Suggest New Bands and Artists - 'Gravity Tree' - experimental prog from California

'Gravity Tree' - experimental prog from California

Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Suggest New Bands and Artists
Forum Description: Suggest, create polls, and classify new bands you would like included on Prog Archives
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=82397
Printed Date: November 26 2024 at 03:49
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: 'Gravity Tree' - experimental prog from California

Posted By: yam yam
Subject: 'Gravity Tree' - experimental prog from California
Date Posted: November 01 2011 at 05:42

What? - 'Gravity' as part of the band name again? From another old and unanswered thread in 'suggest new bands and artists' forum - this one as long ago as 1st May 2007: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=37467" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=37467 . This topic is now closed, so I've had to start a new one.

From the Boost Independent Music website (where you can also stream 12 tracks by the band):
http://www.boostindependentmusic.com/artist/GravityTree" rel="nofollow - http://www.boostindependentmusic.com/artist/GravityTree ,

About Gravity Tree

"...a duo who definitely punches a hole through the more established forms of Prog and creates their own sound." (a quote from USA Progressive Music)

Creating their own sound has been the driving force in Gravity Tree, an experimental, progressive rock duo hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Gravity Tree influences fall all over the musical map: rock bands of the '60's and '70's, film soundtrack composers, performance artists, game music (which drummer/keyboardist Alan Nu also writes), and the "classics". The music Gravity Tree plays is sometimes referred to as Art Rock or Prog Rock, but other genre titles also fall on the group: Avant-Prog, Math Rock, Experimental - even Fusion or Alternative.

Alan and Linc had become friends during session work and live support for other bands and artists. The two had discussions about the instrumentation of a band, and how full arrangements of songs could be performed between two musicians. Out of this, Gravity Tree was formed. With few exceptions, all the instruments heard in the music are played between the two of them. They perform live as a two-piece, but the show is anything but 'unplugged'. This both challenges and liberates them, in search of a unique sound and style.

After an early vinyl release (and a number of live shows to prove it could be done), they put forth their first CD, "Life or Dessert?". This was followed up by appearances on several compilation CDs (including the Bay Prog Compilation disc), and more recently their album "Ultimate Backward".

In addition to critical praise, the band held the number 1 and 2 spots on the Progressive chart on NumberOneMusic for more than a year, with more than a million plays on their site page to date.

Exposé Magazine has said: "Gravity Tree is one of the more interesting progressive bands around... their material bears a stamp of currency, yet also features the conceptual ideals of classic progressive rock."

Although Gravity Tree is a duo, each member plays two instruments at the same time and they claim that they do not use any studio trickery and instead they have custom-combined instruments. As far as I understand, the guitarist, Linc, plays two guitars, a 6-stringed and a 7-stringed, and the guitars have bass and guitar strings on them so that he can play bass and guitar at once. Same goes for the drummer, Alan, who has combined his drum kit to a set of keyboards.

http://www.gravitytree.com/" rel="nofollow - http://www.gravitytree.com/

http://www.facebook.com/gravitytree" rel="nofollow - http://www.facebook.com/gravitytree

http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree" rel="nofollow - http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree

Albums:

Gravity Tree - "Life or Dessert?" (2000)
Guitar drenched, 21st century progressive rock

1 Tender Shoot (1:09)
2 People Don't Know (4:42)
3 Forget You (4:55)
4 Almost (1:01)
5 Everything (4:13)
6 Minnie's Tree (3:31)
7 Falling In 3's (3:02)
8 Harmonic Indulgence (5:06)
9 Where You Are (3:25)
10 No Rest (1:21)
11 Life or Dessert? (6:07)
12 Three's Too (2:44)

Total Time 41:16

Gravity Tree - "Ultimate Backward" (2006)
Experimental progressive rock; one foot firmly placed in a modern guitar theme park, the other floating in the 8th dimension. Some would call it music...

1 No Rest Part III (6:36)
2 Wind (1:42)
3 Aim to Please (5:33)
4 Interference (8:43)
5 Conversing with the Dead (5:58)
6 In (1:37)
7 Can (4:31)
8 Wait (3:19)
9 Go Away (6:11)
10 Motion Sickness (5:55)

Total Time 50:05

You can hear some of their their music at: http://www.reverbnation.com/gravitytree" rel="nofollow - http://www.reverbnation.com/gravitytree and http://new.music.yahoo.com/gravity-tree/tracks/" rel="nofollow - http://new.music.yahoo.com/gravity-tree/tracks/ (only if you're in the USA though, because it uses a Rhapsody powered widget...). The best place to hear their stuff, however, is at these two myspace pages, one for each album, where all tracks are available:

http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music/albums/life-or-dessert-17139985" rel="nofollow - http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music/albums/life-or-dessert-17139985

and

http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music/albums/ultimate-backward-17139998" rel="nofollow - http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music/albums/ultimate-backward-17139998

I guess you'd call it avant prog - it's certainly different...

Replies:

Posted By: Bonnek
Date Posted: November 01 2011 at 15:05

No metal or other Heavy materials here so i'll pass for this one!

Posted By: yam yam
Date Posted: November 01 2011 at 20:55

Bonnek wrote:

No metal or other Heavy materials here so i'll pass for this one!

That's just what the 'rag and bone' man said to me this morning when he came up our street blowing away on his bugle...♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ Annnnny old ironnn????

Posted By: Andy Webb
Date Posted: November 01 2011 at 21:18

Experimental, sure, but I can't hear very much prog in this. It kind of reminds me of the recently rejected (by two teams, mine included) NoMeansNo in the punk-tinged compositions, combined with an 80s new-agey kind of feel, with some slight symph elements. Perhaps someone disagrees?

-------------
http://ow.ly/8ymqg" rel="nofollow">

Posted By: yam yam
Date Posted: November 01 2011 at 22:11

^ I know where you're coming from here - I wasn't too sure about their suitability myself, but most of the other well-known prog sites had them (DPRP, Progressor, Progressive Ears, Prognaut, Sea Of Tranquility etc.) I've since looked at a few reviews on these sites, and they're rather a mixed bag. A couple quite positive, a couple considerably less so, and one quite poor. The reviews, if anyone is interested, are here:

http://www.seaoftranquility.org/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=4765" rel="nofollow - http://www.seaoftranquility.org/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=4765
http://www.prognaut.com/reviews/gravity-tree.html" rel="nofollow - http://www.prognaut.com/reviews/gravity-tree.html

http://www.dprp.net/reviews/0023.htm#gravitytree" rel="nofollow - http://www.dprp.net/reviews/0023.htm#gravitytree
http://www.progressor.net/review/gravity_tree_2005.html" rel="nofollow - http://www.progressor.net/review/gravity_tree_2005.html
http://www.progressiveears.com/asp/reviews.asp?albumID=3998" rel="nofollow - http://www.progressiveears.com/asp/reviews.asp?albumID=3998

The second album seems to be slightly better favoured than the first, but on both it's the vocals that are the feature getting the most criticism.

Like you say, a few additional opinions from our more experienced collabs would be useful before deciding whether or not to evaluate them.

Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: November 02 2011 at 09:10

yam yam wrote:

The best place to hear their stuff, however, is at these two myspace pages, one for each album, where all tracks are available:

http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music/albums/life-or-dessert-17139985" rel="nofollow - http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music/albums/life-or-dessert-17139985

and

http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music/albums/ultimate-backward-17139998" rel="nofollow - http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music/albums/ultimate-backward-17139998

It doesn't work for me - both links lead to http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music" rel="nofollow - http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music , where only 5 five samples are available, of which only two are full (the other being short clips).

Those samples do sound proggy though, very much inspired (derivative of, I might say) from classic prog and Genesis in particular (plus some other bits of styles).

Posted By: yam yam
Date Posted: November 02 2011 at 09:30

harmonium.ro wrote:

yam yam wrote:

The best place to hear their stuff, however, is at these two myspace pages, one for each album, where all tracks are available:

http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music/albums/life-or-dessert-17139985" rel="nofollow - http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music/albums/life-or-dessert-17139985

and

http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music/albums/ultimate-backward-17139998" rel="nofollow - http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music/albums/ultimate-backward-17139998

That's really weird! I just clicked both links directly from your post here and got the samples of the full albums in both cases - with the URLs displayed exactly as they appear above! As you say, the basic myspace page is just the five samples but I can't understand why the other two links aren't working for you and why you're being re-directed like this.

Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: November 02 2011 at 10:23

There are more samples, though, if you click on See All (or Tout afficher, like it says in French), you get a display of 20 samples: http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music#%21/gravitytree/music/songs?filter=popular" rel="nofollow - http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music#!/gravitytree/music/songs?filter=popular

There's still no display for individual albums, but the 20 samples should suffice. I'll give them a proper listen later.

Posted By: yam yam
Date Posted: November 02 2011 at 11:03

There are only 22 songs on the two albums in total, so you're short of just two. I've just listened to the second album "Ultimate Backward" again in full, and I'm now absolutely convinced that this band does belong on here - most likely in crossover. Still a mystery as to why you can't get those other two pages to display - must be something to do with how myspace is configured by the 'powers-that-be' in your part of the world.

Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: November 02 2011 at 11:32

I'm trying now to listen to some of the longer tracks from there, but even if they are showed with their integral length (Interference is 8'43'', No Rest Part III is 6'36''), they still get played as 30 seconds clips. Confused

I give up!

I am now listening to the samples on http://www.boostindependentmusic.com/artist/GravityTree" rel="nofollow - http://www.boostindependentmusic.com/artist/GravityTree For the moment it looks like the samples here are played in ful... I agree about Crossover, I'm notifying the team.

Posted By: yam yam
Date Posted: November 02 2011 at 13:21

^ Really strange why you're only getting 30 second samples from myspace. I just tried "Interference" from the link you gave ( http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music/songs?filter=popular" rel="nofollow - http://www.myspace.com/gravitytree/music/songs?filter=popular ) hitting the 'see all' tab (displayed in English rather than French on my computer here in England, of course) and it played in full, as do all the tracks. It can only assume it must be a restriction on the site that is peculiar to where you are located.