{"id":29040,"date":"2025-02-21T05:30:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T10:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29040"},"modified":"2025-02-15T12:10:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T17:10:15","slug":"album-review-trees-speak-mind-maze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/21\/album-review-trees-speak-mind-maze\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Trees Speak — Mind Maze"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"As I mentioned in a recent review<\/a>, Mind Maze<\/i>, the 2023 album by Arizona-based instrumental band Trees Speak slipped by without my notice. And as I\u2019ve emphasized on many occasions<\/a>, I am a serious fan of the group and its music. So now with a vinyl copy of Mind Maze<\/i> securely in hand, I\u2019m pleased to review it.<\/p>\n

A quick disclaimer of sorts: I simply love most everything Trees Speak does, so having got that broad-brush praise out of the way, I\u2019ll move on to explaining what makes these specific tracks worth experiencing.<\/p>\n

The albums with a ping-ponging synthesizer bleat that suggests video games of the very early \u201880s. But the track soon develops into something more finely wrought and nuanced. Synth lines streak across the aural landscape while a (real?) drum kit lays down a spare percussive pattern. \u201cMinotaur\u201d is cut from different musical cloth; built around a hypnotic and jazzy bass line, it\u2019s eerie and cinematic. \u201cSyndrome\u201d feels like it\u2019s been lifted from a science fiction movie set on the Moon\u2019s cold and monochromatic landscape.<\/p>\n

As its title hints, \u201cSospetto\u201d hearkens to Italian soundtracks, with harpsichord and a sophisticated yet uncluttered rhythm section. \u201cIllusions is abstract and angular, with dissonant sounds keeping the listener off balance while a rock-solid drum pattern steadies things just enough to keep those listeners upright. \u201cScanner\u201d adds acoustic guitar to the (Tangerine) dreamlike setting. \u201cBurner\u201d suggests what might happen if a hip hop drummer bumped into the programmer of an early analog sequencer. \u201cRare Earth\u201d would have been right at home on the Thief<\/i> soundtrack.<\/p>\n

After a very Floydian organ opening, \u201cPathways\u201d moves into and insistent and sinister pattern that is (I suspect) intentionally under-developed. It works for what it is, though. The brief \u201cSkip Breath\u201d sounds and feels like a linking track; its gently picked acoustic guitar figure hints at places the melody could have gone. \u201cOdyssey\u201d is the sound of some knob-twiddling leading to a melody. Flute gives the tune an airy character. \u201cPassage\u201d is here and gone in less than 30 seconds, not enough to leave an impression.<\/p>\n

The trip-hoppy \u201cSignals\u201d is a laid back groove with a variety of alluring and impressionistic keyboard sounds. \u201cBlack Phone\u201d continues that feel, applying it to a droning, mesmerizing one-chord arrangement. \u201cMirror\u201d is another quick linking track; it leads into \u201cStone Tape,\u201d the closing number on Mind Maze<\/i>. The track is spare and spooky, with a saxophone lead very, very<\/i> redolent of Dick Parry.<\/p>\n

Listeners intrigued by instrumental music with a deeply evocative character simply music experience Trees Speak. Those drawn in by the group\u2019s krautrock inclinations should note that Mind Maze isn\u2019t the best place in their catalog to find the motorik<\/i> vibe, nor does the album represent Trees Speak<\/i>\u2019s deepest dive into European soundtrack-land. But as a sampler, a cross section of what Trees Speak can do, is a worthy addition to their body of work. And like everything the group has done, it receives the Musoscribe seal of approval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I mentioned in a recent review, Mind Maze, the 2023 album by Arizona-based instrumental band Trees Speak slipped by without my notice. And as I\u2019ve emphasized on many occasions, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,40,49,65,4071,72,73],"tags":[4167],"class_list":["post-29040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-electronica","category-instrumental","category-new-release","category-review","category-trance","category-trip-hop","category-vinyl","tag-trees-speak","cat-26-id","cat-40-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","cat-4071-id","cat-72-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29042,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29040\/revisions\/29042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}