, and I\u2019m surprised once again. Vertigo of Flaws<\/i> is so good that Trees Speak\u2019s previous two releases pale in comparison (which isn\u2019t to say you don\u2019t need to hear and own them; you do). The duo\u2019s krautrock textures are still very much in evidence, but they\u2019ve managed to widen their already panoramic musical perspective to take in, process and deliver even more sonic variety.<\/p>\n

Theirs is a variety that is still thematically linked. The different musical textures are still related. So while a cut like \u201cCybernetic Dream\u201d might conjure memories of early \u201870s Tangerine Dream, elsewhere Trees Speak explores a funky, vaguely sinister vibe on numbers like \u201cInterference.\u201d It\u2019s not all analog bloops; drums, electric bass and other relatively conventional types of instrumentation fit seamlessly into Trees Speak\u2019s musical landscape. (That said, I think I might hear some Optigan in there.)<\/p>\n

With its vibraphone and harpsichord sounds, \u201cComputer Garden\u201d sounds like something out of a European sci-fi flick of the late \u201870s. \u201cPyramid\u201d is hypnotic, deeply psychedelic number. Comparatively short pieces are the norm here: of the nearly 30 tracks on Vertigo of Flaws<\/i>, only one breaks the five-minute mark. Several clock in under two minutes, but even those sort one develop themselves fully, establishing a unique character and form.<\/p>\n

The word cinematic<\/i> applies here. And while these instrumental pieces would indeed work well to complement onscreen images, they exist as fully-formed musical works that \u2013 if the listener allows \u2013 will help create mind movies. There\u2019s a thrilling character to throbbing instros like \u201cIntegration,\u201d with its note-bending synthesizer cascades. \u201cPhantom LFO\u201d leans in a slightly more modern direction, with hints of arpeggiation and sequencing applied to its decidedly analog-sounding textures. But then there\u2019s \u201cMannequin,\u201d which transports the listener back to the era of Modesty Blaise<\/i>, Our Man Flint<\/i> and Diamonds are Forever<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The title track engages in a bit of Neu!-flavored motorik<\/i>, while \u201cStasi\u201d is considerably more upbeat and catchy than its ominous title might suggest. Bits of musique concrete make themselves known in \u201cTraumsprache,\u201d one of the few non-melodic cuts on Vertigo of Flaws<\/i>. Some spooky violin sawing adds to the track\u2019s atmosphere. \u201cCloud Chamber\u201d offers up some vintage electric piano and jazzy saxophone squawks, applied to a slinky, sultry musical bed.<\/p>\n

The double-LP\u2019s artwork is nearly as notable as the music, drawing from Soviet-era propaganda graphics. With a savage Russian-initiated war of aggression raging in Europe, now might not be the ideal time to traffic in anything that suggests a nostalgia for the CCCP, but removed from that unfortunate context \u2013 the album was released before Putin unleashed his mercenaries on the sovereign Ukraine state \u2013 the retro-futurstic visual aesthetic is still kinda cool.<\/p>\n

Trees Speak could have easily gotten away with releasing another excellent album on the order of Ohms<\/i> and PostHuman<\/i>. Instead they have considerably upped the ante with the brilliant, must-have Vertigo of Flaws<\/i>. Let\u2019s see where they go from here.<\/p>\n

Look for more vinyl coverage soon.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Musoscribe\u2019s latest \u201cvinyl week\u201d wraps up today with a real stunner. When I first heard Trees Speak’s album Ohms back in 2020 I was knocked out; the group\u2019s knowing embrace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,40,43,49,57,65],"tags":[4167],"class_list":["post-22784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-electronica","category-instrumental","category-krautrock","category-new-release","category-psych","category-review","tag-trees-speak","cat-26-id","cat-40-id","cat-43-id","cat-49-id","cat-57-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22786,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22784\/revisions\/22786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}