LIKE THE IDEA

THINK TREE were from Boston/US and have recorded two albums, where this one is their final workout from 1991/1992 before they disappeared one year later. I own the digital UK version since 15 years at least and observed this to be really experimental, unique ... and surely hard to market when considering the relatively unspectacular 1990's music-wise. There is an unusual attitude to confirm in any case, featuring an avantgarde, maybe zappa-esque framework, predominantly represented by several short and strange interludes with the result of 20 tracks in total. In between they offer some really excellent memorable rock songs on top of it, provided with sense of melody as well as trickiness.

Let me highlight the hidden chartbuster Everything Is Equal or Eye For Eye and The Living Room for example, all funky and extremely danceable - hence fitting your alternative party at best, if you ask me. Or just take Mamther - amongst others simply born out of jams - where the lyrics are encoded nonsense as a matter of fact. A hypnotic industrial and spacey behaviour brings this close to krautrock I would say. Rattlesnake is another more accessible song which also has been released as a promo single by their label. The essential dispute about Hinduism and the Holy Cow is set to music with a punk approach.

THINK TREE stand for an experimental keyboard/synth dominated blend of prog, alternative, punk, funk - including an asian/middle eastern flavour here and there - sometimes comparable to Fishbone from a stylistical point of view. In any case a rather fresh and challenging workout. Highly recommended - if you're looking for something special ... it's up to you to check this out.

This was Think Tree's second album. This one was released by the large indy label Caroline Records, and it seems that they may have had a hand in the production. The album, while still great, lacks a lot of the experimentation that their first album had. But luckily, they made up for that lack with energy and humor.

The humor shows right from the start. Monday A.M. First Thing is a hilarious take on office life. It's a fairly straightforward song, but contains a few sweet synth twists. And later on in the album, Holy Cow! is one of the funniest (and maybe most offensive) songs anywhere.

The pop-ish songs are not bad, with heavy synths and strong rhythms. Everything Is Equal, Eye For Eye nad Rattlsnake all fall into this category.

There are some more experimental tunes as well. Break That Mirror and Mamther are just wonderful.

The whole album is interspersed with short tracks of sounds and samples, which serve to add to the weirdness.

You know, in some ways, I like this even more than the first album.