Gravity Tree – Ultimate Backward

By Mark Elliot

Gravity Tree - Ultimate BackwardTrack 1 “No Rest Part III” starts off the album with some beautiful liquid keyboard sounds exploding into an interesting guitar section which glides into the vocals effortlessly. For a duo without a drummer Gravity Tree have managed to capture a very authentic band sound between them. Interesting and well sung vocals, too.
Track 2 “Wind” is a subtle acoustic guitar piece with some interesting and unusual sounds.
Track 3 “Aim To Please” is more vocally driven but again the most impressive thing is the production. The guitars and keyboards work together so well with some great playing and a wild guitar solo borders on disturbing at times but the release into the keyboard/vocal outro releaves the tension.
Track 4 “Interference” starts off very cleverly with some weird sound effects working well with the “squashed” vocal sound and baritone guitar. The main song then gets going and it is probably the most instant so far. It’s hard to pinpoint their influences and this is a good thing as they don’t sound too much like anyone in particular especially with their use of sounds and production.
Track 5 “Conversing With The Dead” is a fantastic Prog classic. Uptempo just when the album needed a lift, with some heavy sounding guitar interspersed with an almost Talking Heads approach to the vocals. This is really unexpected but works really well.
Track 6 “In” starts with a beautiful string intro leading into a trance riff which is track 7 “Can” and a strange vocal then takes you into a new area, almost Funk/ Prog but much more interesting. The rhythm element really works well again and I’m of the opinion that this band does this type of song much better than the complex chord progression stuff. Great ending, too.
Track 8 “Wait” starts with a wonderful keyboard section with Vibraphone riff over a Hammond and synth section. The two then combine to produce a lovely piece which fades out much too soon. What a shame! I was really getting into that!
Track 9″ Go Away”. Odd one this is. Very downbeat, not sure if I like it, but the guitar solo saves the track for me. Lovely.
Track 10 “Motion Sickness” is very clever indeed. A kind of sleasy beat with a nauseous vocal sound which then explodes into a fantastic solo piece and a great epic sounding outro.
This is a very thought provoking album by a duo who definitaly punches a hole through the more established forms of Prog and creates their own sound. My only complaint is “Wait,” which was really developing into something bordering on a classic, then they hit the fade out button. Ah well I’ll have to “wait” for the remix. Maybe there’s a joke in there somewhere.