posted 03/24/2009 (Tue) @ 01:44 pm
>>> Music Reviews
If These Trees Could Talk - Above the Earth, Below the Sky (2009)
Fencepost Rock
- From Roots to Needles
- What’s in the Ground Belongs to You
- Terra Incognita
- Above the Earth
- Below the Sky
- The Sun is in the North
- Thirty-Six Silos
- The Flames of Herostratus
- Rebuilding the Temple of Artemis
- Deus Ex Machina
You’re reviewing some band that wishes trees could talk?
Yes. In case you couldn’t tell from the artist name/album title, If These Trees Could Talk are a post-rock band. They like to give fancy, poetic, introspective titles to things because their music is mostly or completely instrumental.
“Post-rock”? Should I be expecting farm equipment and banjos or something? Cows, perhaps?
I wish! But no. Like most genre labels—try some “post-hardcore,” or “post-punk,” or (eventually, I’m sure) “post-slowcore”—this genre label makes little literal sense. It’s supposed to mean “after rock.”
… So, should I be expecting banjos? I am afraid.
Nah. Post-rockers are like classical musicians that got lost on the way to the music store. In lieu of more traditional orchestra paraphernalia like strings and horns, they make do with the traditional rock band ensemble: guitars, bass and drums. And effects pedals. Don’t forget the effects pedals. No post-rock troupe is truly complete without copious amounts of delay/echo/reverb.
Expect a lot of slow, heady build-ups from minimalist near-silence into massive dins of heaving, rupturing crescendo. Rinse and repeat… or just step out of the shower while you’re ahead, because there’s as much bland, unoriginal, over-imitative and crappy post-rock as there is in any other genre of music. The major difference, of course, is that 100% of post-rock bands have next to zero chance at getting radio airplay.
Then what the hell should I listen to the Trees for, if they sound like every other boring, slow post-rock band?
Here’s why: they don’t. Sure, it’s not something you necessarily throw on at parties, as there are no words to yelp drunkenly along to, but their admitted Tool influence rears its perfectly manicured, yet mane-tossing head, and this is a good and welcome thing in this realm of music. Others might just go for the easy way out—broody intro makes way for crashing, drony crescendo—but the Trees are happy to play around with something more interesting to bring about their idea of catharsis than the “9 minute long crescendo = song” formula popularized by many of their forebears.
Take track 2, “What’s In The Ground Belongs to You.” At 4:14, it’s “over time” for radio play in some jurisdictions, but brief by post-rock standards. The intro is busy enough to hook the listener in, and then about 0:56 in, a decidedly Adam Jones-y delayed guitar line steers the tune into “damn, that’s cool” gut reaction territory. But the real feast doesn’t start until 2:32, when the band pulls out all the stops, launching first into a pulse-pounding mini-crescendo, and then into a metallic, thundering riff peppered with bullets of trem-picked lead guitar.
Will I still be awake by then?
Yep. “From Roots to Needles” lets the wind blow the branches for a bit, but it picks up rather fast, as well. For those who wish it, there are also quieter moments on the disc, such as the 57 second segue “Terra Incognita,” or the minor key, sorrow-drenched closer “Deus Ex Machina.” If These Trees Could Talk seem to know their audience might have diminished attention spans, however. The slow moments don’t translate to sleepy moments.
So it’s absolutely great. What’s wrong with Trees?
Talking about My Bloody Valentine’s masterpiece Loveless, one reviewer bashed the record for having “no hooks.” “Try humming any song here from memory. You can’t.”
While post-rock can be full of hooks in its own way, it is impossible to hum along to in most cases, and If These Trees Could Talk are no exception. This doesn’t take away from the propulsive power of many, many moments on this album. However, it could be a dealbreaker if you’re driving somewhere and just want something to scream along to. The Trees definitely produce what I call “parlor music”—music for listening to in the bedroom, or the parlor, probably with headphones—albeit parlor music for tastes that don’t mind distorted guitar riffs every once in awhile.
So is there post-post-rock yet?
Go away, boy, you bother me. Ask Aphex Twin or Merzbow.
Tags: above the earth below the sky, best of 2009, if these trees could talk, instrumental, post-metal, post-rock, tool
