Half Alternative, Half Prog Rock
by MrProducerDude
This was the first CD release (the previous work was on vinyl) by Gravity Tree. The prog duo has a variety of influences, which on this album pushed the music in 2 directions. For alternative fans, there's the first half of the CD: "Tender Shoot", "People Don't Know", "Forget You", "Almost...Everything" (which are two parts of a whole).
But then there's "Minnie's Tree", a sort of transitional piece with it's angular harmonic detail over a Police sort of beat. By the time we're out, we're in prog territory, and "Falling in 3s" is certainly in that camp. "Harmonic Indulgence" resembles the kind of vocal experiments found in Gentle Giant. "Where You Are" drives us along, recalling the early part of the album but staying in prog land with changing tempos galore. "No Rest" is by title the first of an ongoing theme and variations work (as new Gravity Tree CD, "Ultimate Backward" reinforces with "No Rest Part III"), but it's actually building on the harmonic structure of "Everything", or the other way around (since "No Rest" is more like an introduction), which makes "Everything" as sort of No Rest Part II, even if they're out of sequence. "Life or Dessert?", which was known as "Do You Have To?" on a previous recording, is probably my co-favorite (tied with "Harmonic Indulgence"). It's all about dynamics, and there's a lot of range here. Finally, to bring us back down to earth, there's "Three's Too", a part 2 for "Falling in 3s" for those really willing to analyze the two. Who's going to like this?
Well, as I said there are two camps of music here. The Genesis, Gentle Giant, Yes, King Crimson etc. folks are probably going to warm up to the second half over the first. And maybe the alternative music fans will get a starter kit for prog rock. But forget genres and comparisons; if you like the music, then you like it - it doesn't matter what it's called.
